2023 Day In The Dirt Recap
Cycle News Staff | November 29, 2023
The 26th annual Day In The Dirt, presented by Fasthouse, took place at Glen Helen Raceway over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, November 24-26. Three days of racing, music and family time was the theme as always, keeping the classic event a must-do on the SoCal calendar.
Once again, the Glen Helen facility was filled to the brim with DITD racers and fans.
Photos by BrownDog Wilson
As usual, the weekend is filled with racing in every class imaginable, including team races, and vintage, industry and two-stroke-only divisions. Even the Pro-Am classes bring out heavy-hitters and several names you might have heard of, like Ryder DiFrancesco, Ryan Villopoto, Tyler Bereman, Justin Hoeft and Trevor Stewart.
More than 300 riders alone competed in the Stunt GP Team Race, with racers switching wristbands every lap for the hour-long moto. DiFrancesco and Justin Hoeft teamed up to win the Pro class. Trevor Stewart and Deegan VonLossberg combined efforts to take second while Arik Swan and Gared Steinke got together and placed third.
RJ Wageman was this year’s Day In The Dirt Coup de Grace winner.
Ryder DiFrancesco (left) and Justin Hoeft won the Pro Team Race.
DiFrancesco made his racing debut on the Troy Lee Designs/Red Bull GasGas.
Austin “Bubba” Warren and Eli Moore rode a KTM 350 SX-F to the win in the Expert division.
Hoeft came back later and won the Two-Stroke race ahead of Ayrton Ward and Colin Shiner.
The Coup de Grace race, however, is the one everyone was waiting for. The final race of the event is where the cream of the weekend rises to the top. The race features a GP-style layout that produces lengthy five-minute-plus lap times. One of the things that makes this race so unique is its undisclosed race time. No one knows when the checkered flag is going to come out. When it finally did, RJ Wageman was leading the way and was crowned the winner in the weekend’s toughest race. Wageman also competed in four other races over the three-day weekend and was recognized as the gnarliest rider of all and was awarded the Ironman Trophy.CN
