In the early 8Os BMX Racing was completely shut down in the winter leaving the racing community bored and looking for any opportunity to ride without success. That was until a group of people from Janesville WI and Rockford Ill decided to open an indoor BMX track in the small south-eastern Wisconsin town of Elkhorn. The fall of 1982 marked the start of a BMX era that is still going strong today. F
or those of us racing at that time, it was 650 foot of pure BMX heaven. The building was cold, the jumps were wood, the corners were flat and the surface of the track resembled kitty litter but strategically located between Milwaukee, Rockford, Chicago and Madison, the people packed in making the competition awesome. The track raced every Saturday and Sunday with the crew from Janesville running one day and the team from Rockford running the next day and it was not abnormal to have close to 100 motos on any given weekend. This past weekend the legacy continues in the small Wisconsin town as the team prepared the building and the track for the 2017-2018 winter season with a new track operator brining fresh ideas to spice things up a little. Building the track is quite the event starting with placing the plywood around the building to support the dirt, removing the surface used for horse events, hauling in 85 truckloads of dirt (~600 yards), finding a way to unload strategically between the rafters, shaping the dirt for berms, the starting gate and the jumps making sure to position so nobody has a chance of jumping into the rafters, shoveling and raking the dirt until it is smooth as possible. All done with a small team of people over 5 long days. The track is still 650 feet, the building is still cold but the track is dialed, the starting hill is taller and the corners are bigger than ever. Many would like to have a larger building, but with the history and the legendary riders that raced over the years changing would seem just wrong. Some of the riders that spent many weekends at the barn include, Brian Woods, Shawn Carmody, Amedio Gilmore, Todd Blaser, Craig Reynolds, Tim Dinger, Michael Lundy, Tyler Whitfield, Ryan Zinzow, Stephani Morin and many more. This year, we have racing every Sunday and practice on Wednesday evening. Come on out if you want to experience history, some serious competition, dial in your gates and show off for the crowd.
