make an impact than to debut an entirely new location with freshly cut trail ! While historically the cross-country race was held on the same property as Sunday ’ s joint motocross race at Irish Valley , Dan and his crew were able to locate some fresh land just a few minutes away that would present a new challenge to the region ’ s woods racers while still maintaining the popularity of the Irish Valley motocross course for Sunday ’ s follow-up event .
Famous Reading Outdoors ( FRO ) is a publicly accessible , permit-based , off-road wonderland spanning over 20,000 acres in Pennsylvania ’ s anthracite region , and its operations manager , Brian Rich , was generous enough to carve out a small area in Locust Gap , PA to host Saturday ’ s race . One look at any topographical map of FRO ’ s land in Northumberland and Schuylkill counties clearly demonstrates that Dan ’ s track team was certainly presented with challenges , and puts an exclamation point on the cautionary disclaimers presented at the morning ’ s riders meeting .
There is little ground that has been untouched by previous or active mining operations in this area . In fact , the parking and start area is a part of an active mining operation taking place just beyond sight . While the area provided was limited in acreage and the terrain difficult , Dan and his crew quickly went to work on
VOL . 6 ISSUE 5 - MAY 2021 // PAGE 191