One headlight

"Racers pilot their four-wheelers toward the finish line during an off-road vehicle event at the location of the Mason-Dixon Fair in Delta, Pa."

The simple task of keeping your eyes and ears open can sometimes help you find stories.

Two weeks ago, I was driving around and I heard a loud announcer from a distance not far from where I was, so I kept my window down until we stumbled across one major spot light up on the hill near the Mason-Dixon line.

As we pulled up, I noticed a sign for dirt bike races and a entry fee of $10. Not really feeling like paying, I decided to pull my classic trick of telling the parking attendant that I was only turning around. Yet, the trick, is I never come back out.

I've done this at many venues throughout the years, mostly the Fort Knox college venues who over stress on parking (*cough* Towson *cough*), and have yet to be confronted or towed.

Anyways, all this mental preparation to try and stoop the parking police, all to get in for fee, and no one was even at the gate. Sweet.

As I pulled up, I quickly realized why I got in for nothing. The dirt lot was about half empty (or half full) and I overheard the PA say this would be the final series for the night.

So I hoped out of my car with my camera and only a 35mm f/2 and dashed over to see exactly what was going on.

Four-wheeler drag racing. Woah. Never seen anything like it. I've seen the traditional drag racing (illegally and legally), dirt bikes and ATVs gunning against one another on a track, but never a combination of the two.

What was even more fascinating was that there was only one huge light source at the beginning of the track and the finish line was two huge two-by-four pieces of wood driven into the ground.

Basically, these racers couldn't really see where they were driving. And if that wasn't enough, to cross the finish line they had to avoid smacking into a large piece of wood or crashing into their opponent. Only in Pennsylvania.

Anyways, could have been a fun time, but I only got off about 100 frames before everyone started chugging their last Budweisers and jumping into their pick-up trucks to leave for the night. Oh, well. Could have made a nice little feature story had I known about it earlier.

But in the end, it was something new and I got to make some frames. You never know what you might hear or see.