SALT LAKE CITY -- From sod to soil, Rice-Eccles Stadium is being transformed from a football stadium to a Supercross track for Saturday night’s Monster Energy event.
“We bring in 550 truckloads of dirt; that’s about 26 million pounds of dirt,” said Kasey Linsberg, Supercross Event Manager.
Crews have been working hard since Tuesday to turn the football field into a dirt-filled course for extreme riders.
“They lay down a protective layer of visqueen [plastic sheeting], a layer of matting, and then about 6,500 sheets of plywood, and then on top of that they lay a road base,” Linsberg said.
But the work isn’t finished at that point.
“And then it takes a crew of 28 to 30 people, just depending on the week, just to lay in all the lanes of the dirt, all the structures, all the banners, all the tough blocks: everything you see,” Linsberg said.
The one-of-a-kind dirt track will soon emerge and become a motorcycle battleground filled with jumps and turns.
“These riders are definitely the top riders in this sport, coming from all over the world, all over the country,” Linsberg said.
Linsberg said spectators are going to see two tough sporting worlds combine.
“The brutality of a wrestler and then the stamina of a long distance runner,” he said of Supercross riders. “It beats you up. They're gonna see some top athletic performance and just some great dirt bike racing.”
The main event begins Saturday at 7:30 p.m. Visit the Monster Energy AMA Supercross website for details and ticketing information.
