Defying gravity
The Masters of the Dirt’s top riders will showcase gravity-defying stunts this weekend in Dubai’s World Trade Centre Arena
Masters Of Dirt, a motocross freestyle show filled with riders performing deadly stunts, may come across as a testosteronecharged event. But its founder George Fechter is convinced that its appeal isn’t limited to petrolheads or motorcycle enthusiasts.
“Whether you are five years old or 75, you are going to be blown away. It’s super easy to understand how crazy the stuff is,” said Fechter during a preview of the event at the World Trade Centre Arena yesterday.
Crazy doesn’t begin to describe the stunts showcased. Riders on bikes doing flips 40 meters up in the air and professionals on quad bikes doing jumps that are 24 metres is just scratching the
surface of Masters Of Dirt, which will be staged at the World Trade Centre Arena from today until Thursday.
The show will bring together 17 international FMX riders (freestyle motocross), BMX riders (bicycle motocross), MTB (mountain bikers), quad bikers and snowmobile riders, as well as two fire cube artists and a DJ.
“We have tweaked our show for Dubai. We made it 1.5 hours instead of three hours, which means we will only showcase our state-of-the-art tricks. We have been working for this show in Dubai for over eight months. We had to ship everything in containers, measure this venue and fly down riders several times — it is a lot of work. But hard work pays off. For us and the riders, our work is play. So it’s super cool,” said Fetcher. He also flown in a specially design snowmobile for his Dubai fans. “The only snowmobile that is there in Dubai is the one in Ski Dubai. It’s tiny and cute to ride around there. But we brought a 900 cc Polaris snowmobile and we made changes so that it can ride on this temperature. Normally, a snowmobile is cooled by the chain that throws the snows into the engine. No snow, no cooling, and no engine power. So it was challenging – this is exactly what the people need. These stunts have never been done before, and it is going to be exceptional.”