Day in the Dirt 22
Thanksgiving is a big holiday in the US. It consists of gathering friends and family and eating large amounts of food and drink. Usually the most dangerous activity is letting Uncle Tony and Cousin Jenny have a few drinks and start arguing politics. It gets loud and competitive real quick. And the weekend after Thanksgiving gets even more loud and competitive at Day in the Dirt. This was the 22nd annual Day in the Dirt and we had plenty of friends and family of our own show up. Tony and Jenny were not invited. But pretty much everyone else we know was there. And they brought their bikes and some goodtime.
Arriving to Glen Helen this year was wet, cold and not for the faint of heart. Snow was in all of the tree lines nearby and the track was postponed a day due to too much water. It was destined to be a mudder….and to be glorious.
The vintage races were a blast as always as most of the Deus gang blasted off the line on some pretty nice Huskies that were probably raced at Glen Helen by their dads back in the day. The team races had an upset this year as the B team beat the A team in retaliation for last years race. Kelana Humphrey raced in just about every race possible and took home some trophies in the 85 division amongst others. Micah Davis and Nick LaPaglia were banging bars over at the Hell on Wheels vintage race put on by Meatball. The crowd was on their feet as these two traded the lead lap after lap with Nick scraping by to come out on top. Our own photog Harry Mark bounced Max Mandell out on the xr100 races. Forrest Minchinton and Riley Harper teamed up in the stuntman race and ripped it up. We had guys racing from the age of 9 (Happy Bday Dylan!) up to the age “Old enough to be your Dad” The only person who raced almost as much as gas addict Kelana was Todd Cram who had his glory slightly stolen by his dads return to racing after a year off since the last Day in the Dirt.
After all the races the gang pulled up next to the campfire and laughed about the races and good times had. In the distance the faint sound of an 80’s cover band was heard. We all grabbed a beer or ten and headed on over to the fastest party in town, thanks to Redbull and FastHouse.
Images and Text by Monti Smith
