Picture This:

Here are a few photos from the early days of racing the ranch -- Thanks to Brian Woods and Brian Spoerl for sending these along.

The first group shots are from Brian Spoerl ... and are likely from the spring of 1982. One thing that's worth noting is that every gate is a full gate ... and every straight along the track is lined with racers, their families and friends two or three people deep. Reminds me of some sort of PGA Golf event.

The next set couple of shots are from Brian Woods and are from the very early days of BMX racing at the Ranch. Some of these date to 1979 or perhaps even earlier. Check out that ridiculous wooden table top which was the fist jump on the first straight.

The entire first straight was downhill and somewhere in the neighborhood of 400' long ... Riders were routinely hitting the first turn at 20+ mph and, with the pitiful caliper brakes that we ran back then ... your best bet for scrubbing off a bit of speed in the turns was to stick a foot out and "dirt track it" ... that is, slide the bike into a Toykyo Drift style slide.

In a day in age where every 9 novice has a full race uniform (including my own son)... it's quaint to look back and see that we used to *gasp* race in jeans and sweatshirts ... some of us with our socks pulled up to our knees (dude!). All the while ... launching ourselves off of telephone pole jumps. Okay, maybe the good old days weren't that good after all.


A rider getting launched out of the "pit" ... I'm pretty sure that they dug the pit and used the dirt for the rest of the jumps around the track. You betcha ... drainage was definitely an issue.


Classic "Berm Shot" -- this rider looks like he pretty seriously overcooked it and is in full slide and hanging on for dear life. Railing berms was virtually impossible ... but, you would probably have dominated if you had that skill mastered back then.

In addition to the photo links previously posted to images of last weekends event -- even more (and a few Tuesday night races) can be found at John Themmes website -- For the Moments Photography

Once again ... thanks to everyone who helped make this last weekend so special. The I Raced the Ranch event was really put together in a couple of weeks ... but, I think the idea had been rattling around somewhere deep inside my head for close to 20 years.

• The Mittelstadts: (John, Michelle, Dana and Leah) for starting up and sticking with Milwaukee BMX
• The Bratz family: (Terri and son Chris) for their almost constant effort at making things work this summer
• the Kohls family: For helping out whenever they are around in just about any way that we may ask
• Doug Tweedie: Yup, this slippery character gets the kids in the right gates, at the right time, and even gates up himself from time to time.
• Randy Olson: Rollin' Randy is also the grille master -- he's got Fire Magic !!!
• The Eckarts: Ray procurred sponsorship, and jumps in wherever his help is needed.
• Pa Smith: Every race, every class -- Devonte and David's dad is on the gate -- "Rider's Ready"
• Curt Brezinski: Always a crew in tow, and usually down in a corner helping out.
• The Weimer Family: Every big race, Linda is in that sign-up booth ... cranking away on the most thankless job in BMX ... registration.
• Hinzpeters: Keith will always jump in to lend a hand -- Jacob helps with new rider clinics and is absolutely a joy to watch go around the BMX track.
• Steve Campanelli: John was really up to his armpits in regular track stuff in the run-up to this weekend and had a lot of questions. The best advice I think I gave, maybe this whole year, was to think of somebody like Steve, who might want to help out with the museum portion of things. What a job well done there!
• Tina Gillis: For always having a camera crew in tow whenever she shows up. Sam's and Guy's photos are just the best.
• The Raffelnator - Kevin: Every event we do a raffle, he's pretty much 100% of ticket sales.
• Mark Kluth: Racer, fabricator, volunteer -- if you like our new gate ... you have Mark to thank.

Though I'm afraid I'm missing a few ... I hope that I've solidly identified most ... I'll add as other's come to mind ... it's important that we recognize how much effort goes in to something like last weekend.