WORK DAY 4-14-12

Last scheduled work day was today. We had a great turn out every workday we planned...and it shows. We have completed the shelter cover over the starting hill, clean & readied the concession building, got the track in near perfect condition and even built a strider track.

New this year will be strider racing on Sunday races and Multi-point races. You will need a strider membership to race. If you do not know, strider bikes are for the children that can not ride a regular bike yet - generally they are in the 2-4 year old age group. Strider bikes do not have cranks and pedals - they are operated by the rider's feet only.

Racing begins on Sunday, April 22. Registration is 10:30 - Noon with racing ASAP. We look forward to seeing everyone.

Special thanks to all the volunteers who helped on our work days, from the workers on the track to the helpers in the building and the volunteers who fed everyone. We have often stated how great a group we have and they excelled again this year in their ambition, time and talents to help us get ready for the 2012 season.

Mark & Kris

John & Karen Bingham Scholarship

It saddens Mark & I to have to announce that due to personal/medical issues, John & Karen Bingham will no longer be able to continue on as our Club's President and Secretary/Treasurer.
CWBMX has been blessed by John & Karen's generous sharing of their time and talents for the past 11 years.

When Mark & I originally approached them back in 1998 to consider becoming more involved, little did they know what they were getting into. Together we experienced the growing pains and successes of CWBMX.........the race seasons that averaged 14 motos and 55 riders per race to the season that averaged 28 motos and 117 riders per race.........the overwhelming project of relocating and rebuilding our facility and track.......the years we scrambled to figure out how to accommodate everyone for multi-point races to eventually hosting 7 State Championship Final Races and our first National event in 2010.

John & Karen have both been extremely instrumental in the continued success of CWBMX. They have been great allies as well as assets in our organization's growth and development. They may not be able to physically be with us every race day this season but we know that they will be in our thoughts as much as we will be in theirs. John will continue to be one of our announcers this season when he is able to.

In honor and appreciation for their many years of service, the Board of CWBMX has established an educational scholarship in their name - John and Karen Bingham Scholarship - thru the incourage community foundation. This scholarship is open to all Wisconsin USA BMX members. The deadline for applicant registrations is March 1, 2012.

For more details, clink on the scholarship link on our home page on the left or go to http://www.incouragecf.org/.

If interested in donating to this scholarship fund, please either contact the foundation directly at 715-423-3863 or call me at 715-421-4521. All donations are tax deductible.

Another scholarship opportunity is offered by USA BMX and is open to all members in the United States and Canada. It is the Bob Warnicke Memorial Scholarship. Every track this year will be asked to host a Bob Warnicke Memorial single point race and donate some of the registration fees toward this fund. For more info, clink on the scholarship link on the left side of our home page.

Check out "Take the Survey" on the right side of our home page. Incourage Community Foundation, formerly known as South Wood County Foundation is a big financial supporter of our organization. We have gotten many grants from them over the years. They asked for our help in promoting their survey about our community. Please take the time to complete it. Please help us support the organizations that support us.

Kris

2011 Year End Banquet

It is hard to believe that we are finishing off another race season. This Sunday, Sept 25 will be our final race for this year. We hope everyone enjoyed coming and racing with us as much as we enjoyed having you.

We will be hosting our End of Year Banquet right after the race starting with a Potluck. The track will provide drinks, hot dogs and brats. Please bring a dish to pass and come join in the fun and camaraderie of fellow racers and their families. Let us all celebrate a great year of racing.

We also will be handing out our Track Awards after the Potluck. Every rider who participated in at least 13 races from April thru August is eligible for a track award.

We look forward to seeing everyone on Sunday for the race and the celebration after.

Mark & Kris

State Championship 2011

"Rain, rain go away, come again another day, we are trying to race today!" This was what we were all saying on Saturday as we watched over 1" of rain fall in approximately 1 1/2 hours prior to the start of our race. We watched the radar and did not even uncover the track until we saw that the storm was passed us. We ended up with a hour rain delay but much to the surprise of the non-locals, we were able to run a short practice by age group and begin racing just after uncovering the track. Many thanks to all the volunteers who helped uncover, broom and blow off the track. In no time at all we were ready to go. Track was in great shape. We appreciated every one's patience in the delay. We even had a bit of fun with doing pizza deliveries to those stranded in the infield spectator area of the track. We can not compliment our volunteers enough for the way they all went above and beyond the call of duty for the day.

