Welcome to Retro Racer 31
The Trials and Tribulations of an unfit, overweight guy, that decided to take up Retro BMX racing at the age of 43. More »
Knox Thunderdome 2016
Results and images from Knox Thunderdome 2016 held over the weekend of 5th and 6th of November at the home of retro racing Knox BMX track. More »
Victorian State BMX Championships
Friday 18th of November will see the first time that the retro class has officially been added to the Victorian state titles, with 48 entries over 3 classes. More »
Nutrition and Training go hand in hand
Getting your nutrition right is just as important as your training and to be honest I have not quite got it right lately. More »
Welcome to Retro Racer 31
Retro racing rocks the Apple Isle
Friday the 10th, November, 2017 saw myself board a jetstar flight to take part in the Tasmanian BMX State Titles, this would be my first trip interstate to race and I was excited to be going. Early afternoon in my hotel car park I was putting my bike back together after being dismantled for the flight over. Once the bike was back together it was time to head on over to the track for a practice session. As soon I turn up the track I am greeted by my coach and competition for the retro racing, Luke Cristiano, I was tempted to put a nail in his tyres to slow him down, unfortunately even if I did I don’t think it would have helped me get past him on the track, Luke was flying all weekend. Behind the start hill for the first time and I can’t help but notice
Training for the Retro BMX State Titles
It is that time of year, when everyone is stepping it up a gear and training hard for their state titles, this year I will be racing my Retro BMX in both the Tasmanian State Titles and the Victorian the week after. Training for me is now at the hardest intensity that it will be over the next week or two and then I will start to back off a little to give my body a chance to recover and be fresh as I possibly can be, to give the best performance that I can. I have no illusions as to my ability and am staring down the barrel of last place at the Victorian State Titles and quite possibly the Tasmanian titles as well, but you never know, if someone takes their foot off the gas, I will be there to pounce and will happily pass them as I
The pointy end of the season
The end of the 2017 BMX season is fast approaching with a few large meets left for the year, Knox Thunderdome, Tasmanian State Titles and the Victorian State Titles. After travelling all over Victoria this year, racing the Victorian State Series in which I placed 2nd for 40+ retro, I am excited to be going on my first interstate trip to race retro BMX at the Tasmanian State Titles in the second week of November. In reflection, my year was an interesting one, it had a change of trainers, from James Tait to Luke Cristiano, it was full of niggling injuries, loaded with self doubt and apprehension and my mind in overdrive with thoughts of the crash in 2016 that had me out of action for a while, it was these mental battles that I had to overcome as I was getting faster. I can now say that I feel
A retro BMX racing flashback, Warrnambool 2017
On the eve of the new race season, starting with the Frankston Helltrack event, in a couple of days time, I thought I would post about the last open meet that we all attended which seems a life time ago, back in May, on the 21st I did the long drive, first thing in the morning, from Carrum Downs, Melbourne out to Warrnambool in Western Victoria a 3 and a half hour one way trip, arriving at 8am in time for practice, I knew it was going to be a long day. Little did I know, that the day was about to turn bad for me in the worst possible way. Up on the start gate for my first practice lap, the rider next to me, was clipped in and over balanced and his 100 kg frame came down straight on top of me, I got my left foot down
Retro BMX racing, sprint training, what off season?
It is the off season for us old retro BMX racers, a time where we can sit back, relax in front of the heater on a cold winters day, drink beer, eat pizza and not have to worry about when the next race is. That lifestyle of luxury is fast drawing to a close with the first open meet only a few weeks away and whilst my fellow retro racers have been hibernating and hopefully getting fat and lazy, I have been out there continuing training if for nothing else but to keep my fitness base in tact. Todays torture test saw me back at Edithvale velodrome for some sprint training on the bike with some laps of the running track in between. Everything started off easy, a couple of laps of the velodrome, followed by a lap of walking the running track, in total a 1400 meter warmup. It
The Sunbury retro BMX factory.
Out in the Northern suburbs of Melbourne a retro BMX racing revolution is taking place and it seems that retro BMX racers are coming out of the Sunbury BMX club on a production line. It all started at the 2016 National BMX Championships when club coach James Lautier, got himself on an old school bike and came out and won the 2016 Australian Retro BMX title in the 14+ category. A young Samuel Todd, would then start to take an interest in retro racing and soon was on the starting line, but being that there was not a lot of junior retro racers at the time, he would often line up against the old guys at open meets and as you can see from the video of 2016’s Geelong Thunder race meet, you can see he acquitted himself well, including giving this old bloke a hiding every moto.
That is a wrap, retro BMX racing at the Frankston Summer series
Let me start by saying, “Kudos, to the Frankston Sharks BMX Club”. Twelve months ago the club was struggling and a new committee has since came in and turned the club around. On the retro side of things, in the 2016 series, I came 2nd behind Russell Brown and no one else qualified for a placing in the series. Fast forward 12 months and I scraped into the top 8, 10 of us qualified for end of series awards and over the series, we had the likes of Brendon Marshall, Don Davidson, Darren Stevenson, Aleisha Patttison, Neale and Nick Searle and others come and race a few rounds. Retro constantly had 2 gates and was the feature class of the night, so to the Frankston Sharks, well done and thanks for having us. Retro Results: 1st Scott Burgess 32 32 23 19 33 33 28 200 2nd Ash Grange 21