“That’s really big for us,” said Joe Gray, Hamilton BMX track operator. “That is something we have not had in years.”
He attributes the successful season of the 1979-established organization to the growth coming in and the community that’s developed at the track, which is in the back of Joyce Park and next to the Badin High School baseball and softball field.
The racers aren’t just competing for the state championship. They’re competing at national and international competitions. Gray said it’s one of Hamilton’s best-kept secrets, but he and the track’s community want everyone to come out and learn more.
Credit: Nick Graham
Credit: Nick Graham
Piper Eleton, 11, a student at Monroe Elementary, has been racing BMX bikes for five years this September. She’s competed in national championships, and internationally in Canada. Among other 11-year-old girls in the United States, she’s 13th.
“It’s very scary sometimes,” she said of racing. “Everyone’s watching you and you’re one of only eight people on the track.”
But it’s fun because “all your friends are there,” from the staging area behind the starting line to the grandstands and bleachers between races.
Taylor Gronas has been involved with Hamilton BMX for seven years, and the community around the track and sport transformed her oldest, Braddock, 12, from “super shy” into a boisterous racer.
“We travel all over the country together, to nationals, and it’s something he’ll never forget, and I won’t either,” she said, adding that this community has become their “friends for life.” “I knew nothing about the sport (seven years ago) other than just get him on the track. Somebody was always there to help you.”
Braddock Gronas remembers not wanting to talk or even do much before joining BMX, “but now, I’ll talk to anybody and go up and introduce myself to anyone.”
Credit: Nick Graham
Credit: Nick Graham
Kayla Wilson said her son, Bryson, an 11-year-old Edgewood student, just started racing BMX in October and has already found success, including winning three Gold Cup races and will head to New York for one of the six BMX Gold Cup Series finals locations.
“He really wasn’t into anything and he’s really taken off,” Wilson said. “Before he was in this sport, he had zero confidence. This has brought himself to make so many friends, and now he’s confident in something he can do.”
Kelsey Kennedy, 11, who became involved because of her grandfather, races at Cleves BMX, which she can see from her home, but regularly comes to Hamilton BMX, a home away from home for the young racer. She always wants to learn new skills and make friends and have fun while she’s at it.
“I never knew about the sport until I first got to race,” she said. “I just got on the track one day and said, ‘I like it.’”
She wants to see more people involved, especially those who need a friend.
Credit: Nick Graham
Credit: Nick Graham
“You’re always going to make new friends, and if you don’t have any friends at school, you’ll have friends here,” she said.
Gray said as they head into to the fifth competition of the nine-race season, he’s more excited about the future than the championship — though he’s really excited about winning.
“There are only eight tracks in Ohio. Just to have a track is a big honor. Lots of people drive hours just to come to a BMX track so their kids can come ride it,” said Gray, adding kids as young as 2 on balance bikes and adults well into their 60s are racing around the dirt and asphalt track. “BMX is a great way to build confidence. It’s not just the team. No one sits the bench in BMX.
Lance Miller’s son Aethan is 3-1/2 and started racing on balance bikes at 2, as a sort of training to eventually introduce him to motocross. An online search suggested starting off with balance bikes and a BMX track. Miller, a Hamilton resident, doesn’t regret that decision.
“A lot of the older kids help him around the track and originally he couldn’t get up some of the hills and the kids would stop and help,” he said. “He has learned how to stick with it and pick himself up, and if he falls, he picks himself up and keeps on going.”
Credit: Nick Graham
Credit: Nick Graham
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