ATV's and Dirt Bikes

While at Watkins this weekend, it was apparent that ATV's and Dirt Bikes don't mix well, especially on dirt tracks. I was almost rear-ended by an ATV, and my daughter was...fortunately, she escaped injury and had a small amount of bike damage. Of course, it was so crowded that it was risky regardless of the ATV's.

If only the owners/managers of these facilities could create tracks just for ATV's, or possibly have "ATV only" periods during the day. ATV's take up so much of the track that it is hard to avoid them, and easy for an agressive ATV rider to rear-end you. Very little room for error. You can regularly see a "pack" of dirt bikes flying around the track with no problems, but put an ATV into the mix is asking for injuries. For example, at one poing this weekend I saw several riders stop to help a fallen (and injured) dirt bike rider, only to have an ATV rider come flying up to the group, lose control, followed by the ATV performing end-over-end flips through the people. Luckily, no one was seriously hurt.

Some common sense would certainly go a long way here.