{"id":327488,"date":"2020-08-03T06:04:06","date_gmt":"2020-08-02T20:04:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=327488"},"modified":"2020-08-03T06:04:06","modified_gmt":"2020-08-02T20:04:06","slug":"motocross-group-sees-membership-growth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/motocross-group-sees-membership-growth\/","title":{"rendered":"Motocross group sees membership growth"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_327444\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-327444\" style=\"width: 670px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/mrapix1.jpg\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-327444\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Riders get ready at the starting line during one of the exhibition races that Marianas Racing Association organized last month in Marpi. (Marianas Racing Association)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The future of the revived motocross group is looking good, as membership keeps growing.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSunday rides are good and getting bigger and bigger every Sunday. There are at least 15 to 20 riders with bikes who practice regularly and the numbers are growing,\u201d Marianas Racing Association official Cuki Alvarez said.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_327445\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-327445\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/mrapix2-300x207.jpg\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-327445\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Two riders go for another lap of the course during one of the exhibition races that Marianas Racing Association organized last month in Marpi. (Marianas Racing Association)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>MRA holds small exhibition races every weekend at the open field surrounding the former Kan Pacific Swimming Pool in Marpi and Alvarez said they expect more riders to join them in the 3:30pm event in the coming months.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSome people are just waiting for their bikes to be shipped, otherwise we\u2019d have many more (riders),\u201d said Alvarez.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_327442\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-327442\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/mra-pasa-pix1-300x225.jpg\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-327442\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Cuki Alvarez gives final instructions to riders during one of the exhibition races that Marianas Racing Association organized last month in Marpi. (Marianas Racing Association)<br \/><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The weekend rides are held to prepare riders for the eventual return of regular races as MRA is working on building a permanent race track through the help of the government<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are hoping to get CowTown back and are just waiting word from DCCA (Department of Community and Cultural Affairs). There are other areas as well that we were shown, but CowTown seems to be the best place. It\u2019s far away from any residential areas and is also big enough for what we need to build our track. As you know, we had an awesome track there from 2003 to 2009,\u201d Alvarez said.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_327443\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-327443\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/mra-pasapix2-300x232.jpg\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-327443\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">A rider clears a berm during one of the exhibition races that Marianas Racing Association organized last month in Marpi. (Marianas Racing Association)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The CowTown Raceway Park used to host the Saipan Motocross Championships where the island\u2019s riders competed against visitors from Guam, Japan, the Philippines, and the U.S.<\/p>\n<p>The revived MRA is looking to get the facility back at the end of the year and plans to build a better track to meet the needs of its growing membership and provide fans a nicer venue where they can enjoy watching the action on raceway.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The future of the revived motocross group is looking good, as membership keeps growing. \u201cSunday&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":327444,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-327488","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327488","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/29"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=327488"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327488\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/327444"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=327488"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=327488"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=327488"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}