Creating a Motocross Dreamland | The Reynolds Facility

There’s no question that amateur motocross racing has become more and more serious in recent years, as it should. With more powerful machines, complex tracks, and intense competition; racing dirt bikes has never been so physically and mentally demanding. Due to the rise of intensity that is expected of riders in the professional division, amateur athletes are now exposed to a more enduring side of motocross than before. Why? To hopefully provide these young athletes with the smoothest transition from the amateur ranks to the professional level.

However, along with the more enduring side of our sport, amateur stars are also exposed to a more dreamlike reality when it comes to facilities. As crazy as it sounds, it’s not uncommon for the young teenagers of our sport to have motocross dreamland’s at their fingertips. More and more amateurs are buying into acreage and creating facilities that they can ride and train at throughout their careers. A while back, we had the opportunity to visit the rolling hills that Jett Reynolds calls home. With astonishing tracks littered amongst the green hillsides, you couldn’t ask for much more, and as Jett exclaimed, “it’s everything I could ask for.” During the visit, we caught up with Jett’s dad, Jeff Reynolds, and discussed the motocross dreamland and what plans they had for the facilities future.

First off, can you give us some insight on how you acquired the property?

Troy Jones actually owns this land and his son, Chandler Jones, had an unfortunate fatal crash a few years ago. Prior to the accident, the Jones family had intentions to build this land up and basically do what we are doing now. We’ve proceeded to build up this facility since we first got in-touch with Troy, and now we are here.

You touched on this earlier; for being out in California, you guys have quite the variety of soil out here…

Yeah, we have a little-bit of everything amongst the land. There’s some clay, some loom, and some sand. I’d say we have a good mix of dirt, and that combined with the elevation changes makes for some pretty fun tracks. Then, on the other side of the highway we have some big rolling hills, almost Glen Helen type, so we definitely have some plans for this place. We’re only going to be adding to the list of tracks.

One of the first things I noticed when we arrived was how the SX track is built inside of a pit, did you guys have to move all that dirt or did you just make the best out of an already-made pit?

My older son Joe and I got a dozer and got to work, it took us about six-weeks to dig out that hill for the pad. After we did all the earth work, Mark Peters came in with his guys and built a full-blown supercross track. We are pretty proud of it!

You touched on some future plans for this place…

Yeah, Jett is obviously going pro, as his deal is already said and done. Everyone wants to go to Florida, or Georgia, or even SoCal and the problem is that we live in Bakersfield and we don’t have any intentions on leaving (laughs). We would love to make it work here and stay in Bakersfield long into Jett’s professional career, so we are going to try and do just that. He will have a full blown facility here equipped with everything he could possibly need.

Obviously, there is a lot that goes into running and operating a motocross facility. Between the water use and gas for all of the machinery, it has to get stressful sometimes…

Yeah, it’s a lot of work. Sometimes I say I’m done and that I’ve had enough, but overall we enjoy it. There just isn’t enough daylight to get things done when you want them to be done. Though, we can’t complain too much.

Has the thought of opening the facility to the public ever crossed your mind?

It has, but as of now it will remain a private facility for Jett and a few of his friends to ride and train on. Maybe in the future, for sure. I would like to have set ride days to showcase what we have, so that’s a possibility for the future. It definitely isn’t an ordinary track, as it really does have a little-bit of everything, so I do think it would be cool to let the public have at it.

You have some background in the sport, don’t you?

Yeah, I rode for a while. I didn’t go too far, but I was a really good amateur racer. However, I was already burnt out and done with racing by the time I went pro, so I quit when I was 18. But, it is cool to pass down the torch to Jett and help him with what I can.