logo
Detroit's indoor cycling track Lexus Velodrome rebrands as Mad Track Arena

Detroit's indoor cycling track Lexus Velodrome rebrands as Mad Track Arena

Yahoo4 days ago
At the corner of I-75 and Mack Avenue, the big, white dome of the Lexus Velodrome is getting a new name.
The Detroit Fitness Foundation's partnership with the Detroit Lexus Dealers Association ended after eight years, and Lexus will no longer be represented on the outside of the building. The dome will take on a new moniker: Mad Track Arena (MTA).
'The Detroit Lexus Dealers Association believed in, supported and helped us bring our mission to life,' CEO of the DFF Dale Hughes said in a statement Monday, July 21. 'Thanks to this partnership, thousands of young Detroit youth have experienced the life-changing joy of learning to ride a bike, and hundreds more have taken their first laps on our Olympic-caliber track. Together, we've introduced cycling to new generations, developed elite athletes – including Olympians and a World Champion – and established the Velodrome as a hub for community, competition and wellness in the heart of Detroit."
The track inside the dome is a 1/10th-mile wooden oval with 50-degree banked turns, a shorter track than what riders use in the Olympics but similar angles.
The track is designed for Madison racing, a two-cyclist team relay race invented in Madison Square Garden in New York City. The Madison is currently an Olympic event, and the newly branded Mad Track Arena is considered one of the premiere training grounds for the race. Mad Track Arena will continue to host the 2025 and 2026 National Madison Championships in November of the next two years.
The arena officially opened its track in 2018 with money from a private donor and sponsorship money, including Lexus' assistance. The arena loses Lexus' sponsorship money, a financial blow for the nonprofit, but Hughes is confident they will find funding.
'It's a significant loss of revenue, obviously,' Hughes said. 'But what Lexus helped us do is get us from that baby position to we're up on our feet and we're running and we're creating champions, a lot of our programs are succeeding and growing. That's what we want to do. … We obviously have overhead and we will cover that overhead, and we will be looking at other partners to come on board at this time.'
The arena's overhead is greatly reduced by an anonymous financial sponsor paying their mortgage, but Hughes still needs funding to support community initiatives. He's excited about building the brand of Mad Track Arena across all their different ventures. In addition to the racetrack, there is also a 1/8th mile walking track and weights available for use.
'We're starting to use the brand to really identify al the different aspects of what we do here,' Hughes said. 'Mad Track lifting for people that are lifting. Mad Track walkers for all our senior walkers. … Now we can really use our brand, which is Mad Track cycling, Mad Track Arena, as what we're all about. We're about Madison racing. That's our main feature, but we're a community center and we offer a lot of stuff for the community.'
Mad Track Arena is open seven days a week.
Follow the Detroit Free Press on Instagram (@detroitfreepress), TikTok (@detroitfreepress), YouTube (@DetroitFreePress), X (@freep), and LinkedIn, and like us on Facebook (@detroitfreepress).
Stay connected and stay informed. Become a Detroit Free Press subscriber.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit cycling track Lexus Velodrome rebrands as Mad Track Arena
Solve the daily Crossword
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Bryce Underwood, Mikey Keene will battle for Michigan starting QB job
Bryce Underwood, Mikey Keene will battle for Michigan starting QB job

USA Today

time31 minutes ago

  • USA Today

Bryce Underwood, Mikey Keene will battle for Michigan starting QB job

Oklahoma vs. Michigan may be the key to the Sooners' football season, but the Wolverines are still figuring some things out up in Ann Arbor. Freshman quarterback Bryce Underwood, the No. 1 recruit in the Class of 2025, was largely expected to take the reins upon his campus arrival. Wolverines coach Sherrone Moore said Thursday that Underwood isn't locked into starting duties just yet. "He is not the starter now," Moore said. "It's an open competition." Moore brought in quarterback Mikey Keene from Fresno State to compete for the job, too. Keene threw for more than 2,800 yards with 18 touchdowns and 11 interceptions with the Bulldogs last year. The season before, he threw for more than 2,900 yards with 24 touchdowns and 10 picks. But Keene missed the spring because of injury and will make his team debut when Michigan's fall camp begins next week. Whoever wins the Michigan quarterback job will work with new Wolverines offensive coordinator Chip Lindsey, who was hired from North Carolina. Lindsey helped mold Tar Heels quarterback Drake Maye into the No. 3 pick in the 2024 NFL Draft. As for Underwood, the odds are still strong that he ends up the starter. The question is whether it's by the time Michigan visits Norman in Week 2 or not. "(Underwood's) been with us since December, continues to do everything he can to be, one, the best teammate he could be, two, to be the best student he could be, and then three, to be the best football player that he could be, a quarterback that he could be for our football team," Moore said. Michigan's road trip to Norman will be one of the biggest matchups of the year and will set the tone for both teams. Will the Wolverines go with the veteran Keene or the true freshman Underwood for a pivotal road start? Contact/Follow us @SoonersWire on X, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Oklahoma news, notes, and opinions.