Sunday promised to be a beautiful day, some sun, cool temperatures and less than 10% chance of rain. Guess what! The first "sprinkles" we got of rain was just after the 2nd go around. Not to worry, we had Greg's blowers and we got the wetness off the gate and track, volunteers broomed the water off any areas needed, track still held up great so onto the Main we went. Then a very unexpected rain cloud (which never showed up on radar) appeared above us and dumped itself. We did have to stop the race to blow off things again before we could finish the day. We were thankful that no more mysterious rain appeared for the rest of the day. We had a wonderful turnout of riders from all over the state as well as surrounding states. The racing was fantastic! Congratulations to all the State Champions as well as everyone who earned a State Plate.

A tremendous THANK YOU goes out to all our workers and volunteers who helped make both of the race days events a huge success.

Special thanks to IHIGH to doing a live broadcast of both days races. These races can be viewed on IHIGH's website which we do have a link to on our home page just below the blog/announcement section. Some races may be missing due to internet issues on Saturday. Thanks Aaron Vickro for taping the events, you did a great job.

We have three more Sunday races before the end of our season. Following the race on Sunday, Sept 25 will be our Year End Track Awards Potluck and Ceremony. Everyone is welcome to attend, please bring a dish to pass. The track will provide drinks and usually hot dogs and brats. Any racer who has participated in half of our races from May 1 thru August 28 (13 Races) is eligible for a track award. If you have any questions about this event, stop by and talk to us in registration.

Hope everyone enjoyed themselves for the State Finals weekend. We look forward to seeing all of you this Sunday at our next race.

Mark & Kris

2011 State Finals Weekend

This weekend is the State Finals with a Double Point Pre-Race on Saturday, Sept 3 - Registration beginning at 4 pm. Cost is $16 for class and $8 for open. Gates will be open at 3 pm. Sunday is the Championship Race - Registration beginning at 10:30 pm. This is a Triple Point Event. Cost is $25 for class and $15 for open.

Something new this year. IHigh will be recording the race for live video broadcast of both races. The races are also archived for later viewing. Check out the link on our Home Page right above the Blog announcements.

Special thanks to Brings Cyclery for the donation of a New Redline Race Bike (yellow) for a raffle this year. $1 per ticket. Bike will be raffled off on Sunday, you need to be present to win.

State Awards will be given out shortly after the Main Race on Sunday. All State Champions are requested to remain for the State picture after all awards are given out.

Hoping for great weather. Hope to see you there.

Mark & Kris

HOT, HOT, HOT

July was a month of extremely hot and humid weather, along with more rain......and lots of multi point races throughout the State. We were fortunate to be able to attend all of the State Series races and despite the humidity and rain we enjoyed ourselves at each event. It is really nice to be able to travel to other locations to race and visit with other riders and their families. We are blessed to be able to have other tracks available to race on. Variety keeps the sport interesting and challenging and helps promote new riders. We hope many of you were able to get to some of the other tracks and enjoy the facilities and racing they offer. We know how much work and volunteers it takes to keep a track operating and appreciate every one's efforts. We hope you do to. We are traveling again this weekend to the State race on Sunday at Madison BMX. We are looking forward to another fun time.

As noted on our home page, we were running make up races on our Tuesday night practice nights - next week is the last one. We had good turn outs for these races. We are glad we were able to fit them in.

Last weekend we went to the Land O'Lake Nationals hosted at Pineview BMX in St. Cloud, MN. The State of Wisconsin was well represented. Many of our riders made their semis and mains. Those that didn't gave it their best. We were really proud of how well everyone did with the competition they faced. The racing was very exciting. The Pros were fast and furious and lots of fun to watch. It is amazing how fast they can get thru a track. The track had some interesting jumps that we think will haunt many a rider's dreams trying to figure out how best to ride them. It was challenging to say the least. Mark was not even tempted to ride it. He figured he would hurt himself. He couldn't get hurt because he needed to drive us home on Sunday. If you have never experienced freeway driving around Minneapolis you would not believe how insane it can be with the constant stopping and starting for no apparent reason. It was driving me nuts just being the passenger!

