Watched this vid:
http://www.cyclenews.com/articles/road-racing/2011/02/18/video-a-lap-of-chuckwalla-with-blake-young

WTF?
He's shifting between 2 gears only?
Did I miss something?

sounds like he spends most of his time in 2nd gear and barely spends any time in third.

i haven't ridden chuckwalla, so i don't know how "tight" it is. i do know that streets of willow can be a two-gear track (depending on gearing).

the other possibility is this was just his out lap and he wasn't pushing that hard.

OK, yeah, that's what I thought, 2nd with brief moments of 3rd.

I looked at a track diagram, and it's really tough to tell 'cause the width isn't to scale.

Out lap, yeah, that makes sense too.

IIRC, all the reviews in RRW say that Chuckwalla is super tight now, but that it'll eventually be a faster track when the later phases are complete. Another vid for comparison:
2 laps around the NEW Chuckwalla Valley Raceway!!! 4/02/10

Overview of phases here:
http://www.chuckwallavalleyraceway.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=67&Itemid=163

haven't watched the video yet but yeah, it's supposed to be relatively tight & technical (aka, fun!)

plus, is he on his yosh 1k?  that thing will probably do 100mph in first gear.

i did this track a few months back and will be doing again in april.

it is really tight and technical but i was able to shift through about 3 gears.

by far my favorite track!