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Americans love their motor sports so much that, if you could put a motor on a pair of roller skates, it might become the national past time. Race a motorcycle off the road and you get muddied and bloodied, the perfect mix for television. Another RadXSports video with host Tony Lanza. At Ace Motocross in Modena New York, motocross, or cross country motorcycle racing, is run over mile long dirt track with bumps, jumps, a table called Murphy's Law and three feared gravity cavities. Racers compete by class based on age, sex and engine size. Amateur motocross is a family sport with racers starting as young as 4 and going as long and hard as nature allows. Outdoor tracks are usually located on farmland. Ace Motocross is one of five tracks in District 34. On this race day they ran 28 classes, 2 heats each, a total of 56 races. The winner is determined by order of finish, not time. Be the first one past the checkered flag in both heats and you can't be beat. This is a big sport. The AMA national championships have more than 22,000 entrants attempting to qualify in more than 33 classes. Motocross riders are real athletes with fitness levels comparable to runners and football players. Watch closely as they fight to maintain ultra-precise control of their powerful machines while negotiating challenging terrain. Their arms and legs are in constant motion, their bodies absorbing tremendous shocks as they land jumps as high as 20 feet. Every one of them has well developed upper body, abs, glutes. It's a rewarding sport, especially for the pro rider. The elite class bikes have 250cc, 2-stroke engines. Jay Weller and Brian Mulcahy stayed close to each other is this highly competitive heat. Weller took the first one, but Mulcahy came on strong in the second and won overall honors fore the day. No sooner does one race end than another starts. The junior riders attack the course, sounding like a swarm of killer bees on their 60cc bikes. Number 327, Keith Goyette from Southwick Mass drove his bike to victory in the 30-plus bracket. Many of the racers bring more than one bike to race several times a day. That's Weller, number 557 in yellow, racing his way to victory in the 125cc class. He won both heats. Ron Rothkranz came in second overall with a 2nd and 3rd in the two heats. A lot happens during a race day. Every so often something happens on the track, the yellow flag is waved and things slow down for a while. With the fallen rider removed to safety, the racers resume their pursuit of the checkered flag. Motocross is a family activity that beings out a dedicated following of adrenaline junkies to tracks like this across America every weekend.
