By Duncan Peters

Coming up on November 19^th is the Times Union Center Kicker Arena-Cross. Kicker Arena-Cross is a Super-cross event consisting of motorcycle and ATV racing presented by Cycle City Promotions. Albany is the last stop on the 15 round tour through the United States. Racers flock from all over New York, Pennsylvania, Connecticut and Massachusetts to race and battle it out to make it into the main event.

For people who are planning to race or interested in participating this is how it works, you arrive at 9:00 am and sign ups end at around 10:30am. After sign ups is your practice, which is 5 laps on the track and then the heat races start. Each racer has to go through two heat races to qualify for your position in the main event and if you place badly or DNF which stands for “Did Not Finish” you’re placed into the LCQ race which stands for “Last Chance Qualifier”. The LCQ’s are for the classes that have too many racers entered and have to eliminate some riders.  LCQ’s are run immediately after the heat races are finished. After the Last Chance Qualifiers, officials make the lineup for the main event race.  Now each race class is broken down into “Moto’s” for example moto-1 = 2-stroke 250cc bikes or moto-2 = juniors 85cc 2-stroke. Usually there are around 25 classes, which mean there’s 25 Moto’s and a Moto lasts the length of the race so they can’t really be scheduled to a precise time, there are many rewards such as trophies, gear, and cash prizes. Overall your cost to enter is $65 for admission. That’s counting your pit passes for the day. For people wanting to watch, the tickets are around $35 a person and $20- under 12 years old.

Kicker Arena cross is an awesome event to attend. It’s much more than just motorcycle racing. There are fun events for fans also. During intermission between the racing and the freestyle show, t-shirts are shot into the audience and whomever catches a shirt is called down to the track and a single lap race on foot is done, which in my opinion is pretty hilarious to watch, especially when there is always the one girl in flip flops or high heels that trips every few feet, but the prizes were pretty large for the foot race. Last year’s first place was a PlayStation3 and second place got an iPod 4 and third place was given $50. Immediately after the intermission is the freestyle show. I have attended Kicker Arena cross for 3 years in a row and out of the 3 years I have raced in it twice. In 2009, Caleb Moore of the bomb squad freestyle tour performed the ATV backflip and many more tricks (Caleb also performed the two person snowmobile backflip during the 2010 winter X-games). The bomb squad has been there for the past three years, so I wouldn’t be surprised to see them there again. There might be new stunt shows and events this year; everyone will just need to check it out for themselves.