Historic Crew Stadium is now the temporary home of 200 million pounds of dirt as the venue prepares to host one of the final rounds of the Monster Energy AMA Supercross season this weekend.
The event is a dirt bike race that takes place on a series of tracks that will eventually lead to the SMX World Championship Final in Ridgedale, Missouri, Sept. 26, said Bryanna Marcotte, a super motocross tour manager.
"It's the world's most elite motorcycle racing," Marcotte said. "There's 20-to-30 different countries of athletes that come to race here in the United States, so it's the best racing series on two wheels that you want to come out and watch."
The crew is spending the entire week building the track on the field for the Sept. 12 event. Tickets start
at about $50.
This is the first time this event has ever been held in Historic Crew Stadium, and the first time in many years that it's come to Columbus.
When completed, the bike track on the field will loop around the perimeter and rise up onto a stage at the end of the pitch, according to Bill Heras, the director of operations for the SMX competition series.
"We're covering the field right now, which is the first step − get the field covered, protected, bring the dirt in, and then we start building all of the structures, the finish line, the winner's podium, the starting gate, all that stuff has to start getting filled in," Heras said.
Dirt travels to Historic Crew Stadium from New Albany
The company travels to arenas across the nation, and they locally source the dirt they use in every one of them. The dirt being used to build the Columbus track was brought in from an empty lot in New Albany that was never developed.
When they're done with it, it will be passed along to another development nearby, said Kenny Henry, the director of track construction. Usually they own the dirt they use for the tracks, but in this case they're just playing the role of middleman. In total, it's about 200 million pounds of dirt and takes about 500 truck loads to fill the field.
"A lot of places that we go to we do store dirt, and then we use it year after year," Henry said.
Once the competition is complete, Marcotte said they will remove all of the dirt, remove the paneling underneath and then clean the entire stadium to make sure there isn't any leftover dust.
Dirt bike riding explained
Mitchell Harrison is a dirt bike rider who will be competing in the competition this weekend. The Michigan native has been riding since he was a kid, and what started as a hobby for him turned into a career.
His family ties to Ohio make him excited to compete here − he's a huge Ohio State University football fan and all of his grandparents live in northern Ohio.
Overall, Harrison said he sometimes gets questions about his job from people who haven't heard of or interacted with the sport before.
"Nobody understands really the level of what we do," Harrison said. "They can't really comprehend how big the jumps are, that we do it in stadiums, I feel like they just think we're in a backyard, rinky-dink area. It's at an extreme level and it's done really well by the series."
Many of his family members, including some of those who live in Ohio, are coming to watch Harrison compete this weekend on the finished track at the Historic Crew Stadium.
Dispatch reporter Lilli Malone can be reached at lmalone@dispatch.com or on Instagram at @lillimwrites.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Historic Crew Stadium blanketed in dirt ahead of weekend Supercross event
