August 8, 2016 at 3:27 p.m.
Hodag BMX shines during tripleheader weekend
Hodag BMX shines during tripleheader weekend
Great weather, record-breaking rider counts and a number of strong performances by local riders made for an excellent weekend as the club hosted a tripleheader of racing at the Hodag BMX Track.
The event began with the Badger State Games Friday night, continued with the Wisconsin state qualifier Saturday and concluded Sunday afternoon with a Gold Cup qualifier, all under glorious sunshine.
"We had about 120 riders, 26 motos (racing classes), a fantastic turnout Friday," track operator Rob Deede said. "Saturday, a record-breaking day for Hodag BMX. We had 52 motos and 222 entries, which is crazy. That's awesome. Today, 45 motos, somewhere around 160, 170 riders. Just fantastic. Good vibes all over. Everything from smiles to tears, it was good. It was just a good, awesome weekend of racing."
The club itself is boasting one of its strongest rider counts in a decade and Deede said a number of local riders stepped up to the plate and delivered on their home track.
"The local kids performed really, really well," he said. "We saw a lot of kids really step their game up this weekend. It just shows that the local program is really paying off. Hard work and effort and practice really shows. We had kids moving up to Expert. We had two 10-year-olds just recently move up to the Expert class and they finished second and third today. They didn't skip a beat this weekend.
"We had a lot of really good performance from some of our Novice, some of our newer kids. I think this is the most move-ups we've had in a single year - from Novice to Intermediate and Intermediate to Expert. We still have a bunch more to happen, kids that are really close to moving up yet this year. It's just been really, really good, all across the board."
Riders move up to the Expert class after recording 30 career overall victories. Ten-year-old Owen Ives from Rhinelander reached that milestone in Saturday's state qualifier and backed it up with a runner-up showing Sunday in the 10 Expert class of the Gold Cup qualifier.
Full results from the weekend were not provided prior to deadline.
As for Deede, he said he did well, but said he couldn't care less about his performance.
"This weekend, for me, was about Hodag BMX. Mission accomplished," he said.
The weekend was an opportunity to showcase the recently reconfigured track to riders across the state and the Midwest and Deede said the facility received rave reviews.
"We got a lot of really good suggestions, really good compliments from other people running tracks around the Midwest," Deede said, noting the club has several projects on its list, including paving each of its banked corners. "We know what we have to work on, what we want to work on to continue to make the facility better. We're definitely in the right direction."
As for the local riders, Deede said they learned plenty from having some of the top riders in the region come to Rhinelander, lessons they will apply toward the remainder of the local season as well as state and Gold Cup district races coming up later this fall.
"There's a couple of things we have to work on," he said. "We're about a month out from state finals. We've been kind of coaching and game-planning with parents. We go right back to practice and racing again tomorrow, locally. There's always definitely room for improvement and I've definitely been taking notes as the coach all weekend."
It was technically a quadrupleheader weekend for the local BMX riders, who had a local race Monday night. Racing is scheduled continue at the Hodag BMX track Monday and Friday nights through the month of August and most Friday nights in September.
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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