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The Tech-Enabled “Rhythm” that Enabled the Fast, Precise Construction of Elite Motocross Track

Total station with bike track in background

Customer Profile: Founded in 2003 by Jason Baker, Dream Traxx is an innovative Motocross track building company devoted to the advancement of the sport and its riders. Dream Traxx builds top quality Supercross, Motocross, Arenacross, and pit bike tracks. In recent years, Dream Traxx has begun to adopt construction technology to build tracks with greater efficiency and accuracy.

Business Challenge: Build a very precise, straight dirt bike track in 10 days. 

Solutions:

Benefits:

  • Fast, precise construction of features
  • Easy comparison of concept to as-built conditions

Jason Baker and team at Red Bull Straight Rhythm

Ten days, a 10-member field crew, almost 10,00 cubic yards of material – all to produce one of motocross’s most unique events, the Red Bull Straight Rhythm. Held for the first time in an asphalt parking lot along the coast of Huntington Beach, California, this highly popular event became more than a side-by-side race to the finish; it also served as a proving ground for the application of technology commonly found only on civil construction sites. 

Florida-based Dream Traxx’s Jason Baker, a specialty track designer for dirt bike sports, was contracted to design, develop, manage and maintain the Red Bull Straight Rhythm track. He, in turn, called on technology partners Trimble and SITECH to help turn his beachside vision into a reality.

Straight Rhythm pits two motocross riders on a straight, drag race style, dirt track made up of whoops, rollers, ruts, booters, bumps, chops and tabletops. The goal is to gain the right ‘rhythm’ to perform double and triple jumps while racing your competition head-to-head. 

“A dirt track is as much about art as it is moving dirt. Technology helps me turn a vision into reality,” Baker said.

Baker visualized an 1,815-foot straight track with 53 jumps and 80 obstacles — and he needed to build it fast and as precisely as possible in a very short timeframe, all while working amidst thousands of everyday beachgoers. 

So, with a small fleet of heavy equipment ready to roll and the construction industry’s latest technology, he, his crew and experts from Trimble, SITECH Pacific and SITECH North Central Florida, headed to the beach.

A Virtual Transition
The first step in the process was for Baker to draw a rough outline of his vision, which he did in Trimble Sketchup. That model was imported to Trimble Business Center where Russ Tamblyn, Program Manager-VDC Professional Services from Trimble created a 3D model that could be used to support construction surveying and on the equipment’s grade control system. 

Then the Trimble team set control on the site using the Trimble R12i GNSS receiver using CenterPoint RTX corrections along with the Trimble SX12 scanning total station with Trimble Access. 

The resulting model was loaded into the dozer machine control and construction surveying systems, while Baker and his team facilitated the delivery of the dirt. Baker used a Trimble SPS986 GNSS Smart Antenna with a Trimble tablet and Siteworks software to perform the layout of the track and check grade.

Men working on dirt track design

A Fast-Track Build
The first step in the track construction was to build a 100-foot base to protect the asphalt parking lot. Another team worked on the scaffolding that would support the ramps over the parking lot structure that sits in the middle of the track. 

Augmented reality proved especially beneficial to confirm as-built conditions matched design intent. For instance, using the Trimble SiteVision augmented reality system, Baker and his team were able to see the georeferenced 3D model of the scaffold structure overlayed on the site, helping answer questions and resolve potential issues in real-time. 

The next step was to construct the compact pads, each 25-feet wide and two to three feet tall. Each obstacle (e.g., bumps, rollers) can vary from a single 3-foot-tall jump to a tabletop up to 20 feet long. The course is split into five main sections with a tall “speed check” feature delineating the end of one section and the start of the next.

Jason using SiteVision to see the track design in the physical locationOnce construction of the pads began, Baker again walked the track with SiteVision to check the grades and ensure that the emerging track matched his vision of reality. He noted, “This is the first time that we’ve been able to walk this flat pad of dirt, and visually see what we’re about to build. It’s like the entire project team is able to see my vision of the world through my eyes. That’s extraordinary.”

Over the course of the given 10 days, the Dream Traxx team mixed, moved and compacted dirt, constructed the jump platforms and set up the displays. Once complete, Baker once again walked the track comparing the augmented reality system to existing conditions. 

Finally, they flew the site with a WingtraOne drone equipped with a high end camera. The data was processed through Trimble Stratus to create a very accurate as-built model of the finished track.

The conclusion? “This is the most precise track that we have ever built,” Baker concluded, and the riders took advantage of that detail to put on a fast, challenging competition. 

The Red Bull Straight Rhythm event was held October 15, 2022 with both riders and event sponsors appreciating the tech-enabled fast, precise track construction. 

2022 Red Bull Straight Rhythm Track Build

Watch the episodes 
Episode One
Episode Two
Episode Three