Olympic Park’s permanent Arena Motorcross will light up to the thrills of the jumps when the annual January Arena Motorcross event will be staged this Saturday night.

Good fields have entered in each division, with some of the best riders entered in the top division, especially locals, Ryan Grayling and Jason Wood, who will not have things their own way against Josh Spanos who has just completed the International SuperX Series; the city based Supercross, which starred the great Australian World Champion Chad Reed, amongst a scintillating line up of top flight Australian and overseas riders.

Grayling has now had two full seasons at the top level of Australian motorcross and has picked up his skill level accordingly, while Wood continues to challenge some good riders at every event which he contests.

Grayling will use the Mildura meeting to sharpen his fitness as the 2010 Australian Motorcross Championships begin not too far into the New Year. He will enjoy the competition with some riders who he races regularly, especially Spanos, as the young Riverlander did particularly well in his first tryout at International status competition. Spanos is a good rider and on the short version of the jumps should be able to give the local riders some stick when it comes to maintaining higher corner speed and being more efficient on the jumps, not losing ground by taking too much air off each jump. Spanos had some good mid pack results in the touring SuperX circus, which travelled all around the Nation’s Capitals and some major eastern seaboard venues in NSW and Queensland.

The star of the SuperX series was Chad Reed, who first rode Mildura Supercross as a nine year old and in a recent conversation, mentioned that he remembers Mildura meetings with great affection, especially when he used to visit with his cousin, the great Craig Anderson. Reed spoke about the great flow of the Mildura circuit, which has been retained to this day.

Cameron Heeps, Swan Hills’ Brenton Keep and Club evergreen, Rohan Hollis will also keep the other riders on their toes as they are now seasoned competitors.

A full compliment of grades is expected to compete, but could be adjusted according to individual entries both before and on the day of the meeting.

One thing that is certain is that there will be a class of quad motorcycles, which will be entertainment plus as they hurtle around the berms and take big air off each of the jumps. The Quad fraternity is growing with great speed and has many riders involved, who just want to get onto the track and have a rip. This is the sort of riding and entertainment which will please the regular Olympic Park motorcross clientele as the action is always fast and furious, with the riders mostly riding on the edge for the enjoyment of patrons.

Olympic Park gates will open to the public from 4:00pm. Rider sign on and scrutineering will commence at 3:00pm, with practice scheduled to commence at 4:00 and racing due to start around 5:30pm. Full catering will be available and the Club advises that there must be no BYO by law.

Download the press release: PRE – January Arena Motorcross, 280110