If you’ve never heard of DirtQuake before – Oh boy, you have been missing out! DirtQuake is essentially flat track oval dirt racing, but with a big slab of tongue in cheek fun and open entry to any crazy enough. This year’s event was hosted at the Essex Arena, a stone throw from Lakeside retail hell and M25 traffic hell, but dead handy for us all London folk. The Essex Arena normally hosts all kinds of Speedway and banger racing, so was perfect for DirtQuake.
Racing was split into a number of classes:
- Ladies
- Street Tracker
- Chopper
- Scooter
- Inappropriate Road Bike
- DTRA Super Hooligans
The last DTRA class were all experienced pros, with serious skills, serious bikes (mainly Indian FTR’s and Ducati Scrambler 1100’s) and were extremely rapid. In contrast, the first five classes had a random mixed bag of contenders from novices to celebs like Guy Martin and Jenny Tinmouth, and many in fancy dress to boot! They featured an even more eclectic collection of bikes, from brand new Husqvarna Vitpilen and Ducati Scramblers, stripped down sports bikes (an R1), random street bikes, the odd adventure bike (a Super Ténéré), right through to classics like a RD350 and a Vincent Rapide!
Picture the scene, there you are parked up in town to do a spot of shopping, juggling your helmet as you try to carry shopping and find your wallet to pay for stuff. If only you had a third hand or somewhere to put your helmet. You don’t fancy leaving a few hundred quids’ worth of lid hanging on the bike, especially with action cam and intercom gadgets attached, and you may not have a huge top box to dump it in(or it may be full of other stuff). This is where the EZ-Go helmet strap comes in as an idea you can’t believe you didn’t think of.
Well you’ve got to love the Great British Summer… Insane, heatwave for weeks, then the weekend you’re scheduled to spend on the bike, it pours down something chronic!