Looking for a place to ride - Georgia

[MXtras]

Anyone from the Atlanta/Macon area on this site?

Me and a few of my buddies are planning to head down to Atlanta for the SX in a few weeks and we are planning on bringing the bikes and do some riding Thursday and Friday, possibly Saturday.

The Atlanta SX is February 21, so we will be down there from Wednesday night through Saturday night - 2/18 - 2/21.

Can someone hook me up with some info on tracks that you know are open? We have ridden Hillbilly Hills, Breman and a few others in the Atlanta area but being in Virginia, I am not sure if they are open during the week.

I am a cautious 250A rider and my buds are C class - one rides really well and the other is just getting going. Between us we cover all the bases!

We will likely be staying near Macon, but our arrangements are not nailed down just yet. We might be sleeping in the truck...

Looking for info. Thanks in advance!

Scott

[DRGSin393]

Sounds like a great trip. See if this helps at all.

[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]

[MXtras]

Thanks for the link, DRGS!

We have concluded that we will ride Aonia Pass on Thursday. A buddy contacted the owner of Hillbilly Hills and he said the track is closed but he is going to open up just for us to ride Friday and Saturday. WOOHOO!

Anyone down in that area want to join us? This will be our first ride this year, weather permitting and I am certain we will be a little rusty...

Scott

[MXtras]

Abbreviated trip report:

We headed out from Virginia Wednesday night, driving through the night to get into Macon around 8AM. We had wanted to leave earlier in the evening, but I had been waiting on a parts order that did not arrive, so I ended up having to put one of the spare bikes back together with less than perfect parts so that one of my buddies would have something to ride. That held us up a bit. (The parts came in the day after we left, of course!)

As we neared Macon, we drove through an area that had been hit by a tornado just hours before according to the woman with four teeth at the Waffle House. We drove over downed high voltage lines (those things are a LOT larger than they look!) and a lot of branches and saw several power poles snapped in half as well as several damaged houses. We were told it had rained over two inches that night and there were several tornadoes in that area.

We arrived at my buddy's brother's house around 9AM, caught a cat nap and then headed out to Hillbilly Hills just after 1PM. There were five of us from Virginia and one of my buddies had flown in from Nevada to ride – that’s why I wanted the spare bike to be right – so he would have a good bike to ride. I always have set his bikes up for him, so I was able to get the spare bike set up for him exactly the way he wanted it. He felt right at home on it after just a few laps.

The owner of Hillbilly Hills opened up for us and actually groomed the track for us. It was a tad muddy, cold and windy, but it was an awesome day.

We liked Hillbilly Hills so much on Thursday that we decided not to make the haul to Aonia Pass. We rode Hillbilly Hills Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

Unbelievably, the owner did not charge us a dime for three days of riding. He was a super great guy and seemed to enjoy having us there. We rode a prepped track on Thursday and Saturday. Unreal. My boys played with his dogs when they weren't riding and the owner’s son hung out with us quite a bit.

Several other out-of-state folks showed up Friday and Saturday, too. I had a blast riding with two kids that were there from Florida. One was on an 85 and one was on a 65. We practiced about 20 starts and that kid on the 85 got me out of the gate 75% of the time! I am a pretty good starter most of the time but man - he was an awesome starter. He never beat me to the first turn, though. Sure - he was on an 85 and I was on a 250, but still..... The little guy on the 65 was smoking the track and was a very impressive rider. He would wait for me to get tired and then he would track me down, jump on the track in front of me and dare me to pass him. He was not at all intimidated by the larger bikes – he just wanted someone to ride with. This little 65 rider could probably place in the top five of a 125C race - I am serious! The little man could ride the wheels off that 65. It was pretty cool, to say the least.

We had some jetting issues with a buddy’s 250F that we had brought with us and we did not have the right jets, so we went to Capitol Cycle on Friday before heading back to Hillbilly Hills. We got their jetting recommendations and got the bike running right. Hats off to them for helping out some out-of-towners for nothing more than the cost of the parts. Good people in that shop.

We rode for three days and only had a few close calls – no major crashes. We packed up Saturday afternoon, went to the SX in Atlanta, watched Bubba wax the field then left for Virginia. I think all of us would have really rather stayed at the track and ridden, but we already had the tickets, so it made sense not to waste them.

All in all it was a great trip.

Scott

[crfjedi393]

Great report on what sounds like a great weekend.
I can't help but laugh at the name, Hillbilly Hills. The folks in the southeast know what they are and ain't ashamed of it. Good people!

[char393]

Great write-up Scott! Sounds like y'all had a blast and how very cool that the owner treated you so well.

You know I gotta ask though... Where are the pics???

[MXtras]

I hope to have some pics in the next week or so.

I take a camera and a camcorder everywhere, but I never take them out of their bags. Stupid, I know. I always regret not taking more photos but I never learn!

A buddy shot several photos so once he E-mails them, I will post them up.

Scott

[DRGSin393]

Cool report Scott, glad y'all had a great time! Funny how us "Northerners" find the southern hospitality a shock to our system. Cant wait for the pics.

[Blitz393]

well i wish i would have seen this sooner. i live in warner robins, 15 miles south of macon and i was at Hillbilly on sunday after the supercross. You hit the nail on the head, Kevin of Hillbilly Hills is a great guy and Donny, Brian and the others at Capitol are awesome. there is a shop here about 5 minutes away from the base and i drive the 25+ minutes up to Macon to capitol cycle because the customer service is that great.

You should have stayed for Sunday, there was a swap meet and a BIG turnout for riding at Hillbilly Hills. a little dusty towards the end of the day but lots of folks to ride with. (even though i didn't )

Glad you had fun down in "my neck of the woods" hope to have you down again. Where in virginia do you live, i lived there for 11 years (from when i was 3 to when i was 14... haha) we lived at Langley for 5 of those years and the last 6 were in Gloucester. i may plan a road trip up when i go visit my parents in West Virginia either this july or this Thanksgiving.

Rob

[MXtras]

I knew I had seen someone on here from "Wiener Robbins" but I could not track you down!!

I live in the Chesapeake/Portsmouth/Virginia Beach area - about 30 mins South of Gloucester.

I'll tell you - as much fun as we had Saturday, we could have easily been talked into staying for Sunday, but we had a long drive so we packed up after The Bubba Clinic and headed home.

We will be back next year for the Atlanta round. This used to be an annual thing for us, but the last five years have been hectic. Mark your calendar and maybe we can meet up next year.

I have an interesting story about Town & Country (the shop near you, I think), but I do not have time right now. Lets just say they cost me about 3 hours of aggravation because of a mixed up jet!! (it was an honest mistake - no harm, no foul) The boys at Capitol got us straight, though!

Scott