Anyone raced an arenacross?

i went last year as a spectator and in that class not many guys jumped the last jump. one guy did and no one told him not to let go of the bike. bad seen.Go for it man, it's the only way to get real practice. we've got a lil motocross track down in south hill, va right off of 85 , giv me a holla if you want to ride, we've got a member guest thing on the 20th. it'll be a good time

I'm going to race my first ArenaCross in a month. I'm a fast 250C/mid pack 250B rider and can tell you what I know from friends who have done ArenaCross.

I believe there is a new rule that riders in the Beginner/Novice class(at least in the Regional ArenaCross race in our area) must roll the finish line jump, known by some as the 'Catapult' jump. It used to be that you could do the jump in these classes, but if you were not going to go for it, there was a white line painted on the jump face which you were supposed to stay on the inside of when rolling so as to not get landed on.

Never heard of a 'D' class. What is the experience of riders in that class??

Good luck....
Wardd.

Originally posted by lefty
D class is the beginner class here in Va, it's below C

Click to expand...

same here. how do you guys know what the track looks like? do they post the track layouts somewhere?

D is a first year AMA card holder ONLY.
I raced last year and I can tell you that at that time anyone who wanted to attempt the jump can. I saw many cases and busted bikes. Most of the problems were due to a bump they put on the doubles approach (bad idea).

Jay, you can go to Arenacross.com and click on schedules (I think) and it will show a proposed layout of the track at your arena. Many aren't shown yet, but they will a few weeks before your area event. I've heard that the Natl. in OK is the best of them all and most liked by Buddy A. and the gang.

The big double is not so bad if you are confident in jumping, it's the daggone whoops that are the killers! Deepest whoops I've ever seen. I tried banging through them hard and ended up with a busted rib (ouch). I suggest rolling them or doubling.
The rest of the layout, in most cases, is cheesecake. In Louisville last year they had a 180deg bank that you could stay seated with no leg out and just lay the bike sideways on the gas....great fun.

IM going to race Arenacross

our event is here in November 9-11 its going to be awsome but since it is my first time my mom said that i have to race the (D) class for her sake just for my first time and then if I want to jump up for the rest of the races that are close i can. So i cant wait to go and race it but the (D) class only races on Sundays so the big boys race friday saturday and some race sunday but it looks like alot of fun and i am stoked since this is my first year racing. Plus that they are going to so many cities here in the north east. But if any of you guys decide to go to any in Ohio or the one in lousiville Kentucky look for me i should be the kid on the #776 yamaha of troy YZ 125 well i hope all of you have a great winter of racing and ridding. BYE

good and bad experiences

Last 2 years our Vet club has had dedicated Motos at the Oakland CA arenacross. We all ROLL the finishline jump for safety. Well, during an open practice one of our better riders went to do the jump. For whatever reason he came up short and boke both arms. The year before that a rider cleared the jump but landed flat and broke an ankle.

They do knock down the track some for Sunday, but it is still a challenging track. Most of us never got out of 2nd gear, but then we are old slow guys.

I raced but rolled everything. I watched the rest of the day and man, it was like watching train wrecks. One guy over jumped the catapult, landed, bounced, hit the gas by accident and launched his bike 2 rows into the stands. Another rider messed up on the whoops, launched his bike into the wall 12 feet high, another broken arm. Two guys tried to do the back to back doubles, bounced wrong and launched there bikes into the tractor.

Whatever you do, do not do the catapult unless you are at that level.

It was pretty ugly, many people left by ambulance. My suggestion, take it easy, ride safe. Enter 2 classes if you can to get extra track time.

Mike

Not last year but the year before

I went to the arena cross here in Waco TX just to watch. Talk abot an intense looking track! 18 people went to the hospital in an ambulance during the Friday practice, most with 2 broken wrist. The races were also intense, I saw some pretty good local talent bite the dust. One of the expert 125 riders came up short on the 2nd set of doubles and landed hard enough to break his helmet and knock out a tooth. After he woke up in the ambulance he fought the EMT's and kept yelling "I've got to finish the race!" I've never seen him ride again.
In that race only the pros were hitting the catapult jump.

I race arenacross Friday nights at a local track. Its tight and very little speed (for my D class anyway). Its in District 5 and we are not allowed to double at all. I ride a KDX and race it. We can double the small stuff but not the bigger jumps. They will black flag you off the track immediatly.

arenacross is tricky, because it requires a lot of confidence, and the skill, to back it up. there is very little margin for error. the catapult jumps are not hard at all, if you know how to set up for them. if you have access to a private track, or smaller public track, i would suggest asking the owner, (or track designer) to build you a table top, with a near vertical launch, and a short runway. also request a really short, gradual berm or two. this will give you most of what you need to practice for arenacross. it works best, if you have a tall berm before the table top, so that it is not so hard for you at first, then you can just start squaring off at the bottom of it, once you are confident. for the whoops, i would suggest starting off, by wheeling through each gap (individually/ at walking or jogging speed) just give bursts of power, to keep the front end skimming from crest to crest. you will kind of get the feel for it, and get a rhythem going... then you can start adding speed. the rhythem jumps just take practice. on my supercross track, i built a rhythem section with a table-roller-roller-step up sequence. there are like 6 different ways to ride this section, but they all require spot on accuracy. (i am currently just coming off of a broken tibia/surgery, and torn ankle ligaments as a result of getting off rhythem in this section). when used, and not abused, a section like this can be the hot ticket in practicing arenacross style riding. it will also help you if you make your "practice catapult" bigger than the ones at the races, then you have an even bigger advantage, and you can start trying to jump them lower using that extra momentum.