Old Racers Race!

The 50 something annual Lilliputian Cross Country event.

The annual Dist 36 Lilliputian put on by the Dirt Diggers North MC Club which has been held at Prairie City OHV Park for at least 40 years changed venues this year due to COVID-19, the State park is still unable to hold spectator events. The race was moved to River Front Park under the bridge in Yuba City. River Front is a moto cross venue with multiple tracks which has been around for probably over 50 years.

They used to have an annual Cross Country event there called the Thorn Tree named after the thorn trees that populated the area. I believe the last one held was in 1977 and I rode it. At that time they had access to a lot of land and the course was probably a good 8 miles or so long. Lots of changes since then and this weekend’s course was around 4 miles with a very, very deep sand section that ran along the bank of the Yuba river. A couple of days before the event that area was covered with brush and trees, they hacked a two bike wide trail through it, I don’t know how long the section was but it was brutal and all you could hope for was to survive it each lap. The course then opened up into a sort of grass track that was in reality a flat weed field that had about a hundred flat turns as it twisted and turned and eventually came back to one of three motocross tracks where you were on and off of until the check. For guys like me a lap was about thirteen minutes. It didn’t take long before the super fast riders in the front rows were starting to lap guys like me, that will make you know what pucker up. The track layout was good except the long brutal sand section that took its toll on many riders. I could never relax and settle in and find any kind of rhythm on the course so I struggled a lot. 

Because there hadn’t been a cross country race there in so many years coupled with the new venue it attracted a lot of us old timers to come out and ride it, remembering the old Thorn Tree. For those of us who hadn’t ridden a cross country event in years it was certainly more difficult than the regulars who follow the Dist 36 cross county events. It had been about 4 years for me and for one of my old friends Larry who showed up it had been about 15 years. 4 years VS 15 years I faired a little better than he did.

None of us old guys got hurt other than our pride a little and were able to tell stories before and after the race it doesn’t get any better than that.

As you can see by the pictures it was a clear sunny day albeit a cold windy day. It rained Friday night and a little early Sunday morning which helped keep the dust to a minimum, although by the time I left and the last race was in progress the dust was getting bad in some areas.

Doug 21J