Less expensive than a trip to Staples Center, more environmentally friendly than NASCAR is the Los Angeles Velodrome Racing Association. Head to the south side of the Home Depot Center complex and find where LAVRA calls home: a 250-meter indoor wood bicycle racing track that's part of the Velo Sports Center. LAVRA, a nonprofit, volunteer organization established in 2006, hosts occasional weekend racing events here that are free to watch and offer the opportunity to kick back with a cold beer and see local answers to Lance Armstrong appear to defy the laws of physics as they zip around the track. The group also partners with the center on other events, such as the upcoming Fall Omnium Series. 18400 Avalon Blvd., Carson. (310) 630-2073, lavelodrome.org.

—Whitney Friedlander

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