Circus Maximus Arena & Dueltrack
  Phoenix, Arizona
by Michael Garrity

 

The Circus Maximus (CM) was built in 2052 on the site of the former Phoenix International Raceway. Taking a lesson from antiquity, arena officials named it after the old Roman circus where various chariot races were held. From the start, it was intended that the arena accommodate both duels and races. Accordingly, the even schedule reflects this.
            The CM has the shape of a long rectangle with semi-circular ends. There is a long ridge (the 'spina') running down the center of the arena. There are TV towers on each end of the spina, as well as smaller weapon turrets spaced along its length. The spina also has six evenly spaced gates. The gates are closed during races and open for duels.
            Open year round, the CM is only closed on Christmas. A regular season is run from April to October. Featured vehicles are cars, trikes, cycles, and racing bodies. The CM is part of the Hot Asphalt Circuit.

circus maximus 01 circus maximus 02

Click on thumbnails to see the full-sized images.

Arena Features:
Outer walls and the spina are 15' high and have 300 DP each. Gates stand 10' high by 15' wide and have 30 DP. They will open when rammed by any vehicle of light cycle size or larger. At each end of the spina is a TV tower, 30' high and 300 DP each.

Arena Defenses:
Each TV tower has a linked pair of HVMGs (in a 8-space cupola); each gun is fitted with rotary magazines filled with HD and explosive ammo. Along the walls are twenty universally turreted ACs (one per turret). The ends of the arena have three PXLs in universal turrets. The spina has six universal turrets with one BC each (mix of HESH/HEAT ammo and rotary magazines).  All turrets have 150 DP of armor.

Schedule:
Monday - Races
Tuesday - Morning: practice sessions
                Evening: Amateur Night.
Wednesday - Morning: Team Events
                     Evening: Races
Thursday - Morning: Challenges
                  Evening: Races
Friday - Morning: practice sessions
             Evening: AADA Divisionals
Saturday - Special Events
Sunday - Morning: Races
               Evening: Duels

 Special Events:
Killer Clowns - 10 arena-employed duelists, dressed as clowns, take on 16 other duelists. Prestige is doubled.

Taking on the Lions - Half the duelists are lions (fighter designed vehicles with no dropped weapons). The remaining duelists are novice (30 or 40 skill points each). Surviving novices get double prestige while lions get triple.

Death of Caesar - One duelist is in a vehicle that is twice as expensive as his competitors and is quite experienced (at least a driver +4, gunner +4, with other equally high skills). The one that takes down Caesar gets double prestige. If Caesar wins he gets triple prestige.

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