GILBERT, Ariz. (BRAIN) — Fifteen USA BMX tracks in six states held "soft" reopenings for practice and races last week under state and city social distancing guidelines established during the COVID-19 pandemic.
This weekend, about 10 additional tracks will open for racing and/or practice, said Craig Barrette, USA BMX's creative director, who noted all schedules are subject to change. USA BMX sanctions 320 North American tracks.
Last weekend, four tracks held races in Oklahoma and Texas, "which is small, obviously, but significant as everybody begins ramping up and reopening their local programs," Barrette said.
At the Katy and Cowtown tracks in Texas, racing was held in groups of four. U.S. practices took place on 11 tracks, with the Florida venues in Cape Coral and Daytona limiting it to groups of 20 and 10 per session, respectively.
This weekend, 14 U.S. tracks will hold races. States opening tracks this week will be Arkansas, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, and Wyoming. At the Bonzai track in Little Rock, practice will be held only on Fridays, Sundays and Tuesdays for now. At County Line track in Highlands Ranch, Colorado, practice will be held this weekend in groups of nine.
"As always, the safety of our athletes and their families, our staff, and the entire USA BMX community is our priority," said USA BMX CEO B.A. Anderson in a statement. "Like you, our team is dreaming of getting back to the track, and we are focused on being a resource for our membership and tracks to ensure a safe return. We are communicating with our members and tracks more than ever and have been overwhelmed by the positive communication and constructive feedback that has been received. We have strategically taken this time to focus first on the safe return of BMX on the local level, and secondly, on completing the rest of the Gold Cup and National Series. Additionally, we are using this unique opportunity while there are no events to work on creative solutions and programming to grow the sport."
USA BMX's statement encourages sanctioned clubs to work with local governments to make decisions based on state and local health departments, athletic administrations, state governments, and the Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
USA BMX's Ready to Race guide will be used in conjunction with state and city guidelines. It can assist tracks in ensuring social distancing, managing their events, providing strategies to reduce the number of attendees if required through block racing, reducing staging lanes, limiting operation to small group practices and other measures.
Additional resources offered to tracks include a training course for marketing relaunch, block racing template, and four-rider class templates.
USA BMX, which has tracks in 49 states and also owns BMX Canada, held its last national event on March 6-8 in Houston before the pandemic led to stay-at-home orders.
"There's been a lot of changes in all of this, including adjustments to how races are put together with fewer or limited riders, to the way race registration is handled," Barrette said. "Many tracks (are) switching to online pre-reg only, etc."
USA BMX also announced that its members will receive an additional two months of free membership. In addition, USA BMX and BMX Canada developed two discounted membership promotions to encourage new riders to join, citing the surge in youth bike sales during the pandemic. The offers are good until July 1.
- Discounted Family Memberships: Families purchasing or already having at least one full-priced membership ($60 annually) can add any number of additional family members for $30 ($35 in Canada). These memberships must be purchased online.
- $30 Trial Memberships: Normally a 30-day membership, it's been extended to 60 days.
