They had a trophy presentation at the end, something I haven’t seen at a motocross race for a long time. Nobody in the class that I won called me a sandbagger and the people I had been talking to at various times during the day were all very encouraging, asking if I was going to ride more dirt track and if I had fun. The overall positive experience I had did kind of give me the bug to do it again. I’m not sure if I can ride the Beginner class anymore, but I had fun in the Senior class and there’s three other classes I can ride, so that’d be OK. My father-in-law told he has a steel shoe that might fit me and he also has a 19 inch front rim we may be able to fit onto the bike, so I’m already feeling myself getting sucked into the sport. It’s actually a pretty good feeling.

So the point of all this isn’t that a mediocre motocross rider might win a flat track novice class. The point is that if you have a bike set up for motocross or woods riding, you already have something that you could try dirt track with. It can be done on a very low budget. I would recommend adjusting the suspension as I described and trying to get a dirt track rear tire. If your district has flat track racing, someone at the district office should be able to put you in contact with a person who can help you find a tire and answer any questions about what time to get there, what the fees are, and that kind of thing. I don’t know if the person will be as helpful as Rick was to me, but given the experience I had, it wouldn’t surprise me at all.

The atmosphere in the pits is quite relaxed

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