By Sarah McVean/photo editor
The legendary Fort Worth Stockyards sign standing more than 40 feet tall in the historic north side district will be jumped by a FMX (Freestyle Motocross) rider to kick off the Red Bull X Fighters international Freestyle Motocross 2008 this summer.
Fort Worth is the third of five international stops.
The first stop was April 4 at the Plaza De Toros in Mexico City, next up is Sambodromo in Rio de Janeiro in Brazil May 3.
The event will be June 14 in Stockyards.
The event moves July 4 to Seinburch Oetelshofen in Wuppertal, Germany, and July 17-18 to Plaza de Toros las Ventas in Madrid ends the tour.
This is the first time the X-Fighters have competed in a U.S. venue.
The X-Fighter’s competition is constructed into knockout rounds, where two riders go head-to-head for 90 seconds each.
Within this time, riders are to pull off their best tricks in the four-ramp arenas that allow jumps as high as 50 feet.
Once their time is up, riders are allowed one final jump, usually displaying their strongest trick.
Five judges will decide the riders who continue on. This elimination progresses until only two riders are left.
The two will face off in the finals where they will have two minutes to sport their talent.
Finally, a champion will be named.
The riders who will be here include Mat Redeaurd (Switzerland), Ronnie Renner (U.S.) and Dany Torres (Spain) all former Red Bull X-fighters winners.
Also appearing will be Twitch Stenberg (U.S.), Matt Buyten (U.S.), Eigo Sato (Japan), Thomas Pages (France) and Robbie Maddison (Australia), who holds the Guinness World Record for longest motorcycle jump at 322 feet.
The events will begin the night before the competition with the jump over the Fort Worth Stockyards sign.
The event will be at the Stockyards Station North Forty, across the street from the station off of East Exchange.
This two-and-one-half-hour event will take 14 days for a crew to set up.
To take care of the crowds, the city will be bringing in 13,000 portable bleachers, Russell McVean, festival consultant for the event, said.
“This is the largest number of portable bleachers to be brought into Fort Worth,” he said.
As well, McVean said the directors of the event expect at least 5,000 spectators will be left standing.
“This is a real coup for Fort Worth to be included in this event that brings huge crowds internationally,” he said.
More information and tickets will be available at www.redbullxfighters.com. Tickets are not on sale yet but are promised to be available sometime in April.
