This has been one crazy, dirt-bikey weekend. Anyone who digs Offroadmotorcycles.ca knows we’re big into having fun on dirt bikes, regardless if it’s play riding, off-road racing, trials, dirt-track racing…you name it. The way we see it, we’re all branches of one big, gnarly old tree infested with dirt bikers.

Sometimes all those dirt bikers get together at one place, at one time. When the tribes come together it’s very cool, reminding us why we all ride dirt bikes in the first place: for fun!

Our local track, Welland County Motorcycle Raceway, hosted their ‘Run what ya brung’ day Saturday, Aug 28. They opened up their ¼ mile dirt track and the motocross track for practice and the pits for bench racing. Twenty bucks meant you could bring whatever you wanted, as long as it likes dirt. You could ride as much as you wanted. It was a great way to spend an afternoon. Here’s how it looked.

The club spent a lot of time keeping the track in good shape, with the hot sun making it a challenge to keep dust down.

They may have an awful lot of wheels, but the ‘cool’ factor of the crotch-rocket powered mini-sprint cars is unreal! Carrie Homenuck photo

Pull your own rope: There were lawnmower-engined minibikes all over the place.

As always, the flat-track riders put on a great show! Carrie Homenuck photo

Jeff Seguin’s awesome Harley Davidson XR883 flat-tracker was both the best looking bike in the pits and the best sounding bike on the track.

The recently improved motocross track was packed with riders all day.

Ryan Rainville, playing mother hen on his Supermoto-pitbike. Carrie Homenuck photo

Rob Vrbanac finally talked me into trying his flat-track bike. On lap three I panicked, overcooking a turn and using the hay bales as a berm. I didn’t crash, but it was a powerful lesson on just how difficult dirt track racing is! Even after a few more sessions, when I was ‘sort-of kind-of starting to get the hang of it a little tiny bit’, the real flat track racers shot around me like I was a pylon. Carrie Homenuck photo

Pit bikes and motocross bikes. If it was a dirt bike, you could find it here.

Vrbanac tried to hide his fear of me wadding up his flat track bike by riding the motocross track whenever I went out onto the oval.

Another mini-sprint car. The ungodly wail these things make down the straights makes your hair stand on end.

A very neat old CR125 Elsinore.

A vintage trials bike, a modern MX bike and a Speedway bike sharing space in the Jeff Orosz pits.

I was still slow, but I felt much more comfortable on a borrowed bike on the motocross track than I did on a borrowed bike on the flat track. Carrie Homenuck photo

This was an awesome way to spend a late summer afternoon! Thanks Welland County Motorcycle Club for hosting such an interesting and unique day at the track!