Getting Dirty! Local Speedway Racing Fun!!

Having just gotten home from two weeks in Mississippi with neither my family nor my motorbikes to keep me company, I was eager for some two wheeled fun. I managed to watch some Moto America and MotoGP gualifying in the afternoon and set out in the evening with a friend to see some live action racing at the local flat track.

Ventura Raceway located at the Ventura County Fairgrounds is a 1/5 miles dirt and clay oval track. There are lots of 4-wheeled races at the track, but they also do 5 or 6 motorcycle races a year. Last Saturday was the second round of the AMA National Speedway Championship.

I've went to a few races last year, but none yet this year. It is a small track and it has a very home town feel to the night. The action goes on from about 6 pm to about 10 pm with a intermission somewhere in between. After the races finish, they open the pits so you can see the bikes and meet the riders.

In the pic above, 4 riders line up in the gates. Speedway racing is similar to flat track racing, but it has some very unique differences. The bikes are 500cc, single cylinder, methanol burning, 2 strokes that weigh less than 200 lbs each. There is no rear suspension and no brakes. None. Zero. To stop you have two close the throttle and drag your feet. They race for points in the heat races so they can get lane choice for the semi finals.

The action is just as intense as any flat track though. Check out the first corner of this heat race as they barrel four wide into turn one. By the end of the night there was a nice blue groove forming low into this corner. Sparks were flying from the hot shoes (a steel sole they strap to their left boot) the guys wear on their left foot to drag through the corners. We got to the race during the second heat of the night and were able to get close to the action.

How close you might ask? Well from the track to my seat was close enough that I was peppered with dirt clods all night. Some of them even had enough velocity to sting. Lap after lap these guys (and some gals) would fling themselves around the track. There was some bar banging and fast laps put down by quite a few of the riders.

And if that was not mental enough, they also had side car racing. These are 1000cc race bikes that also are lacking brakes of any kind. The monkey (the rider in the passenger seat) is leaning off the bike to balance the rig through the turns. The racing was pretty wild and the sound of the engines as they bang the rev limiter through the short straight sections really gets your blood pumping. As a side note, the driver in bike #2 is paralyzed from the waist down. He was ripping it up with the best of them, definitely not letting his "disability" slow him down.

This action shot doesn't do the racing enough justice. The rigs were getting sideways all night. The front wheel was only pointed in the direction of travel when they were going down the straights. Things got hairy during the side car final. Rig #1 in the shots above got really out of shape coming through the turns you see here. They lost control and flipped with both riders spilling out onto the track. The rig behind them hit both the riders and their bike and also flipped. The two other bikes made it cleanly through the turn. 

The corners workers rushed to help the two obviously hurt sets of riders laying on the track. The other two bikes didn't see the flashing caution lights around the perimeter of the track and came flying into this same corner almost flat out. They took evasive maneuvers to cut to the inside of the track to avoid the downed riders. You can see a berm on the inside of the track. This berm caused both of the remaining bikes to get airborne as they tried to stop. Remember when I said they had no brakes? A couple of corner workers got knocked about and one monkey got tossed from the rig. Three of the riders from the original wreck eventually got up and walked away under their own power. The driver from the #1 bike got loaded into the ambulance conscious, but strapped to a back board. 

After we could tell that things were handled we left before the motorcycle finale. Racing is dangerous and only practice, the right safety gear and a good dose of luck keep it from being a total disaster.

Check around your area for a dirt track near you. Lots of them are out there even though they will usually only advertise their car racing programs. If you dig around there is bound to be a sanctioning body, even if it is just a local one, that races motorcycles at one of those tracks. I've found this site helpful in looking for races around me. Take a chance and I'm betting you'll have a good time just like we did.

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