Mature, Focused, Humble: Michigan's Bryce Underwood Isn't Your Average 17-Year-Old
Mature, Focused, Humble: Michigan's Bryce Underwood Isn't Your Average 17-Year-Old

Fox Sports

time5 hours ago

  • Fox Sports

Mature, Focused, Humble: Michigan's Bryce Underwood Isn't Your Average 17-Year-Old

LAS VEGAS — A little more than two months ago, as Michigan embarked on its summer break following the completion of spring practice, some of the Wolverines got together to play pickup basketball, one of their favorite group activities away from the football field. But when veteran edge rusher Derrick Moore arrived at the court, he quickly noticed the presence of someone who shouldn't have been in attendance: freshman quarterback Bryce Underwood, the five-star phenom whose commitment to Michigan last November transformed him into an NIL multi-millionaire long before his 18th birthday, which is still a few weeks away. "What are you doing here?" Derrick Moore asked. "You're not supposed to be here." The chilly reaction had nothing to do with what he thinks of Underwood as a person. Like so many of his other teammates and coaches, Derrick Moore is now a wholehearted believer in the teenage prodigy after observing how Underwood, the No. 1 overall recruit in the country, has carried himself since flipping his commitment from LSU to Michigan last November and enrolling over the winter. Underwood joined the Wolverines in time for their bowl prep against Alabama and then took plenty of reps during spring ball amid a quarterback room thinned by injuries and transfers alike. All signs now point toward him being the team's starter once the regular season arrives. Instead, Derrick Moore's objection to Underwood playing basketball on that summer day was purely economic, even if he originally rolled his eyes a bit at the monetary figures attached to Underwood's recruitment. One spring was all it took for Moore to deem it unwise of the program's most valuable asset — a player who reportedly inked a market-resetting NIL deal worth between $10 million and $12.5 million over four years — to risk injury during a meaningless social activity. Especially after defensive coordinator Don "Wink" Martindale spent the spring yelling at his players to "stay away from Bryce, don't touch Bryce at all!" in acknowledgment of how vital Underwood's health really is. "I feel like we do a good job protecting him and also giving him good advice," Derrick Moore said while representing the Wolverines at Big Ten Media Days. "He's worth a lot, so we've got to make sure he knows. I feel like he already knows, but I feel like we've got to do a good job of reminding him that he can't do too much. And if you do play basketball, no jumping, no jumping at all." Underwood, of course, was nowhere to be found in the South Seas Ballroom at Mandalay Bay, where the Wolverines' contingent of Derrick Moore, fullback/tight end Max Bredeson, inside linebacker Ernest Hausmann and second-year head coach Sherrone Moore were responsible for telling wave after wave of reporters about the program's shiniest new toy. It would have been thoroughly un-Michigan-like for Moore to bring Underwood to this week's event, the league's unofficial kickoff party for the 2025 campaign, though Colorado head coach Deion Sanders brought his true freshman quarterback, Julian Lewis, to Big 12 Media Days earlier this month. The Wolverines are digging in their heels to slow the Underwood hype train from picking up too much speed, but everyone around the program — let alone fans outside it — can sense the cars beginning to careen off the track. In a last-ditch effort to fortify himself against the barrage he surely knew was coming, Moore responded to the first question about Underwood by reminding the media that Michigan has yet to name a starting quarterback, that the competition is wide open entering fall camp, that Fresno State transfer Mikey Keene and East Carolina transfer Jake Garcia and former four-star prospect Jadyn Davis will all have chances to stake their claim between now and the season opener against New Mexico on Aug. 30. "There is no starter," Moore said. But that didn't stop reporters from asking Moore about whether the extra reps Underwood took during the spring, when Keene was recovering from an undisclosed injury and Garcia had not yet joined the program, accelerated the timeline for when he will be ready to play. Or about how Underwood has embraced the possibility — inevitability — of starting for Michigan, the winningest program in college football history, as a true freshman. Or about why the Wolverines won't just declare Underwood the starter given the extreme financial commitment they've made to him. All those questions came in the first third of Moore's allotted media time. "His job is to just go be the best teammate, best football player he can be," Moore said. "And whoever that person is, it's going to take a village. And for us to be a successful program, to be a successful football team, we have to do a great job surrounding that person with weapons on the football field [and] the weapons mentally to be successful." Still, there was a fascinating juxtaposition on Thursday between the way Moore and Michigan's upperclassmen spoke compassionately, almost tenderly, about Underwood's numerical age — he'll finally turn 18 next month — and the slack-jawed reverence with which they described his maturity as an athlete, likening his habits and disposition to those of seasoned veterans. On one side of the room was Bredeson, a fifth-year senior and one of the program's longest-tenured players, telling reporters that he takes "a little bit of pride and responsibility in being like the older guy who can kind of calm college football down for him," while also admitting that nobody else in Michigan's locker room can understand the life that Underwood currently leads, from the sheer attention generated by his every move to the opportunities that land at his feet. On the other side of the room was Derrick Moore, a former blue-chip recruit in his own right, expressing genuine awe about how someone so young can display such unwavering focus and concentration, traits Moore said he never came close to matching at that age. Underwood, who grew up a half hour from Michigan's campus, has already developed a reputation for being one of the first to arrive at Schembechler Hall each morning and one of the last to leave each night, a classic football cliché bestowed upon a team's hardest workers. He's known for taking the field alone 20 minutes prior to every session, headphones wrapped around his ears, to study that day's practice script and visualize the drills in his mind. He builds chemistry with the wide receivers and tight ends via extra throwing sessions that often run until the wee hours of the morning. He competes maniacally in the weight room and has packed enough muscle onto his 6-foot-4 frame to reach 230 pounds. He accepts constructive criticism from anyone in the building and carries out menial tasks without a hint of rebuttal. "He's not no average 17-year-old," Derrick Moore said. "With a lot of money that's coming in, he's pretty humble. If he does anything wrong, he takes full accountability for it. You don't really hear too much trouble out of him, you know? He does everything like a pro." Even if that means sitting out of pickup basketball. Michael Cohen covers college football and college basketball for FOX Sports. Follow him at @Michael_Cohen13. Want great stories delivered right to your inbox? Create or log in to your FOX Sports account , and follow leagues, teams and players to receive a personalized newsletter daily! FOLLOW Follow your favorites to personalize your FOX Sports experience College Football recommended Item 1 of 3 Get more from the College Football Follow your favorites to get information about games, news and more

