SUPERCROSS AND GRAVITY GAMES
High flying stunts and bone-jarring landings
NZ's only indoor motorcross event attracts 7000 people to Westpac Centre
A capacity crowd of 7000 people attended the Supercross and Gravity Games, held at the Westpac Centre on 16 July 2004. This is New Zealand's only indoor supercross event, and gave kiwi riders valuable experience in a Tri Nations competition, with Australia's Dan Hall and Jake Bowen in sizzling form and America's freestyle motocross elite duo of Dustin Miller and Jake Windham. Both Americans are medal winners at the world's top event, X-Games, an invite-only freestyle competition for the top 20 riders in the world.
The arena was turned into the country's largest "dirt box" with 4500 cubic metres of soil covering 20 shipping containers and their bases to make the circuit for riders to perform an array of aerial acrobatics and stunts, jumps over 80 metre gaps and some bone-jarring landings in this new sport.
Enthusiastic spectators such as Hornby mechanic Carl Maddock, 28, were impressed at the set-up in what is more commonly seen as a concert venue. "I thought the riders did really well to get the speeds and lifts in their jumps in a fairly restricted area compared with an outdoor course. The indoor circuit was really good, and it enabled a well controlled secure event to take place and give a big crowd a lot of enjoyment inside on a winter’s night."
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