Jarryd McNeil’s Guide to Building Motocross Tracks

The first application that comes to mind for heavy equipment might not necessarily be motocross track building, but for Cat Ambassador Jarryd McNeil and many other motocross racers out there, that’s exactly what they need to train between competitions and events. Jarryd shares his guide to building motocross tracks below.

Before Building Motocross Tracks, Choose Your Location

One of the first steps in building motocross tracks is choosing your location. There are some important things to consider when you’re deciding where to build:

1. Noise restrictions
2. Neighbors – How close are they? Would they have an issue with a motocross track near their homes?
3. Safety – Are there any features of the landscape that would make building a track here unsafe?
4. Acreage – Ideally, you want access to a couple acres of land in order to build a workable track.

Design Your Motocross Track

Before you start building motocross tracks, you need to get the lay of the land. Check out the site where you want to build your track and use the natural landscape to pick a design that minimizes the amount of dirt you’ll need to move. Motocross tracks are built in more open areas as opposed to supercross tracks, which have specific measurements and are built in more compact spaces like stadiums. You’ll need at least 20 feet of space between the lanes of your motocross track if you plan on building jumps and/or maintaining the track and jumps with heavy equipment. No matter what you’re building your track for, make sure that it’s built to the specs of the event you’re training for since many of these events have specific guidelines and equations for things like jumps and takeoff ramps.

Good drainage is a huge part of designing a working motocross track. If the track gets too muddy, that can cut down on your practice time. With a drainage plan, you can get back on the track sooner.

“My course it built on a hillside at home, and I use culverts to drain to a sediment pond to help with both erosion and drainage,” Jarryd says.