Blake Baggett was seriously fast at Hangtown, just as impressive while doing weekday motos at Glen Helen on the gas. Image: Simon Cudby/RacerXOnline.com.

The first four days are in the books of this month’s trip to the Unites States – our second of the year already! – and it’s safe to say that week one has been a mix of jetlag, jetlag and more jetlag.

However, apart from the frequent Starbucks visits to keep the ship afloat, we’ve managed to squeeze in the usual So. Cal visits including the various malls and stores, including Chaparral Motorsports of course. And yep, you guessed it, everything is still bigger and better (?) over here…

Perhaps the highlight of the week came yesterday at Glen Helen, where I went out to catch up with Aussie Mat Cox [aka Coxy] and the crew from Race So. Cal – the motocross holiday company we went riding with back in February.

What made that trip out to Glen Helen a cool one was the fact that Kawasaki riders Ryan Villopoto, Jake Weimer, Blake Baggett and Tyla Rattray were all out there cutting motos.

Villopoto and Baggett played an interesting game of cat and mouse for a little while during one of their motos, with Hangtown winner Baggett looking seriously fast around the undulating GP venue.

It was also unique to see Villopoto and Weimer at work, testing with the Monster Energy Kawasaki team as a crew of almost 10 guys watched on the track their progress.

Every lap was timed in the search for improvements, and it was clear to see that RV is still chasing the optimum setting in the outdoors, possibly because he focused solely on his supercross title chances until that was in the books.

Legendary trainer Aldon Baker was there on hand with Villopoto, putting the finishing touches on his conditioning as he too worked closely to gauge RV’s fitness and progress in that department.

Another observation I made was the Monster Energy Pro Circuit Kawasaki team practicing starts, timing reaction speed and various other sectors of their starting technique. Watching the effort they put into that after a day of motos makes you realize just how important starts are for these guys – not just solely relying on a PC engine to get the job done!

Other top guys there included Malcolm Stewart, Christian Craig and veteran Ryan Hughes (who still hauls by the way), so it was an entertaining day to watch on form the sidelines, that’s for sure.

Today though, it’s another plane ride, this time to Dallas Fort Worth and then onto Freestone for round two of the AMA Pro Motocross Championship in Texas.

Expect the features to start pouring in as of this weekend and into next week as we get our first real taste of the outdoors over here, and we’ll be sure to share every bit of it!

For now though, I have a plane to rush off to in Ontario…