Lime in Dirt Burns Riders and Damages Bikes in San Diego

The oxidation on Cole Seely’s factory HRC Honda



For as long as I can remember, FELD and Dirt Wurx—the track builders for Monster Energy Supercross—have been adding lime to the dirt as a drying agent when rain is expected. On Saturday in San Diego, Mother Nature pounded the circuit and it is beginning to look like too much lime may have been used. There has been a lot of evidence being posted on social media that suggest the overuse of the lime caused some painful burns on the riders’ bodies and some irreparable damage to some of their bikes as well.

Since Saturday night, numerous riders have gone to social media to complain about their skin being burnt by the lime and mechanics are complaining about the lime causing damage to the machines as well. “Me and other riders had problems with getting burns and rashes from the lime,” Ken Roczen said. “It’s so bad that I can Barely sit today for real! Nipples are pretty much gone too lol. This sucks.” And from Chad Reed, “Bring on the east mate. Hoping the bike weathered the lime better than my chest and nipples.”

Burn on Vince Friese’s body



Dirt Wurx has been using lime to soak up moisture on wet SX tracks as far back as the 1990’s, but a quick Google search on the negative effects of lime when it comes in contact with eyes or skin makes it very clear that it can cause burns and even possibly permanent damage. And when you Google lime in contact with aluminum, you get some serious warnings against it as well.

So far we have only heard from quite a few riders and mechanics about the pain it has caused to some of their bodies and the damage caused to some of their machines, and we hope that we will soon hear something from FELD about the situation soon.

Check out some of the social media posts below.

Soooo are we going to do something about these chemical burns on our bodies and our destroyed bikes or we just going to act like nothing happened? 🤷🏻‍♂️ — tyler bowers (@tbowers911) February 3, 2019

I’m wrecked from the weekend. Burns all over from the lime in the dirt. Legs, stomach, chest, shoulders, butt, and balls. It’s rough. I feel for all the riders that have all the same. Stuff still burns so bad. @SupercrossLIVE @FeldEnt pic.twitter.com/KFozRUXqia — Vannman214 (@vannman214) February 4, 2019

Read the comments in the post below from Chad Reed’s mechanic Ben Schiermeyer, about the damage done below.