Somewhere near Buellton, just off of Highway 101, the buzzing din of off-road motorcycles pierces the serenity of the cow-pastured countryside.
On this dirt track tucked away on private land, one of a few places left in the county where motocross riders are still welcome, riders pay for the privilege to tear around its turns and catch some air on their Kawasakis, Suzukis, and Yamahas.
The two-hour drive from his home in Castaic to the track was more than worth the effort to Derek Tarrant, who’s been riding motocross for eight years.
“There’s nothing better than coming out and getting to ride and flying through the air and all that cool stuff that comes along with it,” Tarrant said. “It’s always a good time.”
While many motocross enthusiasts take the winters off, more than 50 riders hit the track on the last weekend in January. The group included legendary professional freestyler Carey Hart, the first man to execute a backflip on a motorcycle in competition.
Fellow pro racer Beau Baron, who lives in Atascadero, was drawn to motocross because of the one-on-one nature of the sport. With competitive racing as his sole source of income, the 30-year-old tries to ride at least four days a week.
“It’s super tough to try to find places to practice,” Baron said. “Most of the places you go, the cops end up showing up and say, ‘Hey, you’ve got to cut it’ or they hassle you.”
Though manufacturers have made strides in quieter and safer motocross bikes, complaints about noise and concerns over injuries have combined to push racers to the fringes.
According to Mark Clogston, president of the nonprofit Central Coast Moto Club, motocross riders used to race in the Santa Maria River bed, before being forced to stop for insurance reasons. The California Motorcycle Association held annual races at the Santa Maria Fairpark, but neighbors objected to the noise, and the ensuing rules forced riders to buy new exhaust systems to compete there, chasing them away.
“It’s a shame, but some people just view our sport as bad for the environment and bad for kids,” Clogston said. “They look at us like a motorcycle gang or something. They have no understanding of what they’re talking about or what we do. As a result, all the places where people used to ride around here are all gone.”
Clogston wouldn’t disclose where his club rides now, and explained the motocross community is a paranoid lot—with good reason.
“Every action by anyone I know of here on the Central Coast in the last 10 years has been completely knocked down by the county,” he said. “They have you jump through all these hoops basically with no intention of ever allowing you to do it.”
Land-use regulations have made travel a necessity for most serious motocross enthusiasts. There are few tracks scattered throughout the state, mostly in remote valley towns like Hanford and Tulare.
Santa Barbara resident Ed Guajardo maintains the track near Buellton, and also prefers to keep its location on the down low.
“We’re lucky to be able to ride out here,” Guajardo said. “I do everything I can to keep it open.”
Guajardo has raced motocross since the 1970s, when the sport first started becoming popular in the United States. Like most hardcore riders, he craves the adrenaline rush.
“It’s addicting,” he said. “It gets in your blood. It’s hard to quit riding.”
While Guajardo’s track is intended for riding practice, other tracks host competitive racing: the World Off-Road Championship, Gold Cup Series, and the California Motorcycle Association series. In competitions, races are timed, usually in 15- or 30-minute motos, or last a certain number of laps. And then there’s freestyle, where riders try to outperform each other with death-defying tricks, jumps, and stunts.
“It’s a family thing,” Baron said of competitive racing. “When the kids go to the races and compete, having the parental support there is awesome. They’re helping washing bikes, getting gear ready, and doing all it takes to compete.”
Televised races on ESPN, the Versus Network, and the X-Games have helped to propel motocross among the thrill-seeking set, and according to riders, the sport is more popular on the Central Coast than it first appears.
“There’s a lot more people riding than people know about,” Baron said. “It’s totally an underground thing, but the people in it are good people.”
Children as young as 3 start out on tiny 65cc or 85cc bikes at the Buellton track, though many riders begin with BMX—bicycle motocross—before graduating to the motorized version.
The sport can be an expensive one. Motocross dirtbikes, equipped with 250cc or 450cc engines and specifically designed for closed-course competition, cost about $7,000 new. In addition to paying upward of $30 for each session on pay-to-ride tracks, motocross riders also require a litany of gear, including knee braces, boots, chest protectors, helmets, goggles, and gloves. Despite all the protection, injuries are still a major component of the sport.
Clogston, who began his Moto Club to teach young people how to ride safely, compared motocross to football or skiing.
“Anything that’s fun is risky,” Clogston said. “The main thing is training and teaching, starting from a young age, and not riding over your head to where you’re going to get hurt.”
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Besides breaking a hand and a couple of ribs and ripping a leg open, motocross rider Tarrant has also broken his neck, requiring a plate and six screws. However, the injuries haven’t stopped him from getting back on the bike.
“The neck was pretty bad,” Tarrant said. “I got past that, though, so I figured: Why stop now?”
Injuries just come with the territory, according to Baron, who said the downtime from getting hurt is no match for the high he gets from riding.
“A lot of times, off the bike, I’ll think, ‘Man, that was gnarly, that was sketchy,’” he said. “But the next time I go out, I find myself in the same position, just trying to push it to go faster.”
“It’s kind of like being on a roller coaster,” Baron added. “Except you’re the controller.”
Staff Writer Jeremy Thomas has a 450cc keyboard. He once broke his thumb while writing an e-mail. Contact him at jthomas@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Feb 3-10, 2011.