by Chris Malam
I was really disappointed to have missed the first VMX Magazine CD events, and I was even more disappointed when Ray left us, having corresponded with him for 5 years or more, yet never to meet the man in person. Soon there would be a new bloke at the helm, Ken something or other, and I liked his style. There would also be a new venue not only for VMX Magazine but for Classic Dirt as well, and in April 2007 along with Brad Lackey, Super Hunky, Paul Stannard and one or two others, I eventually made it to CD 4. My first trip to VMX Magazine Classic Dirt, the concept of an event dreamt up by Ray Ryan all those years earlier, an event that had been on my bucket list of must do classic meetings. And this would also be my first trip to Australia, a country that had been in my dreams to visit even further back in time than I could remember.
About the third Aussie that I met on that trip was a chap that went under the name of Bruce McFarland, and he seemed to be surrounded by about a half dozen guys that were having at least as much fun as he was. Somehow, although I’d never met any of them in my life before, I was accepted into this bunch of friends, who were drawn from all corners of the social spectrum, and before I knew it I was having more fun than any of them! Did I want to ride a fully resto’ed ’79 Honda I was asked, too right I did. ‘Nah, you don’t want to be spoiling your weekend’ said another, ‘take my Husky out instead’. And so it went on, before the day was out, and before I had even had a chance to sling my leg over a motorcycle, I had a whole bunch of new mates. From that moment I knew that I would be coming back.
That first time I came to VMX Magazine Classic Dirt in 2007 it was intended to be my trip of a lifetime, a trip never to be repeated. Now, all these years later that trip has been repeated at least 6 times. There must be thousands of other things that I should be doing in Australia, but every time I come to Australia I come to Classic Dirt. Not only that, I come to Australia because of VMX Magazine Classic Dirt.
4 days to go before entries close online on Sunday 28th April at 6:00pm AEST- get your entry in now! To register, go to https://www.vmxmagshop.com.
Event: VMX Magazine Classic Dirt15
Date: 3rd–5th May 2019
Venue: Queensland Moto Park, 110 Goan Road
(Off Beaudesert-Boonah Road) Coulson, QLD 4310