The track has held up well with the weather conditions we have been getting but it is time again to add another coat of sealer. We will be doing this after Thursday's race this week weather permitting. Looking forward to the State Finals coming up quickly. Our additional parking area will be ready to use by then. Grass is growing very well on it. We heard a lot of input this past weekend about many riders looking forward to coming to race the Finals at our track in September. We are excited to have them. Let's all pray for good weather. Sunday races will begin again this month also - be sure to check out the schedule. Thursday night races will end at the end of the month, too. School is just around the corner. Reminder that we are NOT racing this Sunday as previously scheduled due to the State Series race at Madison BMX. Good luck to all racers who might be travelling and racing out of town this weekend. Ride hard, race strong and believe in yourself. We know you can succeed, you need to believe it too.

Mark & Kris

Weekend Success

We had a great four days of fun filled racing this past weekend. Mother Nature gave us a scare on Sunday with the early morning rain but track was sealed and covered so when the rain ended around 11 am - we were ready to start our practice times with racing immediately following. Special thanks to Greg and Jeremy for getting to the track early to make sure that the tarps were doing their job before the rain started. We were lucky to not get the heavy downpours and high winds.

Our first annual "Dads That Don't Race" race on Friday night during our Race for Life Event was a huge success. We had 16 Dads strutting their stuff trying to win the awesome trophies specially designed for this event by Eric Nelson. We had Semis this year, aiming for Quarter Finals next year. Being the oldest rider didn't stop me. I came in 5th place in the Main and still was able to go to work the next day. I'm not sure how all the other Dads did but it looked like everyone of them had a great time. We raised an additional $80 for the Leukemia Foundation with this race - Our grand total for the day was over $1500. Thanks to all who participated and donated. Special thanks to Tyler Horn who raised over $500 in donations.

Despite the heat, we had a great turnout for Saturday and Sunday. Lots of action - good, fast racing with many close finishes. It gave our scoring gals - oops, I mean scoring volunteers a good workout (Sorry Dean!).

We need to acknowledge all our great workers and volunteers who helped make this weekend run smoothly. Thanks to all who had specific duties to handle and take care of and to all the ones who just stepped in whenever they noticed help was needed. Your efforts were noticed and greatly appreciated - to all the concession workers, garage helpers, tarp installers and removers, sealer appliers, announcers, registration personnel, t-shirt & 50/50 sellers (Caroline we can't wait to see what costume you come up with next doing 50/50), groundskeepers......the list goes on and on. To all of you - THANK YOU! We could of not done it without you.

Special thanks to Troy and Kristen for taking pictures during the whole week and weekend's events - check them out on our website at our Photo Link - under CWBMX snapshots.

We saw many familiar faces during the weekend - riders and families - and a lot of new faces. We hope everyone enjoyed themselves - we sure did. We look forward to seeing you all again at any of our upcoming races, especially the State Championship Finals in September.

Mark & Kris

Morphine Industries Rider Clinic

Learn the basics of BMX from Morphine Industries' "A" Pro Racer - Olijuwon Davis. His four years of training experience will give you the tools you need to improve your racing abilities today and give you tips that you can use when riding on your own.

Clinic will cover all the basics of BMX racing including.........Gate starts, Manualing, Jumping, Turn Skills and Track Speed.

Clinic is designed for the experienced Intermediate and Expert Rider

Admission price is $25.00 per rider for a two hour session. Enrollment is limited to 30 riders, so sign up ASAP! Payment is due upon sign up.

Register at the track on any practice night or race day or call (715) 421-4521

Clinic Date: Wednesday, July 6
Time: 5:00 to 7:00 pm (Track opens at 4:30)

Limited Concessions will be available.

