Santa Maria Elks BMX Hosted Event
geneb
Santa Maria, CA -- 04/14/2009
http://img21.imageshack.us/img21/5656/04062009c.jpg
Photo - Chris Polan of Goleta, right, gives his son,
Trevor, 4, center, words of encouragement as he
starts a race in the 5-and-under NBL qualifiers at
the Unocal Event Center.
The All American city now has its own world class bicycle racing track.
The Santa Maria Elks BMX Racing Team hosted the first major event
at its new Elks Unocal Events Center BMX track on Saturday.
The first California State Qualifier weekend of the National Bicycle
League (NBL) season opened a two-day run at the 1,200-foot track.
While the track opened last June, it’s been hosting only local club
races
every Saturday since then. This was the track’s first chance to shine in
a statewide event. And shine, it did.
The action was non-stop. In all — between heat races and main event
finals — 140 races were held during the day-long event involving 148
riders in 35 divisions of boys and girls, men and women, some as young
as 4-years-old on up to the 50-plus classes.
While the Central Coast was well represented, many of the racers came
from well outside the area — from Livermore, Apple Valley, Watsonville,
Tracy, Fresno, Big Bear City and beyond. There was even one racer —
Halsey Davis, who competed in and won the 17-and-over women’s class
— who came all the way from St. Paul, Minnesota.
“The racers are separated into age groups and then, within the age
groups, they’re put into different classes depending on their
proficiency,”
said James Collins, from Lompoc, the president of the Santa Maria track.
“There are four classes — Rookie, Novice, Expert and Pro,” said Race
Director Mike Porter, from Santa Maria. “When you start out, you race
in the Rookie Class until you’ve got 15 wins under your belt. Then you
move up to the Novice Class. If you win 20 times as a Novice, then you
move up to the Expert Class, and so on. You have to win your way up
in the classes.”
“All the bikes are similar. They all have 20-inch wheels except for the
Cruiser Class,” said Collins. “The Cruisers have 24-inch wheels and
they’re just sorted out by age groups. There are no proficiency levels
in Cruiser.”
Beginning at 9 a.m., each racer competed in three qualifying heats.
The top eight in each class then came back in the afternoon for the
main event finals.
“You need to race in at least six qualifiers to be eligible to race for
the state championships.” said Collins. “We have two days of racing
here this weekend, so each one of those days counts as a qualifier.”
“You win points, depending on where you finish, in each of the morning’s
heats. Then, in the main event finals, the points for finishing first or
second go up, so you can earn even more points by winning or doing
well in the main,” said Porter.
“This is a great sport. It’s a family sport,” said Collins. “It’s a lot
of
fun for the parents and kids. Everyone puts their whole heart into it.”
“It really is great fun. There is just such a wonderful camaraderie to
it,” said Gina Cole. “I race and two of my three children are racing.
My youngest will join us as soon as she is old enough.”
Cole, from Watsonville, is one of the MOB — Moms On Bikes. She won
all three heats and the main event in the 40-44 Women’s Cruiser class.
“We started about eight years ago with my oldest son Carson,” said
Cole. “He’s now 12 — he’ll be 13 next month.” Carson finished third
in the 12-year old Novice division.
“Then there’s Wyatt. He’s six,” said Cole. Wyatt finished fourth in all
three heats in the 6-year old Rookie division before falling to seventh
in the main event.
“Our youngest, Nora, is 3 1/2. She’s not old enough to race yet but
she’s
riding the heck out of her training wheels. Once she’s old enough to go,
she’ll be out there, too.
“When we first came out to the track, we found that someone was
always willing to help us out. Now I call the people we race against
my extended family.”
Cole’s husband, Rod, has been unable to join in the family’s most
recent races. A member of the California National Guard, Rod has
been deployed in Iraq since last August.
“But he’ll join us at the races as soon as he gets back. We can’t
wait until we can have him with us again at the track,” said Cole.
“This is a really fabulous track, said Cole. “I had so much fun racing
today. I really love doing it. The adults have as much fun as the kids
— some of these guys have been racing each other since the 1970s.
“The BMX track is a place where you can live out your dreams, it really
is. I just love it that my kids have such positive role models out
here.”
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