FMX rider Tom Richards and promoter Mark Petersen say there’ll be plenty of thrills at the December event. Photo: Chris Roe.
Wagga has added another sporting feather to its cap with the announcement this week that the city will host two top-tier dirtbike events in December.
“We can confirm that we have the exclusive Australian Freestyle Motocross Championship (FMX) that will actually take place the same evening as the final round of the Australian Supercross Championships,” said Mark Petersen from MAP Event Group.
The Supercross championship season finale was locked in last month and the addition of the freestyle event will take the spectacle to the next level.
“Supercross is basically motocross racing … it’s all sharp, big jumps right in front of the crowd,” explained Mark.
“The freestyle motocross is the daredevils that you see that are doing backflips and hanging off the bike upside down!”
One of those doing the upside-down hanging 15 metres in the air is Wagga’s own Tom Richards.
“It’s a great adrenaline rush,” he said with a shy smile and a daredevil glint in his eye.
“Nothing compares to it, really. When you do a new trick for the first time, you can’t describe it, it’s an unreal feeling.”
Freestyle motocross is not a sport for the faint-hearted. Photo: Jeff Crow.
Tom first climbed onto a minibike when he was four and said he and his brother Ben grew up surrounded by stunt riders.
“I lived across the road from (FMX rider) Truman Carroll and he got me and my brother into freestyle motocross,” he said.
“It was good to get into the sport that way because he was a really good mentor and we kept meeting new riders like Jackson Strong and I’ve been under his wing for a while now.”
Tom has been competing and showcasing his skills with the Crusty Demons and in the FMX Championships, and said he was looking forward to bringing a top-tier event home.
“To have a local event this big is pretty cool so I’m really looking forward to it and hopefully we can put on a good show for the crowd,” he grinned.
“We’ve got some ramps that’ll be sending us pretty high and hopefully we can go pretty big.”
Mark Petersen said the twin events would attract some of the biggest names in the sport and bring more visitors to the city.
“We’ve now got a lot of international riders actually flying out for the event, which is going to be amazing for Wagga Wagga,” he said.
“It’s all about getting tourists and people down to Wagga and we’re also helping out the Wagga Motorcycle Sports Club as well.”
Tom Richards and Mayor Dallas Tout. Photo: Chris Roe.
Wagga Mayor Dallas Tout said it was another win for the city and another offering in the expanding “smorgasbord of sport”.
“There’ll be international entrants coming along, so that’s really amazing,” he said.
“And I think the numbers they’re looking at are somewhere from 8-10,000 people, which is a huge number coming to the city.”
While the Mayor said he did have some motorcycle experience, he was not sure whether his ”postie bike” would be up to the challenge.
“Hmm, I might have to pull the old step-through out of retirement,” he mused.
“Although I’m not so sure about the sorts of heights he was talking about.”
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