Back on Track: Glen Helen 2005
By: Ryan Webb

Once at the bottom of the hill you had to make a sweeping left turn to head into the back part of the track that wasn’t really visible from anywhere. Once on this straight stretch there was a double followed by a step up into an off camber right 180 drop turn. Out of the turn there was a decent straight that was tore up with braking bumps. At the end of the straight, you would come into a left 90 that took you across about a 100 foot tabletop followed by a short straight. Now we come into a downward sweeping 180 that had a berm along the outside. Coming back up there was a small step up to the flat. This flat was nothing but mud and led directly into a left bermed 90. Coming out of the 90 was a short straight and a bermed 90 to the right. Out of the corner on a short straight was a small jump that led you into a right 90 degree turn. Another small single awaited with a hard 180 to the left. Ahead lie a small step up tabletop followed by a right 90. This next short straight was split by a high mound, which took you straight into a right bermed 90.

After you came out of the turn it was time to head for the hills again after you managed to clear the gapped step up tabletop. This time you didn’t have to go all the way up Mt. St. Helen, but instead made a very sharp left drop 90 to go back down. As you were going back down the hill there was a step down tabletop that led you into a downhill double. Now, when you come out of the double, you had better be slowing down to make the right 90 that was just shortly ahead. Once around the turn you were on the finish leg straight that has a single followed by a step tabletop finish line jump. Don’t think that you were done here though, because there is still a lot of track left before you made it back to Talladega. At the end of the finish leg was a hard right 180 that was split with a high mound to go over in the middle of the turn. Out of the turn there was another 90 back to the left that was split with two berms. Going around the inside meant that you were set up straight for the tabletop, but the outside gave you a step up to the tabletop. Off of the tabletop you were inside of the Talladega turn. Here you had a 180 to the left that had an uphill jump and then a set of very small whoops with a couple of small jumps in the middle. Another right 180 was just ahead that took you over a large tabletop and straight back into Talladega.

The reason that this track seemed so well suited for the quads was that everything on the track was definitely do-able. All of the jumps were rounded nicely to give you a good jump, but also to pitch you smoothly to the landing. Also, the mounds in the turns and the great placement of high berms kept this a clean, but still technical track. Also, there were some places with split lanes that gave you a different look and possibly better lines. All in all, we would like to applaud the promoter at Glen Helen for building such a rider friendly and very technical track for those of us who are true ATV enthusiasts. This was definitely worth the trip.

This article provided in part by: