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Construction firm transforms sports stadiums

November 16, 2007 |

When Rich Winkler and his crew of equipment operators fashion a slope, they have to think about more than the ratios in the job plans and the aesthetics of the landscape. They have to think about how a motorcycle will launch off it. And they have to do it all under nerve-racking time constraints.

In two and a half days, Winkler’s company, Dirt Wurx U.S.A., can transform a baseball, basketball or football field in a major sports stadium into a unique competition track for professional dirt bike riders. The equipment operators work with about 10,000 tons of dirt that is trucked into the stadium after its usual flooring is protected with plastic or plywood sheeting. Using front-end loaders, bulldozers and compact track loaders, they sculpt the soil into a series of jumps, tabletops and whoops – chains of small hills that are steeper on one side than on the other.

A new track every week
Winkler and his eight full-time operators have gotten used to the grueling schedule after years of building 15 of the 16 tracks for the Amp’d Mobile AMA Supercross Series and every track for the Amp’d Mobile World Supercross GP Series. For the latter competition, Dirt Wurx builds 17 tracks in as many weeks at venues such as Angel Stadium in Anaheim, California, and the Georgia Dome in Atlanta. The tight schedule and the distances between cities make renting heavy equipment from local dealers the company’s only option.

Dirt Wurx employees don’t have much time to relax even after they’ve finished a course. As soon as the checkered flag is flown, they begin dismantling the track and moving out the dirt – a process that lasts throughout the night and has to be completed in 24 hours so they can move on to the next city and so the venue can be used for a different event.

Winkler says the toughest construction challenge he and his employees face is always keeping in mind they are building a motorcycle racetrack. “You have to ask yourself if it will work as that rather than just being a nicely shaped hill,” he says. “You have to take a step back and say, ‘What will happen if I do this?’

While jump slopes appear on paper as ratios such as 2:1, 3:1, etc., as they would in any construction plan, the slopes Dirt Wurx builds have a concave curvature that allows bike riders to reach certain heights – up to 40 feet over the stadium floor – and distances.

Finding equipment operators
Winkler hired local equipment operators from union halls in the first few years after he founded Dirt Wurx in 1990. That became difficult, though, because he often had to ask the operators to change things — not because they were poorly done, but because they wouldn’t work for a motorcycle track. Winkler says the operators were insulted and his time wasn’t spent efficiently because he had to inspect everything they did.

That changed, though, when the company began building enough tracks to employ operators full time. Winkler’s core group of eight employees has been with Dirt Wurx 10 years now, and many of them — along with the company’s three or four part-time workers – have built courses for other extreme sports or have a background in motorcycle racing.