State’s best BMXers flock to Rhinelander

The Hodag BMX race track in Rhinelander, which is home to riders from all over the Northwoods, hosted for the first time the Wisconsin State BMX Championship.

Hodag BMX track operator Robbie Deede explained the state championship, which took place this last weekend, Sept. 6-7, was a USA BMX sanctioned event.

Besides operating the facility in Rhinelander, Deede is the head coach as well. 

“This is our 26th season (in operation,” Deede said. “At this point, we have multiple generations (racing here). We’ve had grandpas that have raced, their kids have raced, their … grandchildren are racing now.”

BMX is a “multi-generational sport, big family sport,” he said. 

Deede said there’s even several moms and dads who compete together. 

As far as the state tournament went, Deede indicated the tournament couldn’t have turned out better.

“It was a phenomenal event,” he said. “We had collectively, throughout the course of the weekend, over 500 entries. We had our big state championship race on Sunday — approximately 300 participants that day alone. And we saw riders all over the Midwest. We, obviously, had a large contingency from Wisconsin, but it wasn’t just limited to that. We had riders from Michigan, Minnesota, Illinois. We even had riders from as far as Maryland in attendance to race our state final.”

The state tournament, prior to this year, had been hosted by all operated tracks in Wisconsin besides Hodag BMX, according to Deede. 

He said USABMX awards the state championship to the number one track in the state each year. However, the situation this year was “unique” and, nevertheless, Hodag BMX prevailed as the host. 

He said Madtown BMX won the state championship last year, but because they were moving to a new facility this year, arrangements were made for Hodag BMX to play host. 

Deede said he worked with Madtown BMX track operator Stuart Wright “where the state championship was hosted at Hodag BMX and proceeds from that were going to support Madtown in their move, in their rebuild.”

“So it was a huge collaborative undertaking between all the tracks (in the state),” he said. “There’s three operating tracks this year. There’s four operating tracks in total with Madtown being on the move right now. But, yeah, we worked together throughout the entire off-season to make this happen.”

Anyone had the opportunity to take part in the BMX state championships in some capacity.

“Almost any event you can sign up to race at, but there were qualifier requirements in order to be eligible for the state championship title,” Deede said. “So kids compete for state rankings, and so we awarded several white letters on blue backing plates and white letters on green backing plates (for several divisions).”

Divisions are determined by age and skill level, he said. 

“So they all competed for state ranking which all culminated at the state championship,” Deede said. “Racers competed in three qualifiers. There were a total of four qualifiers that racers could attend to make them eligible for a state title. Then we award based off of competition and how they ended up doing at those races.”

There were a number of local riders who found success this past weekend in Rhinelander. 

While Hodag BMX is based in Rhinelander, it is home to racers from a 60-mile radius. 

“So we have kids from Tomahawk that race, kids from Eagle River, kids from Minocqua, kids from Rhinelander … like I said, a 60-mile radius is really our local ridership,” Deede said. “And we had many riders take home state championship plates this weekend.”

There were 12 state champions who call Hodag BMX home, he said, and there was 64 divisions total that competed over the weekend.

“It was a pretty big event,” Deede said. “It’s everything from 5-and-under to 65-and-older. So we had (people) of all ages competing this (last) weekend.”

Deede concluded his thoughts on the successful state BMX championship in the Northwoods by thanking everyone who helped. 

“Hodag BMX is 100 percent donation and volunteer based in its operation and we have a phenomenal group of volunteers,” he said. “When I took over the track some 13 years ago now it was, one of my goals was … you hear people say we’ll never be able to hold a state championship, we’ll never be able to hold a premiere event, and I’m like ‘Why not?’ And, basically, we were able to bring a premiere state championship event to our local community attracting hundreds of riders and it was absolutely awesome. It’s a testament to the volunteer base that we have, but then also an even bigger testament to the community support — the businesses and the organizations that have been supporting what we’re doing at West Side Park is absolutely phenomenal too. And that’s businesses from all over the Northwoods. … We are so grateful for all the support we had to make this happened and we’re still on the move.”

Deede expressed optimism for Hodag BMX in the future. 

“We look ahead, we want to continue to bring bigger premiere events to the community in the future and this was like a step in the direction of proving Hodag BMX and the Northwoods is capable of holding these events,” he said.

Note: Full results from the weekend of racing will be published in a future edition of the River News.

Trevor Greene may be reached via email at [email protected].