Dodging low flying airplanes and overcoming broken equipment to complete the build of a private track in Murray, Kentucky

There’s just something unique about returning to an area after years of being away. That was the case with our build in Murray, Kentucky (located in Calloway County, roughly two hours northwest of Nashville, Tennessee). Several seasons ago we constructed a custom motocross track 15 minutes up the road, so it was nice to return to the Bluegrass State. This time around a father and son, both who are obviously very passionate about motocross, tasked us with making a track.  

MX Track Builders headed to Murray, Kentucky and began marking out the track alignment, which spanned four acres. We leveraged the ten feet of elevation change to optimize the layout and track drainage. Given that Kentucky experiences four seasons and heavy rainstorms are common, we installed 200 linear feet of drainpipe to ensure that the track wouldn’t get washed out. Riprap was placed at the pipe ends for stability and erosion prevention.

The team sculpted a wide range of obstacles and sweepers designed to challenge, while keeping an eye on safety. Since the father and son ride big bikes, we built several larger jumps, including a triple jump with a forgiving landing. Our greatest challenge came unexpectedly when a bulldozer broke down midway through the project. Fortunately, the machinery supplier technicians worked on it overnight and got us up and running again for the next day. We were back working the reddish orange silty clay soil in no time.

It was nice spending a few days in Kentucky, working the beautiful land into a custom motocross track for a family of riders. As you can see from the before-and-after photos, we moved a ton of dirt. You might have also spotted a windsock. That’s because the customer had an airplane hangar and runway, which were located next to the track. One day during the build the customer buzzed us with a low flyover in his plane. It was insane how close he got to the track and how good he was at flying. We won’t soon forget that experience!