Tamworth BMX riders, front from left, Oscar de Belle and Thomas de Belle and, back from left, Brooklyn Williams, Brad McGregor and Hayden McGregor are looking forward to this weekend’s Country Championships. Photo: Robert Chappel 040712RCH07
THE track and the riders are ready and raring to go.
This weekend Tamworth will play host to hundreds of BMX riders with the local club holding the penultimate round of the State Series.
They’ll be coming from all over for a meet that will double as the Wests Country Championships.
“It’s a new initiative by us to try and attract people,” Tamworth City BMX Club president Paul Davis said.
It seemed a good opportunity to tie the two things in together.
The Tamworth round is round five in the series and Davis said they’re expecting about 320 entries.
Among them will be a good number of the 50 or so riders currently in the club.
“Right from kids going to their first carnival through to seasoned veterans,” Davis said.
The de Belle family – Beau, Oscar and Thomas – will all be competing.
Oscar (6yrs) and Thomas (5yrs) will both ride in the little sprockets division and dad Beau in the 25-29yrs, depending on numbers.
“It is a good family sport like that,” Davis said.
Beau has come back to the sport in the last 12 months after riding when he was younger.
He stopped after a serious accident but was coaxed back by his two boys.
They were keen to start riding.
“When they first learnt to come off their training wheels I was trying to explain things to them,” he said.
That was met with enquiries along the lines of what do you know, to which they discovered he knew a fair bit.
He is now also the club coach and coaches the young and new riders of a Thursday afternoon, and said the boys were excited about the weekend.
“Tommy, this will be his third week of riding full stop,” he said.
Oscar has competed in a few rounds and has done pretty well.
The weekend will incorporate coaching and competition.
On the Saturday there’ll be a couple of state-run coaching sessions with racing on Sunday.
That will consist of three motos followed by semis and finals.
The track is looking in tip-top shape and should provide for some fast
racing.
“Now the track’s settled. It’s been about 18 months,” Davis said. “Traditionally BMX tracks ride best settled in.”
They’re also in the process of resurfacing it.
“That will make it faster again,” Davis said.