VOL. 50 ISSUE 50 DECEMBER 17, 2013
ber
mem
-road star.
Ivan Ramirez
and passenger
Sarah White, Kurt
Caselli's fiancée,
lead the way at the
start of the Kurt
Caselli Parade
Lap at Glen Helen
Raceway.
P175
STORY AND PHOTOGRAPHY BY
KIT PALMER
E
ver since his passing last month
while competing in the Baja 1000,
many have said that Kurt Caselli
touched the lives of so many people.
But it wasn't until the Kurt Caselli Memorial Ride Day at Glen Helen Raceway
did that statement really take on a whole
new meaning. By evidence of the massive crowd that came out to pay tribute
to the world-class off-road racer, Caselli
indeed touched the lives of many.
The first evidence of this was the long
line that quickly formed at the track's
entrance, a line that reached all the way
back to the railroad tracks. Anyone who
has ever been to Glen Helen knows exactly how far that is, if you haven't been
to Glen Helen yet, let's just say that it's a
long, long ways. It was about that point,
that donations were no longer being
taken at the gate to speed things up,
and visitors were allowed to enter the
facility for free and find a place to park
wherever they could. Glen Helen's Lori
Yarnell said they stopped counting after
the first 2000 people came through the
gate. Most likely, the crowd eclipsed
the 4000 mark.
Many of those included friends and
fans of Caselli's, as well as fellow motorcycle racers.
Caselli's family and many of Caselli's
sponsors, including KTM and FMF,
helped organize the event, which included plenty of track time for those
who brought their motocross bikes. Organized trail rides were also on the day's
agenda, but the highlight of the day was
the Kurt Caselli Parade Lap, where riders got the chance to form up and take
a slow lap around the facility's main mo-