Summer Update

Congratulations to all the riders who went to Rockford last weekend for the Midwest Nationals. Not everyone made it as far as they would of liked but we were proud to watch all the local riders give it their best.

Monday night, June 20, we hosted the Redline Flight School with pros Jason Carnes and Trent Woodcock (New Zealand). We had a full class of 40+ riders for them to work with covering a wide range of ages. Everyone had a great time - learning how to have better gates, to getting tips on how to roll/pump/manual the track to playing a game of Foot Down with the Pros in the parking lot. After the clinic ended, both pros wanted to stay and play on the track for awhile. Some of the older riders got to experience first hand just how fast these guys are. We were told that they both loved the facility and the people. Finally had to shut down after 10 pm and ended the night eating Dilly Bars. Believe it or not but Trent had never had one before. Kristen and I took pictures during the event and they are posted on the website under "Photos" and then under Central Wisconsin BMX Snapshots, albums dated 6/22/11. Check them out!

We are working on the plans for hosting another clinic on Wednesday, July 6 with Pro Racer Olijuwon Davis for the more experienced riders - more details to follow as we get it set up.

Looking forward to our State Qualifier weekend which is coming up fast. This will be a 700-point event with Single Point racing on Thursday, July 7, Double Point Race for Life on Friday, July 8, Earned Double Point Race on Saturday, July 9 and Double Point Race State Qualifier on Sunday, July 10. That week will be a busy one as we will have Practice on Tuesday night as usual and hope to have the Oliuywon Davis Clinic on Wednesday, July 6.

If you haven't heard yet - there will be a "Dads That Don't Race" race at our Race for Life Event on Friday, July 8. Any Dad that does not have a ABA membership can compete in this prestigious event. Cost is $5 DONATION per rider that will go to the Leukemia Foundation.

Calling all Dads to hike up your skirts and come racing with us. Despite Kris's concerns, I will be racing that day myself. I think it will be lots of fun and we can raise some more donations for a worthwhile cause. Reminder to all racers that we have donation envelopes in registration for you to begin collecting your donations. You can earn prizes for the amount you collect so please stop in registration and get your envelopes!

Hope to see you all at the races this Thursday and/or on Sunday.

Mark

Sunny Hot Race Day

Great day for racing and sealer installation.

Warm conditions and lots of sun brought out many riders today. 24 motos and 93 riders. Dilly bars and cold drinks were the hot items today. Heard many riders talking about going swimming after the race. Finally got a taste of summer coming. Only a few days left for school for most of our local racers.

It also was a good day to begin installing sealer on the track. We were able to spray over 800 gallons of sealer today - this is only the beginning. Another 800 to go, maybe more. We will be applying more sealer Tuesday so we have cancelled practice for that night. We need to let the sealer dry and seal really well before we have racers on the track. Many thanks to the volunteers who stayed to help install the first five coats of sealer today. No major issues spraying - pump held up - yippee!!!

See ya Thursday night.

Mark

Racing vs Mother Nature

As most tracks will tell you, it has been an interesting and challenging year in getting tracks up and running with all the rain and moisture we have had so far this year. We appreciate all the hard work and help we have received from our workers/volunteers to get us this far this year. Mother Nature could be a little more cooperative though.

Got rain last night but it stopped in time and the track looked good , it dried up enough to get a race in today - 80 riders, 17 motos - good racing. Weather was sunny and warm during the race but we knew more storms were headed our way. We beat Mother Nature and was able to get the race run and the track cleared before the next round of storms hit our area around 3pm. Great job again to our crew who got the track ready and to all who helped after with clean up and shut down.

Mother Nature might have limited us on our expectations in progress with track maintenance, fine tuning and sealing but she hasn't stopped us from going forward on our other projects - one being our new parking area. Special thanks goes out to McDonald trucking for stumping the area last fall, to Kurt Rosenthal for the donation of his time and equipment to do landscape/grading work this last week and to Dirk Haessley for use of his equipment. The light rain on Saturday didn't stop Richard (Carl) Schaetz, my son , Jeremy, and I from getting the area seeded. ( I don't think Kris liked how muddy we got). Thanks again Richard for the use of your tractor. Now we just need some warm weather for it to grow. We are hoping this area will be ready for parking by our State Qualifier weekend in July.

