Dirt Wurx Puts The Blade To Locals Only Track In Jersey
MONROE, N.Y. – This past week Dirt Wurx’s Rich Winkler and Foley Caterpillar’s Ryan Foley combined for an MX track ‘redo job of the ages’ on Foley’s private track in the New Jersey countryside the locals know simply as “SRFMX83.”
An operator’s dream for any track builder, Winkler and the Dirt Wurx crew had, at their beckon call, access to the latest and greatest in the Caterpillar line – courtesy of Foley CAT - including a CAT 938G wheeled loader, CAT D5N and D4G dozers and a CAT 257 MTL skid steer. “It’s almost cheating,” said Winkler with a laugh. “I think next time we’re there Ryan will have it figured out to where my crew can sit back on lawn furniture, with a beer, and run the equipment with remote controls.”
The redo on Foley’s track was again a cooperative effort utilizing Dirt Wurx’s advanced track design and construction experience – forged over nearly two decades on the AMA Supercross Series and MX tracks all over the world – as well as the all-important input from Foley’s team, i.e., his riding buddies! In fact this year’s track design brought back some of Foley’s less advanced MX riding friends into the fold, something Winkler said he’s seeing more and more these days on the smaller private and public tracks Dirt Wurx designs and constructs.
“Last year we’d built a track with lots of peaked doubles, a dragon’s back, step on/step off and a technical whoop section,” recalled Winkler. “This year the plan was to de-tune things a bit, make it fun for all of Ryan’s buddies, while still keeping it fairly challenging for the more advanced riders.”
Leaving only one of the double jumps, Dirt Wurx incorporated amateur, as well as expert, landings on all of the jumps. For instance, two jumps that can send the advance riders out to the 65/70-foot range were designed to include amateur landings at 35 feet. “Kind of a safety valve for the intermediate riders and older guys,” said Winkler.
Dirt Wurx’s redo of Foley’s SRFMX83 track was a HUGE hit with Foley’s buddies. Quotes from around the fire pit that week included:
“You have a real professional-style MX track here now, Ryan. It’s better than the practice track at Englishtown – by far.”
“Waaay better than last year – now I can ride it!”
“Rich and the Dirt Wurx guys are magicians.”
“The pit bike track is the best it’s EVER been!”
On that last quote Winkler turned local pro, Mike Leavitt, loose on the CAT 257 skid steer to tune up Foley’s pit bike track. And not only did Leavitt do a first-rate job (he’s got tons of experience on hot minis and keeps up his own track at home), he also blew everyone away when he attacked the big track on a CR125. “Mike had that 125 singing,” was how Winkler put it. “With everyone pretty much on four strokes these days we all got a big kick out of seeing and hearing a two-stroke 125 getting wrung out by a pro rider.”
When the work was done, not only had Dirt Wurx re-worked the track to challenge everyone from advanced riders to jump rollers, they did so, remarkably, by turning the whole track backwards. “That was the real challenge,” added Winkler. “Making it friendly to quads, mini bikes and novices, and also guys like Ryan’s buddies that ride real well. Reversing the direction over the natural existing features, without bringing in dump trucks and moving a bunch of dirt, took quite a bit of thought and effort to pull off.”
Added Foley: “Rich and his Dirt Wurx crew are professional, down-to-earth and really are the best in the business – bar none. They had awesome ideas and turned them all into reality. It gives me a great sense of pride to have these guys at my farm every year.”
Dirt Wurx USA - the premier SX/MX track design and construction company in the world – is the exclusive supercross race track design and construction firm for Live Nation and the Monster Energy AMA Supercross Series. With more than 18 years of global experience in the field, Dirt Wurx USA’s highly talented crew of designers and heavy equipment specialists not only build the world’s most visible tracks, but are also accessible for affordable track design and construction at the local level. For more information, please visit www.dirtwurx.com.
High Profile Public Relations, LLC is a multi-faceted communications agency specializing in strategic media relations – both industry and mainstream – for the powersports and action sports communities. Dialed in with all forms of power and action sports, its participants, manufacturers and live event promoters, HPPR’s Pat Schutte can be reached at (734) 369-2170 and pat@highprofilepr.com. For more information, please visit www.highprofilepr.com.