Issue link: http://trailridermagazine.uberflip.com/i/1525821
Dave Light Dave Light And racing dirt bikes is a great was to enjoy life, so that is what we did. And it was, in typical Ashcra fashion, great. Saturday found spectators gathered on the south lawn of Brian and Lisa's home overlooking a me- andering path through the grassy pasture outlined starkly with yellow ribbon. The grass track moto- cross course laid out in this patch of land usually reserved for grazing ca le is always a unique but familiar experience. Each year the layout is sure to incorporate a handful of terrain elements that are trademark Ashcra Farms like the pair of down/up one-eigh es, the high-tensile fence straight, and the mini-gravity cavity centered in the expanse of green grass. The le s, rights, swerves, curves, and shoots that connect them is where the variety is dealt. Plenty of off camber turns, hard packed soil, and residual cut grass require a en on and good line selec on to minimize lap mes. The race ac- on was hot, just like the weather. So hot that the Ashcra clan set up an industrial sized fan blowing down the star ng line. A welcome relief for sure to Wally Naletko and Keith Folmar while they spent the day wrangling the rubber band for two motos of sixteen separate races. Also, it was dry for a change, but with hot and dry comes dust, which was certainly a challenge through- out the weekend. Despite pummeling the course with untold gallons of water before and during the races, the dust was barely phased. Between the quick evapora on facilitated by the unrelen ng sunshine, or the baked hard-pan soil shrugging off absorbing any moisture, the ba le was fu le, but the effort appreciated. A few changes between motos one and two helped mi gate some of the dust by elimina ng a couple spots where the soil had devolved into fluffy powder. Plenty of air filters to be cleaned a er this day. Sunday's a en on turned toward the picturesque mountain serving as the northern boundary of the Ashcra property, where the day's par cipants would tackle some combina on of the mul tude of trails crisscrossing the forest therein. There was s ll dust in some of the open areas or dirt roads that transfer riders between ghter single track. Thankfully, the majority of the course was under cover from enough foliage that the soil retained some measure of mois- ture keeping the plumes of dust at bay. As for the course layout, the Ashcra 's always ensure you get your money's worth on their mountain.