We have also been working on the new sound system. Still waiting on the delivery of the speakers which were on back order. I have been told that they might be here in the next week or two. Plan to run the wires/cables thru the underground piping this week so once the speakers are here we can be ready to install. I am pretty excited about getting the whole system up and running - I loved how much better the sound was with the system the ABA brought in for the National last summer. I'm glad we were able to upgrade our system this year.

We are all thinking positively - the sealer has been ordered and should be arriving this week also. Cross our fingers that the weather will warm up and get the track dry so that our crew can do their finishing touches so that we can be ready to get it sealed soon.

Hope all our families and riders who went to the Tennessee National this weekend had a great time, got good results and arrive back home safely tonight.

Mark & Kris

Mothers Day Race

Another great day at CW BMX. The day was close to perfect. about 65 degrees and mostly sunny. Could have had alittle less wind but OK. We had 27 motos and about 120 riders. Had some very good racing. Hope all the mothers had a great day at the track.

We are still working on the new sound system, still waiting on the speakers. They have been on back order for a long time. The pole to put the speakers on will be installed hopefully this week.
Thanks to Rapids Water Works and Lighting company. Solarus already installed the under ground pipe to run the wire threw. Thanks Solarus for donating the time, labor, and pipe.

Practice night tonight May 10 6:30. Please remember a dollar per rider. These helps pay for the insurance we have to have for practice nights.

Hope we will see you tonight
Mark

Can You Say BRRRRRRRR

Wow, with winds from 20 to 30 mph and temps in the low 40s, we had a great turn out.

We ended up with 21 motos and about 90 riders. It looked like everybody had fun. We sold a lot of sweatshirts for some odd reason. The track came around good by the time the race started. Had some slight wet spots from all the rain but we got them all fixed for the race. Thanks to all the great help. We are blessed with so many great volunteers.

We stayed after the race and repositioned a culvert and refaced the jump in the last straight. Now hopfully the little kids will make it up the jump ok now, had some small kids test it out and it seems good now.

See you Tuesday for practice

Mark

April 9 - Workday

Installing culvert on 2nd straight







Installing culvert on 1st straight
How many men does it take to install a culvert?
Jump repair into 3rd berm - involved blacktop removal.
Prep for gate installation









Installing the gate - it was quite heavy
Thanks again to Element mobile for the newest addition to our track the Pro-Gate starting gate

New Rider Seminar / First Race Coming

Our New Rider Seminar is this Saturday, April 30 at 1 pm. This seminar is free and open to all ages. Anyone under 18 must have parental consent. Just bring your bike, helmet (if you have one - we do have some to loan out), long sleeve and long pants. Not only do we offer a lot of great information about the sport of BMX, we also run a mock race so attendees can experience all the aspects of a race event. It is a fantastic way to learn about BMX so pass the word to all your friends, classmates, relatives and neighbors to try it out on Saturday. New riders can join at anytime but the Seminar is a fun, exciting way to start with other new riders.

Mother Nature has been causing quite a challenge this year for us in getting the track race ready. Despite the rain, wind, snow and freezing temperatures we have been experiencing the last several weeks....we had a determine crew who volunteered their time whenever possible, even Easter Sunday late afternoon to get the track done. We can't thank each and everyone of you enough for all the work and effort. Let's hope Mother Nature does not have any more "surprises" for us this week so that we can get the race season going this weekend.

Thanks again to all our volunteers for a great job!

Mark & Kris

2011 update

The last 2 weekends proved to be very productive. Last weekend we got the pro gate installed and almost up and running. This weekend we have the new gate completely done. We added more clay to the first part of the first straight. We also installed more culverts to help with drainage of the track.

We wanted to thank all the people that donated machinery these last 2 weekends.

Greg McDonald-Small end loader.

Richard Schaetz-Small Tractor and laser level.

Dave Schaetz-Small Tractor.

