Dirt Quake 4

“Do you have a motorcycle? Do you suffer from a total lack of regard for the well being of either that motorcycle or yourself? Do you like dressing up in silly outfits? If you answered “yes” to these questions, you are fully qualified to participate in Dirt Quake—an annual event that sees riders of all skill level racing on a dirt track on inappropriate machines”. Read the full article by Chris Cope for Ride Apart HERE

Two years ago we landed on Sideburn’s Dirt Quake 2, with El Solitario Rock! sticking out of a rental car’s trunk and, miraculously enough, managed to jump on the podium. Obviously we loved the event, the crazy machines and its charming crowd, but for one reason or another we missed Dirt Quake 3. We all have busy lives which sometimes result difficult to organize. Prioritizing and allocating time and the limited resources, becomes an increasingly difficult task, specially when the lines between job & fun are so blurry and  vague as in our case. One way or another it only took Sideburns Co-founder, Gary Inman, five seconds to convince me to leave everything behind and sit on a smelly plane to ride with the world’s coolest, go fast, turn left gang.

“Hey Dave! Are you coming to Dirt Quake?” “You could ride my race bike on the DTRA Rookie Class…” 

 Oh!  … OK! I’m in!@#

Still can’t thank Gary enough for this wonderful gift! Attending to Dirt Quake is feat on its own, but racing on the UK Dirt Track league on a stunning Ron Wood Rotax is another thing.

Problem is, this old wolf that writes for you, had to complicate things more. I knew the Wood Rotax was a hairy man’s bike and the DTRA Rookies would be fast and with a knife between their teeth. So what could I do? I needed to practice my turn left abilities, at least a bit, not to make a  fool of myself. Not to be last was enough… Galician stupidity was about to start. Put some supermotard wheels on my buddies KTM 300EXC and there I went to an empty dirt plane. Obviously this was not a very good idea and had little or nothing to do with actual flat track, being the field not flat nor track by any means. At first the super tall and rough EXC felt impossible to control & tuck in the corners, but after a few frights I started to feel more relaxed and improvement started. I was remembering one good man’s advise that told me once in a classic race, go slow if you want to be fast! This always works, but once you start going fast things also happen fast. The Galician practice ended with a gnarly high side and a quick visit to the Hospital with a fucked up shoulder which still sores today, but thats another story…

What happened then on the track? One of the sweetest experiences I’ve ever had on a motorcycle! That Saturday morning before Dirt Quake opened its doors, there I was, hard on drugs, on the start line onboard one of the coolest machines I’ve ever had the luck to open wide. The Ron Wood frame is so sweet and predictable you feel like Super Man and the Rotax power plant is so progressive and fun it just lets you relax!!! Can you believe this? Felt so good on the bike and the track that even made a third in one of the heats, something I was really surprised. Now I can firmly say that I’d been stung by the infamous go fast turn left gang and there will be more to come!

Peace & Love to the Sideburn Magazine crew for such an unbelievable weekend

x

Photography by the always awesome David Marvier