The president of the Prince George Supertak BMX Club says there's no climate-related excuse for BMX families in the population centres of southern B.C. to boycott Prince George when the city hosts the provincial championships at Carrie Jane Gray Park, Aug. 16-18.
"We are the furthest north track and the people down south never want to come, they still think they have to come through the [Fraser] canyon with snowshoes in August," said Corrie Anderson.
"We have a provincial race every year, but nobody comes up to ours, it's always just our local riders, but we've never had the provincial championships."
The right to host the B.C. championships is awarded the previous year based on the number of new club memberships and Prince George led that category in 2012. This year, the Supertrak club has 88 riders who race each night in 19 classes. Anderson said there have never been that many motos on race day in the club's history.
"Now that BMX is an Olympic sport, that has been a huge thing. Kids watched it at the London Olympics in 2012 and they want to try it out," Anderson said.
Supertrack hosts its annual provincial race this Saturday, followed by the Race For Life fundraiser for the BC Children's Hospital on Sunday.
Each track has a provincial series race weekend and while it's not mandatory for riders to attend the B.C. championships, there could be as many as 250 riders converging on the track at Carrie Jane Gray Park.
The incentive to come to Prince George for the championships in August is the Friday and Saturday races count for double in the points standings, while the Sunday races offer triple-point value.
"It's going to be a big weekend and we're hoping lots of out-of-town riders are coming up and if they show up we'll have an awesome race," said former Supertrak club president and cruiser-class rider Lyle Findlay. "If you want to be the top dog and be the top rider in the province you need to accumulate the most points."
The championships will be during the World Baseball Challenge international tournament at Citizen Field, adjacent to the BMX track. That will make parking difficult, but Anderson said that concern has been addressed by the city.
n Club races are set for Friday starting at 5:30 p.m. The provincial races and Race for Life events Saturday and Sunday start at 9 a.m.