Tom Prange- Small Tractor.

Dean Rosenthal-Tractor Back Hoe and laser level.

Mike Peterson- Skid Steer and removal of old gate.

Greg Weinfurter-Donations for the gate installation.

Wanted to also thank all the help we received these last 2 weekends. We had a great turn out of volunteers both weekends - even today when it was snowing and raining we had some great volunteers show up and work. We have everything completed and ready to go except for the dirt part of the track. That part is along way along but needs to be finished. We still need to put 2 more culverts in on straight number 2, and fill in some spots around the track. We have high hopes to install the culverts Monday night, weather permitting. We will be probably working alot of nights this week.

We will have a work day this Saturday April 23 starting at 9 o'clock to finish up the work on the track, so we are ready to race the next weekend. Hope to see another great crew there again.

Thanks again for all the help we could not do this with out you. Hopefully I didn't forget anyone. If I did I'm sorry.

Mark

DID YOU SAY PRO-GATE?

We are very proud to announce that an area wireless provider - Element Mobile -has sponsored the purchase of a Pro-Gate Starting gate for our facility. The premier aluminum design and high traction surface is what makes this gate so special. Check it out on their website which you can link to by clicking on their logo/name on our front page under website sponsors. It is exactly the same gate that will be used in the next Olympics , in fact, it is currently being built right along side the gate that will be featured in the Olympics in London. Pretty Awesome!

We wish to thank Element Mobile for this very generous donation.

We expect to have the gate here by our first work date, April 9 or before. We already have a crew getting ready for its installation. Peterson Movers - Mike Peterson - has volunteered to remove the old gate for us. Thanks, Mike!

Reminder the workdays coming up are Saturdays, April 9 and 16 beginning at 9 am. Please bring your rakes, shovels and gloves and come join in the fun. We need to work on the new parking area, clean up grounds, remove old sealer on the track, do any track changes (if you have any input on this - talk to Greg Schwartz or Jeremy Dickerson) , any other general track maintenance and possibly installing the new gate if it is not finished by then. There is plenty to do and we do appreciate all who can volunteer their time and talents.

New Rider Seminar will be on Saturday, April 30. Please encourage friends, neighbors, relatives etc. to come and learn about BMX. You know they'll love it.

Volunteers have always been the backbone of our organization - we could not succeed without the support and help that is given every year by all of the volunteers. We encourage and welcome all who are interested in becoming more involved to contact us at 715-421-4521.

We are looking forward to another great year of racing. We hope you are too. See you on the scheduled work days - April 9 and 16 - if not before.

Mark & Kris

Getting Started for 2011

We have had our first Board meeting of the year and have begun preparing for the upcoming season working on our schedule, sponsorships, new ideas and major purchases.

We have added two acres of additional parking. This area is located mostly on the south side of the water tower but does include additional area on the east and west sides of the tower. This area was cleared last fall. We only need to finish it off this spring. Many thanks to the School District and the City of Wisconsin Rapids for the use of this land. Special thanks to Greg McDonald for removing and clearing the stumps for us.

We are purchasing a new sound system for the track this year. It is already on order. This system is similar to the system the ABA used for the National. Now we will really be able to make some noise!

Approximately 100 yards of dirt was dropped off this fall just sitting at the track ready to make whatever changes our track crew comes up with. They have always done a great job of creating fun, challenging and exciting changes. We look forward to seeing what they will come up with for this year.

We will be running Random gates for all our races this year as we believe many tracks will be doing. We chose this option to stay consistent with what the ABA is running at all Nationals.

Thanks to all the riders who renewed their memberships with our track and to all the new members we gained this last year to help us earn the privilege of hosting the State Finals this year. We will be hosting a Double point pre-race on Saturday, September 3 and the State Finals on Sunday, September 4.

We believe we have the best group of people to work with every year helping us maintain and run a facility they are all proud of. Are you interested in joining this group, volunteering, being part of committees, helping out, etc.? We are always looking for additional people to strengthen and expand our core of members and volunteers so please contact us if you are interested @ 715-421-4521.

Mark & Kris