Las Vegas is very much a natural home for everyman sports. The city is a massive melting pot with millions of tourists from around the world mixing with locals from every economic and cultural background.
So, it’s natural that sporting events looking to draw from that wide-ranging populous come to Sin City. For example, everything from NASCAR to IndyCar, boxing to MMA spend a lot of time here. The National Rodeo finals are a huge Las Vegas event. And, now the AMA Pro Motorcycle Flat Track Racing Finals are calling Vegas home with two days of racing at the Orleans Hotel and Casino Arena.
The two day event features the AMA Pro Flat Track Finals on Saturday and the Superprestigio of the Americas for Sunday’s action. Saturday’s racing crowned Jared Mees Grand National Champion after he finished third in the main event.
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Sunday’s Superprestigio of the Americas is modeled after the short track exhibition races of the same name held in Barcelona. The idea is to bring the top motorcycle Grand Prix racers from throughout the Americas to one track and pit them against the best riders from almost every other form of motorcycle racing around the world. That group includes some of the same AMA Pro Flat Track racers that run Saturday as well as Superbike and MotoGP favorites.
Flat Track racing plays out on a simple, dirt oval track inside an arena setting. Simple dirt bikes are the weapons of choice, and the riders essentially wrestle them around the track — always riding the razor’s edge between moving at speed and dumping the motorcycle in the dirt.
For the automobile minded, every flat track heat is essentially a sprint drifting race. The key to success is a good start (as the longest races are only 20 laps, and some heats are just six) and a rider’s ability to maintain a strong inside line — especially in the turns. If he gets too wide or lets centrifugal force push him outside, he’ll fade out of the running immediately.
The only way to pass effectively in a short flat track race is to push the bike in front of you out of the way, so contact is common on the dirt. That leads to plenty of tangle handlebars and more than a few dumped motorcycles.
AMA Flat Track is a racing circuit making a push to get on the pop culture radar in a bigger way. Making a big deal out of its annual final championship in the Entertainment Capital of the World is a good way to start.
