THE Portland Motocross Club honoured 10 years since the passing of member Dwayne Alexander at the annual Dwayne’s Day in the Dirt event with a huge turnout making for a big day of racing.

The annual event was created to honour the impact and involvement he had on the club with many members taking the chance to celebrate and reflect on Saturday.
There was multiple classes and races on offer throughout the day as well as a slow lap around the track to pay tribute.
Simon Parry, a local rider who was mentored by Dwayne, said the day is a great chance to reflect on the impact he had on the club and wider community.
“Dwayne was such a passionate man for motocross racing which was passed onto his kids and now some of his grandkids as well which is nice to see,” he said.

“He really wanted to see the sport develop and he loved both the mechanics part of the bikes and also the coaching and riding part of it.
“I was lucky enough in 1998 he approached me and my parents at the very track we rode at on Saturday and said he saw some potential and he’d be happy to sponsor me and coach me a bit.
“He knew so much about motocross and whether an issue when you were racing was a result of the mechanics of the bike or how you were handling it as a rider.”
The venue on Saturday also held plenty of sentiment with property owner, Rick Harris, a friend of Dwayne’s, and the track a highlight among motocross enthusiasts.
“The track is really enjoyable, it’s a great natural terrain area with wide open space,” Parry said.
“Dwayne really loved that track, it was one of his favourite places to race, so much so that we all used to camp there and he was really good mates with the owner, Rick Harris, who let us in there every year anyway but especially since his passing.
“We could have a dedicated race anywhere but to be able to have it at a place like that was really special.”
Plenty of Dwayne’s family attended and rode on Saturday with his children and grandchildren making the most of the event.
Parry said it was a great opportunity to celebrate his impact on the people in the community and share some stories.
“He was a tinkerer I think that’s how you’d best describe it,” Parry said.
“He was really quite smart and had so many ideas that were out of the box.
“I remember he had a bus that he would cart us kids around in across the country for different motocross events.
“The twist was that the bus ran on deep fryer oil that combusts into diesel through the right process so here we were travelling to the other side of Victoria using cooking oil from a big vat that had been filtered.
“By the time we got to where we were going we usually smelled a lot like fish and chips.
“But it meant minimal cost so we could spend more money on our bikes and it made it easier for all of us to participate.
“That was what he did though, he’d have an idea and he’d investigate it through until it either worked or it didn’t – that was what we loved about him, he was always open to giving anything a go and would give his time to help anyone.”
As for the day there was some hotly contested racing on show with a huge turnout of racers and spectators alike.
“I think all up we had about 120 riders but then triple that for the amount of people who were actually there across the day,” Parry said.
“There was a bit of rain in the morning but it didn’t dampen anyone’s spirits and eventually the sun came out.
“It’s so great to be able to pay tribute to him every year, remember him and what he was like. Some people in Portland know the impact that he had or others had heard of it so it’s so nice to keep sharing these stories and letting people know about him so we never forget the legacy he has left.”