LL: On Pala's website, I noticed the plans for a Club House and Food Court. Tell me about those amenities.
KC: Club house and food court are something we really want to do. We're modeling a lot of our stuff off of major-league stadiums, golf courses, ski resorts. They have club houses, lounges and places you can get out of the elements. You don't go skiing and hang out in the parking lot, you go to the lodge, get food and drinks. Motocross at this point you hang out on your tailgate, which is great for socializing with your close friends. But we also want to provide places to get out of the sun, heat, cold and rain. I would say ninety percent of the females that do come out to the track don't ride, so I mean you girls are the few that do ride. We're trying to get more wives, girlfriends, sisters and daughters willing to come out to the track, they will be able to go hang out in the club house where they can watch TV and not have to hang out in the dirt. If the women that are associated with our main-customer base have a place and willing to come out to the track then our customer will be able to come out to the track more frequently which allows more riding. That's one of the goals of the club house.
LL: Now what about your upcoming events?
KC: We have the Grand Prix on the Saturday, December 12th. Anyone that is racing the GP on Saturday and the Triple Crown at Perris on the following day will receive a $15 voucher for their Triple Crown entry. The Holiday GP track will not be ridden in full until Saturday morning. The course will be about 5 miles and will incorporate trails & fire roads on the top portion of the site, main motocross track, quad track and may include amateur track depending on length. It will be a two-hour event plus a lap. There will be two divisions; expert and amateur. I'll be racing, I think I'll make it two hours, but we'll have to see if my bike makes it. The last race of the day is a two hour survival race, the sun will be down for half an hour. Survival race riders must have headlight. Haro Bicycles is kind enough to give us some BMX bikes that we're going to give away as prizes for the winners. Should be a good show, we have Red Bull and their hospitality center, Spy, No Fear, DC Shoes coming out here.
Pala motocross track goes "green"
In the future alongside the upcoming race track, Pala is working with corporate sponsors to have a "green" bike wash. "We are trying to be as green as possible," Kirk explained. All the trash is gone through, sorted and recycled. All heavy equipment and machinery uses bio-fuels. Pala Raceway acknowledges the importance of the environment and strives to be "green".
Kirk & the Pala crew are prepping this week not only for their first annual Holiday GP, but also for the KTM Holiday Ride happening the day before! KTM has thrown the traditional office-holiday party out the window to accompany its employees AND customers in the dirt with a free ride day at Pala. KTM Owners ride for free on Friday, December 11 from 9am - 5pm. If you own an orange bike and it is located within the region of Southern California, you have no excuse to miss this awesome opportunity. Mike Alessi is even coming with his new KTM 350 motocross bike. The Pala guys recently hosted an amateur freestyle motocross event followed by the first-annual AFMXA Awards held at Pala Casino. Watch out for the event coverage soon to air on FuelTV. While there's plenty going on at the track, the fun has just begun...
Just this week, Yamaha announced its partnership with DC Shoes, which will support DC's motocross training facility "MotoTF" at Pala Raceway. DC team riders will now be shredding Pala-dirt aboard the 2010 MX and Off-Road Yamaha lineup of motorcycles. DC hosted their first event at Pala this week following the announcement. Stay tuned to DirtRider.com for more on this event, Jesse Ziegler was on hand where DC athletes were throwing some whips off the freestyle ramp and filming for upcoming DC videos.
Whoop sections, step-up and triples are not the only residents at Pala, it's also home to Ronnie Renner's one-on-one training compound. Renner's compound features a large foam pit for athletes training to precisely nail that crazy-inverted-backflip that everyone is trying. While Brad, Courtney and I were dirt scooting around, we noticed someone going off an insanely tall ramp front-flipping a BMX bike into the compound's foam pit. Little did we known until later in the day, it was the Nitro Circus crew getting ready for a world tour.
Aiming towards the happiness of their main customer base-the regular joes, they seem to be just fine with the Pro-level athletes and major corporations as well. To stay up-to-date with news, events, track changes and more, sign up at PalaRaceway.com and you'll start receiving their weekly newsletter.