Hodag BMX gears up for big weekend doubleheader

The Hodag BMX Club typically packs all of its biggest races into one weekend each summer. This year, however, there’s been so much going on at the track that they are doing it in two.

Hundreds of riders from around the state and the Midwest are expected to converge on Rhinelander’s West Side Park today and tomorrow for the second of those two big weekends. The event begins tonight with the track’s annual Badger State Games event and continues Saturday as the track hosts a USABMX Gold Cup qualifier event for the first time since 2016. 

The track already hosted its Wisconsin State Qualifier race back on July 1. The Gold Cup takes that concept to a larger scale. Rhinelander’s stop is the 15th of 16 qualifying events in the North Central Region, with riders counting their two best performances toward the North Central Gold Cup Championship weekend Oct. 6-8 in East Moline, Ill.

Rhinelander is the only Wisconsin stop for Gold Cup qualifying this year. 

“We saw almost 240 riders at our (state qualifying) event. We’re hoping to see about that this weekend,” Hodag BMX track operator Robbie Deede said. “We’ll see riders from all over the Midwest competing. We’ve got a rider up here from Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, any neighboring state, it’s not uncommon for them to have a rider up here doing a little pre-ride getting ready for the regional qualifier.”

The state qualifier last month had nearly 50 motos —or classes, which are separated by a number of criteria including age, gender, bike type and/or skill level. 

    Dominic Webber of Elgin, Ill. leads Brayden Volkmann (center) and Brooklyn Kallio (right), both of Rhinelander in the 9-10 Local Open class during a BMX race Monday, July 31 at the Hodag BMX track in Rhinelander. (Jeremy Mayo/River News)
  

But the rider count has been strong even during the club’s regular race nights — held on Mondays and select Fridays throughout the summer. There were 21 motos during last Friday night’s races and 22 motos on Monday. 

“It’s been the best season thus far. I feel like a broken record saying that because it continues to get better and better every year,” Deede said. “We’ve been around for 24 years now and Hodag BMX is really establishing itself as one of the premiere tracks in the Midwest. We’ve got a lot of fast riders coming out of here. These kids ride together. They’re down here a lot, Mondays, Fridays, group ride and it’s showing. They go to regional qualifiers, state qualifiers and they look good.”

Tonight’s event will serve two purposes. In addition to riders competing for Badger State Games medals, the event also serves as the club’s “Race for Life” event, an initiative put on by national sanctioning body USABMX to raise money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. 

There will be more than just Gold Cup points at stake tomorrow. In addition to the qualifier races, there will be a Pro-Am money open for riders age 13 and up. Those riders will go head-to-head for a purse of at least $2,000 — with $250 in bonus money set aside for the top three females. 

“We’ve got a nice, big purse, I think the biggest purse that we have in the state this year, at least that’s been announced,” Deede said, noting that he helped develop the format for the open with other top National Age Group riders from around the state. “We want to make sure the numbers are up, we have good racing competition so we built it sixth some of the fastest girls and fastest boys in the state. It’s a good product, it’s fun to watch. It gives the people something to watch, the riders something to aspire to. We’ve got a lot of kids that are like ‘someday, I want to win that pro-am.’”

Registration for Friday’s event will take place from 6 to 7 p.m., with racing beginning shortly thereafter. Saturday’s registration will run from 10:30 a.m. to noon, with racing to follow. Admission is free for spectators and concessions are located on-site. 

“It’s free spectating and it’s a lot of fun to watch. It’s just as much fun to race as it is to watch,” Deede said. “These guys are so much fun to watch, ninja ballerinas is what I call them.”

It’s all part of a busy month at the Hodag BMX track, which will hold races each of the next three Mondays and Fridays ahead of the Wisconsin State Championship weekend, which will take place Aug. 26 and 27 at Winnebagoland BMX in Oshkosh. 

Local riders are faring well in state points through the four qualifying races that were held in July. Hodag BMX has points leaders in 12 different classes, runners up in 12 classes and third-place riders in 11 classes.

“We had about 20 state champions last year and I’m hoping to see more than that this year. It’s kind of a feather in the cap of the track. We’ve got a really nice facility, a really nice club and a lot of riders that are putting in hard work.”

Aug. 28 will be the final Monday night race of the season at the track, though racing will continue on Friday nights into October and the club is slated to host its annual Hodag BMX-mas race Dec. 9.

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].