KEARNS, Utah (ABC 4 Sports) - There are few sports as exciting to watch as the Ice cross racing is as exciting a sport as you will ever see.
Racers start at the top of a 500 meter course, hurtle down a three-story drop, blast around hairpin turns, reach speeds up to 40 miles an hour, fly over jumps alongside three other racers -- all on skates. Welcome to the Red Bull Crashed Ice Series.
"You do have be a little insane," admitted Salt Lake City native Tigh Isaac.
But Isaac took to the sport immediately. A former hockey player at East High and current speedskater who is trying to join the U.S. national team, Issac went to an open tryout to test his skills. Out of some 2,000 athletes that dared to test the course, Issac succeeded immediately and is now one of just four racers on the first ever U.S. Ice cross team.
"Everything that I grew up doing, the skiing, the skating, the hockey, the downhill mountain biking, motocross, everything that I love doing translated into this one sport," Isaac said. "I kind of thought that I was just made for it."
In the first race held on American soil, Isaac finished 28th out of 200 racers this past weekend in St. Paul, Minnesota. He was the second highest finishing American. Isaac will next compete in the Netherlands next weekend in the second stop of the Red Bull Crashed Ice Series.
"It was nothing like you could have imagined," said Isaac. "You step up to the start gate for the first time, and you see ice, and then the ice disappears. I honestly was terrified."
What makes the sport more difficult is you can't just go out to your local ice cross track and practice. Isaac spends a lot of time on the ice at the Kearns Olympic Oval, as well as skiing and mountain biking to train.
The popularity of the sport is growing rapidly. Some 80,000 fans showed up in Minnesota, and they'll attract hundreds of thousands in the series finale in Quebec City, Canada.
"All the races will be televised this year," said Isaac. "So, we'll definitely get a lot more people to watch it. It's all over YouTube. Everyday the sport grows."
Perhaps the biggest attraction to the fans are the spectacular crashes. Danger is inherent in the sport, but the rules prohibit racers from intentionally taking each other out. The racers do wear protective hockey gear, and Isaac says the racers try to avoid running into each other as much as possible.
"It is dangerous. It is very dangerous. But all of us are trying to make it to the next race. The first one down to the bottom wins, and if you're falling and crashing all over the place, you're not going to win."
Isaac has put his Olympic speedskating dreams on hold for now, but he hopes one day ice cross racing will become an Olympic sport itself.
"We've definitely got the fan base for it," Isaac said. "It's just kind of about getting the right people to see it now. It's already so big in Europe and Canada, and will only get bigger."
