Energy Hit

Red Bull X-Fighters pits the world’s best freestyle motocross riders in a stunt battle bending the laws of physics. Lisa Gudge sees Battersea Power Station in a new light.

‘Did he just….?’ All hail the action replay. Some tricks seem to hang in the air for an age, but mostly the complex combinations of flips are so quick you don’t quite believe your eyes.

X-Fighters dates back to 2001 and a bullring in Valencia, audacious stunts combining with the spirit and showmanship of the matadors. Madrid and Mexico City followed, and in 2007 it became a world series, a stop at Slane Castle in Ireland showcasing it outside the ‘ruedo’ for the first time. And this year the tour finale landed in London.

Riders have 90 seconds to impress a panel of judges, scoring points for variety, difficulty and execution of tricks, as well as style, chutzpah and crowd reaction. And the night belonged to American Nate Adams, who beat 17 year old New Zealander Levi Sherwood in the final to claim both London and the series.

The course is designed and crafted using just the right dirt composite by Events 22, but the setting also plays its part. X-Fighters has been done rodeo style this year, at Calgary Stampede Park and stockyards in Forth Worth, Texas, but here the backdrop was industrial and iconic, and as riders made their dramatic entrances through a window high in the derelict power station, it was an electric feel.

“We wanted to work with the raw energy of the site,” Red Bull event manager Sue Gurner tells Access. “We pushed the start time back so that it would be dark enough for laser, lighting and strobe effects, and this idea of charging up the power station again. The riders loved it, and being able to film sequences for the big screens in the old control rooms and have the pits inside the Turbine Hall was an amazing opportunity.”

Behemoths

Battersea has form when it comes to major events, but for a decade at least, everything, including Freeze, which returns under a new ‘Freesports on 4’ banner this October, has been on tarmac to the south of the building. Red Bull however, wanted the views across the river and the decaying coal cranes on the narrower north side, and given its track record with the likes of Air Race, was not about to be put off by the extent of groundwork required.

The site is currently the subject of (another) redevelopment application, and the event had to pass through Wandsworth Council’s planning department. Meticulous research and documentation was submitted via appointed production agency Innovision as early as February, detailing the location of every structure on site. Six months later, the site plan was impressively consistent.

With a maze of underground access chambers and shafts, and little surviving documentation, it was firstly a case of making everywhere safe, bridging potholes and gratings with sub-structures, before work could begin on levelling the arena and the rest of the build.

“A lot of things only became apparent once the bulldozers started, and getting people the production facilities they needed, within planning consent, and safely, was an ongoing challenge,” Roger Barrett, development director at Star Events Group, which provided structures and rigging across the site, explains. “It’s testament to the amount of advance planning by Red Bull and Innovision that, in the end, changes made due to the complexion of the site were actually quite minor.”

Like the Rail Storm, Vert Sessions and numerous others worldwide, X-Fighters is a concept conceived and created with brand objectives in mind, but also to provide a profile platform for the sport and its champions.

And there was a ready fan base in London. An 18,000 strong sell-out, couples and families as much as petrolheads, ticket touts and merchandise lined the route in.

Whether or not it returns remains to be seen, but with Red Bull able to turn flights of fancy into reality, don’t rule anything out.