Discounted tickets offered for Carson City flat track races

Tickets for this year’s Fuji Park Flat Track will be sold at a discounted price until July 1. Tickets purchased before then will be $5 for children and $15 for adults; afterward prices will go up $5 to $10 for children and $20 for adults. Buy them at visitcarsoncity.com.

The flat track motorcycle race is returning to Carson City on Aug. 19 after a successful inaugural event last year.

“According to the California Flat Track Association, Fuji Park had the largest professional dirt track turnout than any other race on the West Coast,” said Robert Hansen, event promoter.

The flat track style features dirt bike riders racing on a track in front of a crowd of spectators.

According the American Motorcyclist Association, the sport has roots “dating back to the first two-wheel speed demons in the 1920s.”

“Flat Track is widely regarded as the most prestigious and competitive form of dirt track motorcycle racing in the world. A lot has changed over the last 90 years, but the spirit of the sport remains as perhaps the truest, purest test of man and machine.”

A new addition to this year’s contest will be the Women’s All-Star Invitational.

“We have female riders coming in from all over the United States,” Hansen said. “I’m hoping younger girls will show up to watch the races.”

Hansen said the riders last year were happy with the venue as well as the area.

“Racers told me they brought their wife and kids and went to Lake Tahoe or Virginia City,” he said. “It’s more of a destination. We have a lot more to offer than a lot of the other areas. We offer a whole setting here.”

Audiences were happy with it, too.

“People were ecstatic about it,” he said. “We got a lot of positive feedback.”