October 18-19, 2003

Willow Springs International Raceway

2nd Annual Toyota 200

Rosamond, CA

On Saturday, I left Sylmar around 11:00 to head up to Willow Springs Raceway.  To give it some exercise, I took the KLR.  I took my time, going through the mountains via Lake Hughes Road, eventually making my way to the track.  [note:  by "taking my time" that mean I went the long way - by now means was I traveling slowly, except when I had to work my past a pack of ponderous hogs on LHR.]  I hung out down in the paddocks for a while, and then went up to the turn 4 area to meet up with the other ZRXOA members.  The ZRXOA was sharing an area with the labusas.org crowd, and the wrenchwhore.com guy was there, also (on Sunday).  I forgot my camera, so no pics.

On Sunday, I took the 'Rex.  Loaded on the folding chair, bottles of water, and in the backpack had beer and chips.  Others were bringing stuff to cook on the grill.  It was quite the party.  I did remember the camera and here are the pics:

A row of Rexes:

The ZRXOA mascot (yes, there really is a hole under the tail flap):

A shot from the 50 mile 250cc race held before the main event:

and a video: 250cc race.MPG

The main event was a 200 mile race.  All 40 racers who qualified got at least $1,000, and the winner got $50,000.  Unlimited cc's, mods, etc.  Josh Hayes (Suz GSX-R1000) won the race, ahead of Attack Suzuki teammate Vincent Haskovec with Graves Yamaha team owner Chuck Graves 3rd (Yam YZF-R1). Rich Oliver finished 4th on his Yamaha TZ250, a 2-stroke!  Here are some photos from the race: