"December 7th, Pearl Harbor and Kahuku Race Day"

As 5:30 am rolled around Sunday morning and the first annoying notes of the alarm clock scratched my eardrums I thought about this day...December 7th. Being from the Mainland originally, the attack on Pearl Harbor was something we always saw pictures of in history books and in a few movies, documentaries and old news reels.

I live here now and I've been to Pearl Harbor, Ford Island, the Arizona, the Bowfin, the Missouri many times and every year I go through this same feeling of standing in History. It really did happen right here. The bullet holes are still in the buildings on Ford Island as a reminder to passersby. So this morning as we made the right turn onto FT Weaver and pointed the truck northward into the darknesss I was thinking of this day 67 years ago. Wow.

Move forward 67 years and it's RACE DAY at Kahuku MX Park! The last MX race of the 2008 season and the weather is threatening showers again. At around 8:00 am I was walking the track looking at the new layout and it dawned on me that at about this time 67 years ago the first planes were swooping down on Peal Harbor. Anyway back to the here and now and the track layout looks to be a fast one. The whoops section is still in use but they're a little worn down since the last race when they were steep, sharp and caused havoc with riders carrying a heavy throttle hand through them.

One really noticeable thing was the shine on the hard packed dirt and the huge cracks left by the drying soil. This would be treacherous should the rains come and turn the upper section of track into the kind of conditions you might find on a sheet of ice covered with grease. There were some really fast sections of track in the valley and on the far side of the track and the big bikes were able to stretch into higher gears on their way back to the main upper track area.

The big jump down into the valley was again the area most spectators congregated at to get good views of big air from the top riders. This area also provided some shade cover from the sun as it finally came out and started to bake everyone.

The 50's classes have shifted again as the 50's begginner class was the largest while the 50's expert was left with less than a handful of riders. It's expected that some of the beginners will move up to the expert class thereby balancing out the 2 classes and placing riders of similar skills together.

The Maui riders were missing from the line up of the big bikes but taking their places were some familiar numbers who've been absent and even some new ones. Speaking of riders on the absentee list I saw two riders who were present but not riding as they were carrying the evidence of crashes from the last event namely casts and metal plates on and in their arms. Oh...and I've never seen so many new "blondes" lining the pits. Seems like everyone went "blonde" since the last race.

There isnt a featured athlete this time around since I had to dig out extra early for a photo shoot down in Waikiki but look for it again in January.

Merry Christmas Everyone and Happy New Year!

-scott