Tag Archives: retro racing
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
Retro national titles, my predictions
With the 2017 BMX Australia Retro national championships a little over a week away, I thought I would look over the fields for next weeks retro racing and give my predictions for the 4 classes that will be racing their retro bikes for the Australian title. Classes that will be competing are the 8 to 14 boys and for the first time ever we also have a stand alone girls class with 7 girls in the 8 to 14 class, the 39 and under men and the 40+ men. 8 to 14 boys Over the last 12 months, last years 5A Kyal Waldron has improved out of sight and with this being his last year in the 8 to 14 class I think he will go very close to taking the win in the 2017 event. Fighting every step of the way will be last years 3A Liam Carruthers who
Retro BMX racing at Portland
Portland BMX club, held the latest round of the Victorian State Series and whilst the pictures of the track taken Friday showed it looked a million dollars and the reports from those that practiced on Saturday afternoon, the weather Gods interrupted the proceedings and put on some terrible weather for all the racers. At about 3am a monsoon hit the area and dumped a tonne of water on to the track, unfortunately this was more than the track could handle, all of the hard work that the Portland track crew had put in was wiped out in one foul swoop. Unfortunately the rained continued for the next several hours and for many of us we got our first taste of Winter that is not too far away. Even though the track had suffered from a torrential amount of rain and the track had been ripped up by bikes trying to
Retro racers, turning it on at Knox
Friday night 3rd of March 2017 saw the Knox championship series get under way with round 1, class sponsors Bicycle Works have come on aboard as sponsors of the retro series and if round 1 is any indicator this years Bicycle Works Retro series is going to be a cracker. With the relaxation of the retro rules in Victoria and the removal of the pre 1986 rule that is stifling retro racing in many other states, retro is now going from strength to strength. Other states and the National body should take note on what we are doing and adopt our rules, if they want to see retro BMX racing flourish. Twenty retro racers made their way to the Knox BMX track in the South Eastern suburbs of Melbourne Australia to race retro BMX for the night, with a few doubling up and riding 2 classes. With this many riders,
A massive week of retro BMX racing
This week saw me step it up, with a massive week of training and retro BMX racing and quite honestly I can say I am stuffed, but I am very glad that I have done it and can feel the constant improvements every time I race. My week started off on Tuesday night with the secret trainer, dusting off my old road bike and getting it hooked up to the wind trainer, it was all about sprint efforts in short bursts, these were a gut buster and the secret trainer was there right beside me on his bike toughing it out as well, I can tell you by the end of the session we were both feeling it, having given it our all and it was good to see that the secret trainer is human after all and also has limits that he can push himself to, if I can
Knox retro series results
The Knox BMX club has been a great supporter of retro racing in Victoria, so much so that it is known as the unofficial home of retro BMX racing. In fact in 2015 when retro was not added to the Victorian state titles, Knox Thunderdome was pushed as the unofficial retro state championships, keeping in mind though that this push was created and endorsed by the retro riders rather than the Knox BMX club itself. Through to 2016 and the retro BMX racers were once again welcomed back with open arms, the highlight of the year being the special club meet they put on, when BMX legend Harry Leary visited Australia, I was lucky enough to be a part of the training session that Harry put on, which was both very informative and very enjoyable. The training session was then followed by a huge night of retro BMX racing, with
Brutal punishment by the evil one, James Tait
In a flash of inspiration earlier this afternoon, I decided to head down to Knox BMX track and do a training session under the tutelage of AA Pro rider and coach James Tait, oh how I wish I stayed home or maybe I should have taken up lawn bowls. The session started off well, with the request from James to do a couple of warmup laps, after 2 laps I was gassed, I knew I was in trouble and it was going to be a long hour, the training session starts and we are divided into two teams, two relay teams that is, which involved relays of running, side ways running, kicking in yourself in the butt with your heels running and high knees running. Immediately I felt bad for my team as I was quite obviously going to be the weakest link and I apologise to tall the 8