VOLUME ISSUE JULY , P135
that I covered the first and the last
Kenworthy's races and many oth-
ers in between.
I remembered that the Kenwor-
thy's race usually drew a large and
enthusiastic crowd, and the track
wasn't your typical National MX
track. The facility was quite sce
-
nic, built among trees and farm-
land, and on one side of the track,
there was a large lazy river, the
Great Miami River. I remembered
the mosquitoes were so bad that
it prevented any thoughts of a
quick dip to escape the Ohio heat
between motos. But the track's
most distinguished feature was its
flat-as-a-pancake layout. It certain
-
ly wasn't your typical motocross
track with elevation changes and
varied terrain. Whatever elevation
Kenworthy's had was man-made.
The track did have, however,
plenty of jumps. The Kenworthys
National was often described as
a large outdoor supercross where
you could grab top gear and have
enough time to briefly hold the
throttle wide open. At the first race
in 1987, Jeff Ward said the track
was a "stretched out supercross,"
and privateer Billy Frank said it
was a "long supercross; hard on a
500cc because if you're not timing
everything just right, you're going
to get out of shape."
Indeed, the Troy track was
fast. But, to me, that was a ma
-
jor part of its uniqueness, and I
loved listening to those factory
125cc two-stokes sing at the top
of their lungs, especially when
James Stewart was on the track
on his factory Kawasaki KX125
or Guy Cooper on his factory
Honda CR125R. It was music to
my ears. I always enjoyed going
to Kenworthy's.
The facility, however, had its
share of problems that eventu
-
ally led to its demise. For one, it
wasn't very fan-friendly. The flat
layout made it difficult to see the
racing, just bits and pieces of it as
the racers flew past you just a few
Racing at Kenworthy's was
fast and fun to watch.
Rain was the track's worst enemy.
