ON TRACK & ON TOUR

Thomas Plant Hire plays vital role in making the Arenacross UK tour a sell-out success.

Storm Darragh and Storm Éowyn were not the only events to make an impact across the UK this winter. There was another event that also took the country by storm – and that was the Arenacross UK tour, featuring some of the world’s best freestyle motocross heroes, competing on specially designed tracks in a number of major cities, stretching from London to Aberdeen in Scotland.

The staging of such a big event takes a lot of detailed and precise planning, with many hours of behind-the-scenes activity – and integral to it all is track build sponsor Welsh based Thomas Plant Hire who along with sister company On-Grade MC provides and services all the necessary plant and machinery needed to create the specially designed dirt tracks.

Awesome Earthmovers recently caught up with the team organising one of the qualifying rounds of the nationwide tour at the OVO Arena Wembley in London to see how the various pieces of equipment from Thomas Plant Hire were being put to work in building the track, a process replicated in other UK cities, including Manchester, Birmingham and Belfast.

Each three hour show of non-stop high-octane entertainment features the country’s best motocross riders battling for the 2025 Arenacross World Title which culminates, for the first time in the event’s 12 year history, at the awesome Etihad Arena on the equally incredible Yas Island, home of the Formula 1 circuit, in Abu Dhabi on Saturday 26th April when the winner will walk away with £25,000.

Since the event made its debut in London’s iconic O2 Arena back in 2013, it has captivated well over 500,000 fans across the UK in multiple city arenas with its ridiculously talented and courageous freestyle motocross athletes flying their motorcycles through the air. It really is mind boggling, gravity defying stuff.

“IT’S GREAT TO SPONSOR SUCH AN AMAZING EVENT AND TO SEE OUR EQUIPMENT BEING PUT TO SUCH GREAT USE…”

Early Start

But behind all that, as we said, there is another story, and it begins around 7am in the morning two days before the spectacle – that of building the dirt track with its ramps, jumps and other features, designed to test the best of the best motocross riders who quite literally can fly up to 80 feet through the air.

Thousands of tons of soil are brought into each arena, and the track build team is set to work, using a variety of machines supplied by Thomas Plant Hire and On-Grade MC Ltd. “It’s great to sponsor such an amazing event and to see our equipment being put to such great use. From setup to the final touches, our machines are helping bring the vision to life, making everything run smoothly and efficiently.”

Build Sponsor

Thomas Plant Hire was an obvious choice as build sponsor. Its roots stretch back to 1998 when Managing Director Wyn Thomas initially established a contracting business in North Wales to specialise in civil engineering and groundworks; he had no idea that a quarter of a century later he would be heading up what is arguably one of the country’s fastest growing group of companies.

In recent years, the company, headquartered at Holywell in Wales, has seen significant expansion and turnover. Apart from plant hire, there are a number of other divisions within the Thomas Group, providing equipment in a variety of sectors such as housebuilding, industrial, agriculture, utilities and events.

There are over 3,000 machines in the hire fleet, including telehandlers, excavators, dumpers and dozers, and with a large fleet of low-loaders, it can deliver and collect any size of plant and machinery. In addition, it operates an extensive mobile engineer support network covering the whole of the UK, operating 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to ensure customers are back up and running as quickly as possible. It is exactly the quality of service demanded by the organisers of the Arenacross events.

Mixed Machinery Fleet

During our visit to the OVO Arena Wembley, we caught up with Justin Barclay from JB Tracks who specialises in building motocross and supercross tracks. “The team at Thomas Plant Hire are great to work with. They supply us with all the up-to-date equipment required. It is always delivered on time and any issues on site are sorted out right away, essential as we work to tight deadlines and can’t afford any downtime.”

For the OVO Wembley Arena event, there was quite a mixed fleet of machines needed, including a Cat D5K excavator. Its 6 way blade can be adjusted to tilt, angle, and pitch in multiple directions, providing versatility for grading, backfilling, and other earthmoving tasks; essentially, it’s a highly manoeuvrable dozer with a blade that can move in various positions for precise control over the material being moved, making it ideal for building the intricate features inside the motocross track.

“We also had on hire from Thomas Plant, two Bobcat T590 tracked skidsteers, an eight tonne Caterpillar excavator, a 13 tonne Hitachi ZX135 excavator, which with its short radius is perfect for building the track inside the confined space of the arena, a Case 821G loading shovel, ideal for handling bulk material being delivered to the site, and for taking it away after the event and a nine tonne Mecalac dumper,” explains Justin.

He adds: “For most Arenacross events we bring in between 2,000 and 3,000 tonnes of dirt. We use the dozer to push out the material to form most of the jumps and other features, and then we use the skidsteers to clean up and polish the area while the excavator is used to tidy up the sides of the jumps before the whole track is flat rolled to make it presentable on the night.”

Work on the Wembley track began at 7am on the Thursday morning and it was completed around midday on the Friday, ready for the race on Saturday, so there was no time to waste, and it all had to be dismantled within 24 hours after the event.

Dependable & Reliable

Arthur Smith from AS Tracks who builds motocross tracks around the world was also involved in the Arenacross event at Wembley. “For such a confined space, we had quite a lot of machines on site from Thomas Plant Hire, with each one playing its part. The building and dismantling of the tracks have to be done at speed, so having the right equipment that is dependable and totally reliable is essential.”

After the Wembley event, it was on to Belfast and the SSE Arena for two nights, and then up to Aberdeen’s P&J Arena in Scotland before moving to Manchester’s AO Arena for the last Arenacross qualifying round in the UK ahead of the grand final in Abu Dhabi.