Compound Revival: From 22 to 83

If you go back to a time not long ago you would enter a realm where the superstars of supercross and motocross all had private facilities. These were the training grounds for our at-the-time warriors and to get an invite was like getting a golden ticket from Willy Wonka himself.

Having been with Vurb for over a decade, I was lucky enough to shoot at quite a few of these mysterious places back in the day. What you saw then is exactly what you’d expect, the baddest dudes in our sport training privately in a comfortable setting that they could call their own.

Flash forward to now and it’s a very different place.

While shooting a top secret series (that you’ve hopefully heard of and are eagerly awaiting for Episode 3 to debut) I got the chance to revisit one of these once private facilities, The 83 Compound.

No sooner did we get out of our rental car did I notice an immediate difference from what I was used to seeing here: there were other riders!

What was “Reedy’s” now “83 Compound” is a modernized version of a private facility. It’s still private, and invite only, but that offer has been extended to a few top tier riders.

Although Hunter and Jett are newcomers in the 250 class, they’ve opened their doors to some of the sport’s best, which in my mind is only something that will benefit them in the long run. But it doesn’t begin and end there.

It’s no secret that the 2018 450 Supercross champion Jason Anderson has been spending some time there lately, and I personally think his results have shown. In the last couple rounds Jason has been showing us flashes of the brilliance we used to see every weekend. Not only climbing the results latter every weekend, but even getting a heat race win at Orlando 2. (Which was won in true El Hombre fashion with a two-corner to-go take out.) Now, I’m no analysts but I can’t help but equate part of that being because of where and who he’s training with.

Not only was the Team Fried Captain there, but so were Justin Bogle and Joey Savatgy of the Rocky Mountain ATV/MC-WPS-KTM team. If you add it up, you have five flagship factory riders all riding the same track, Reed’s track, which would be unheard of if you hit the rewind button a few years.

Off the track, they have busted down a wall that used to separate Chad’s trophy room from race shop. Now, the entire building is one giant race shop/ hang out space for all the riders to chill between their motos. Pretty cool for a guy like me to see the transformation of what was a superstar’s private, personal facility, to a now welcoming, open environment for all riders.

All in all, the days of private, one-off facilities are becoming a thing of the past, and these “open-concept” tracks are popping up left and right, and might I add, they’re working. RV’s is now Sandbox, Chad’s is now 83 Compound, Rattray’s is, well, still Rattray’s, but now an option. You get what I’m saying.

It’s absolutely a good thing to see a shift in these once unreachable places and after seeing it first hand, I’m now convinced it’s the way to go.