Jets quarterback Justin Fields dislocates toe, team evaluating injury day-to-day
Jets quarterback Justin Fields dislocates toe, team evaluating injury day-to-day

Boston Globe

time11 hours ago

  • Boston Globe

Jets quarterback Justin Fields dislocates toe, team evaluating injury day-to-day

'I know it was a quick throw, so I'm assuming someone stepped on his toe,' coach Aaron Glenn said after the Jets' second practice of training camp. 'It had to be because of the nature of the call that we had as far as offensive play call. I want to look at the tape and be sure.' Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up Fields spent a few minutes in the injury tent on the sideline as trainers examined him before a cart came out to transport him into the facility. Fields sat in the passenger seat next to the driver in the cart and then got up under his own power before stepping inside to be further evaluated. Advertisement Glenn stopped the team period after Fields was hurt and the Jets ran special teams drills. 'When anybody goes down, there's a lump in my throat,' Glenn said. 'Listen, I hate injuries for any player, but the thing is I want to make sure that I understand exactly what the injury is before I move forward on my thought process.' Advertisement Fields signed a two-year, $40 million contract as a free agent in March after playing last season in Pittsburgh and is expected to be New York's starter this season. Veteran Tyrod Taylor, the team's oldest player who turns 36 next month, is the backup and replaced Fields in team drills. 'I think the most important part is, if anything does happen to Justin, I don't think there's any drop-off as far as what we want to do when it comes to play calls,' Glenn said. 'Very similar when you talk about skill set, so that was like enticing for us. And then the leadership ability ... you could just tell the players really gravitate to him. When he says something, everybody really listens, even the coaching staff. He's been around this league a long time. He knows what it takes to win, and he's a really good person. So, we're all excited to have that guy here. 'Listen, Justin is who he is and if something happens to him, we've got Tyrod and we're ready to go.' New York also has Adrian Martinez, the 2024 United Football League MVP, and rookie Brady Cook on its roster, but neither has thrown a pass in an NFL game. Glenn noted that Martinez was in camp with the Lions in 2023, so he has some familiarity with the offense that the Jets are running with Tanner Engstrand, Detroit's former passing game coordinator. The news of Fields's injury sent Jets fans into a frenzy on social media, with many recalling how Aaron Rodgers's torn Achilles' tendon in the team's opening game in 2023 sunk their Super Bowl hopes and how Zach Wilson missed time early in the 2022 season with a knee injury. Advertisement Glenn urged fans to remain calm because 'I've been there and done that' — referring to how he adjusted to various injuries in Detroit last season as the Lions' defensive coordinator — and it's still early in training camp. 'I understand how this league is and I understand how social media starts to take over and everybody starts to panic,' Glenn said. 'The one thing I would say is, listen, we have a number of men in that locker room that want to win. And we have a number of men in the locker room that's learning how to win and it's my job to make sure that I push that over the edge. And that's my plan.'

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store