US Beach Races...

About 25 years ago i promoted a beach race on virginia beach.

I got help from the tourism board that was trying to get people there in the off season.

It was interesting.

The beach was maintained with dredged sand moved in by the army corp of engineers. It took massive amounts of water to keep it rideable.

Did pretty good the first year.

The second year had a nor' easter come through thursday night before the event and the lost 70' of the beach which really squeezed the track.

I had never been around the ocean much and did not understand the power of a storm like that.

We had set up an 8" pump at the high tide line and then ran 100' of suction hose so it would be submerged at lowtide. We put the suction intake on piece of concrete poured into half of a 55 gallon drum.

Came out friday morning and the pump was almost covered in water because so much beach had washed away. Fortunately it did not get in the engine.

It pulled the sections of hose apart and filled them with sand. Broke the rope holding the suction to the concrete. We never did find the concrete.

Had to chain the 20' section of hose in the center and pick them up with a loader to dig the sand out. It was dredged sand and was full of broken shells. Wore out all my work gloves half way through, then ended up wirh hands that resembled hamburger meat.

After all that went to settlement after the event and the city added so many charges for stuff like the trash bags used in the cans on the boardwalk that i only made about $1500 for a whole lot of work.

Told my contact at the tourism board i would not be back, and referred him to an associate that ran only atv events and he did it for a couple years until they did the same to him.

The first year of my race there i also contracted to run the race at wildwood.

It is a unique set up more suited to motocross. It is one of the few places on the atlantic coast the accumulates sand.

Where as virginia beach only has around 150'. - 200' from the boardwalk to the water, wildwood has around 900'-1000'.

A lot of room. A set of bleachers for around 4000 people and amusement parks on both sides for cool back drops

Had it's own unique problems. The folks that ran the New jersey hot rod association were not easy to work with.

City was supposed to build the track, but if you told the union operators they needed to adjust anything, they just left and did not come back.

I ended up building it myself with an ancient dresser loader that had no brakes.

Nothing against all the great people here from the garden state but after going up there and running a race in the summer and fall, i vowed to be a better person so i would not end up in new jersey when i die.

I’ve been at the track this weekend for the Worcs race. The track is a little sandy, but I do believe it’s the rockiest track I’ve ever seen. I was happy to be a spectator. 

Looks fun, but one hell of a stretch to call that a beach race

The Wildwood thing was really cool. If you go to my NJ Motocross website and search Wildwood, you'll see articles, images and results - here is the link to make it easy. - https://www.njmotocross.com/?s=wildwood

That's the one Frankie Valli waves the checkers at right?

Racing on the beach might kill turtles.

I wish I lived in the northeast when this was running. 

Thanks for the link

One of the races i went up and ran.

https://www.njmotocross.com/nj-motocross/2022/thunder-in-the-sand-fall-…

Beach races maybe don’t suit the American mindset. You guys like your seats and popcorn when watching dirt bikes race. That’s not a insult by the way as soccer is the biggest sport here in Europe. If your asking me what is appealing about an event like Weston, maybe Europeans will endure getting cold and wet just to watch a huge number of MX masochist suffer for three hours getting stuck. The upside of  the tradition is that is has now produced specialist like Todd, bolt etc who have turned it into an art. Herlings and Glen doing them in the past has raised its profile. It was great to see Bam Bam come over and give it a lash, 

They still do monster trucks at Wildwood and Virginia Beach 

I work on the water, I struggle to believe they are endangered, they are everywhere.

Turtles also have a nesting season, if you hold the race outside of nesting season no turtle eggs will be affected.

Beach races are insanely fun, if you haven’t tried it your missing out.

Races I have done are held below the high tide mark, so once the tide comes in and cleans up the tracks you would never know a bike has been there…

The only places you can "legally" ride a dirt bike on any true ocean front beach along the entire West Coast, stretching from Washington all the way to the tip of Baja is Sand Lake Rec area up in Oregon, Pismo Beach in California and then again South of the Border, just about 20 miles south of Ensenada around the La Bocana area (where the Australian surfers were killed recently). If you know you're way around the Baja hills and private land North of there, you can probably touch the beach with a dirt bike North of Ensenada. Rosarito is probably the only place along the West Coast where a true "beach race" might be able to happen these days. Pismo would be the ideal spot for a true beach race.