Thursday 6 / 7 Practice: CANCELLED



Don't kill the messenger ... but we're opting not to mess with the weather given the forecast.

Stay safe everybody ... we'll see you Saturday at the races !!!

RAINED OUT -

BMX Races for Tuesday June 5th are cancelled.

Thursday practice will be weather permitting.

5:00 P.M. UPDATE -- GATE PRACTICE IS CANCELLED:

Watching the weather channel this afternoon sure was a boat load of fun -- precipitation finally made it to the track about 4:30 p.m. -- but, it pretty quickly became a washout as you can definitely see from this radar image scanned at 4:50 p.m. Essentially -- mother nature holeshot's Milwaukee BMX and leads the first lap wire to wire.

Fond du Lac BMX also cancelled tonight's racing after rain moved through their area as well. Mother nature is off to a strong start throughout the region and is clearly an early favorite for a State Champion plate.

See you same time, same place -- one week from today.

Sun Ringle' / Milwaukee BMX Silent Auction

We gotta hand it to those cats over at Sun Ringle' for their unbelievable support of Milwaukee BMX. Last year when we had our demonstration ride, they kicked in a lot of goodies so that we could run a raffle. Last weekend, Len C. brought us out a spankin' new pair of Superstock wheels -- and we're letting you guys bid on them -- silent auction style -- for the next week.

THE GOODS !!!

The Milwaukee BMX auction will close next Wednesday (May 30th) @ 6:00 p.m. and you can bid by leaving a reply to this post, with your name and e-mail address -- pretty simple! Even if you don't have an account ... you can post anonymously ... so long as you leave your name and e-mail address in the post. Winner of the auction will pick the wheels up from John Mittelstadt, and a personal check made payable to "The Park People" -- as we're under their common 501c3 charter.

Minimum bid is $50 - which is a steal on these wheels that retail for $150 !!! Online retailers are sellin' em for $135 + you pay shipping. And hey ... all proceeds go to Milwaukee BMX ... so, you know it's a good cause.

Happy bidding ... and good luck !!!

Riders Ready !!!

NEW RIDER CLINIC A SUCCESS:
Yee-haw - we were able to hold a mock 5 moto race with the 25 new riders who attended the Milwaukee BMX new riders clinic Saturday. Thanks to all who helped make the day a complete success.

Photos and a more detailed report are coming soon.

SCHEDULE CHANGE:
The practice scheduled for this Thursday (May 24) is cancelled.

BLOW IT OUT YOUR ...
Milwaukee BMX has a brand spankin' new portable compressor. It's a pretty rugged Sanborn 20 gallon 6 peak horse, twin cylinder belt drive jobbie that, according to Aubrey Zabojnik, who runs Get a Gate in Texas, should be an almost ideal device for running our gate for many years to come. We didn't run the thing on Saturday because we were afraid we'd be tripping the circuit every time the thing started. It won't be a problem as soon as the dedicated boxes are installed on the hill.

New Rider Clinic Update:

Date: This Saturday - May 19th

Signup & Registration: 10:30 - Noon (trackside)

Clinic Begins: 12 noon

Things we'll cover:

1. how to register
2. reading a moto sheet
3. American Bicycle Association racing format
4. Mandatory and recommended safety gear
5. Basic track skills

• the starting gate
• jumps
• berms

Clinic concludes: approximately 2 p.m.

Open track for clinic participants will follow.

Cost: $5 / rider

Photos from May 2nd - '07


My new favorite place on earth ... the super smooth tranny off the back side of the double going into corner #1


The turns held up so remarkably well through the winter ... very obvious Bryan Dickerson and Todd Zimmerman knew exactly what they were up to when they capped them with the gray dirt last year. After spring rains, raking and rolling ... they are looking smooth and are firming up really well.



Start hill looking from about the position of the left side starting lights. Pro Electric is likely to finish the electrical install in the next week or so. The start lights will be really cool.



It will take a few more loads of dirt to get the hill totally dialed to the angle of the gate ... but, the gate is in, squared and pinned in place. Mark Kluth used a lot of imagination and a heckuva lot of effort to get this all worked out.

You can see the back of the gate is right at verticle, just the way it was designed to be. In addition to the gate being pinned several with several feet of rebar, the bulk heads behind the gate were constructed similarly.

Staging lanes starting to take shape. We'll stage with the moto on the gate, one on the top plateau, the next on the middle plateau ... and the rest waiting patiently in their lanes.

GENERAL MEETING REMINDER:

A heads up for those of you interested in attending the Milwaukee BMX general meeting tomorrow evening that we are planning to meet TRACKSIDE at 7 p.m.

We're looking forward to seeing you there.

Random Thoughts:

Here are a few things that caught my attention in the last 24 hours or so -- they are so dripping with goodness that I just had to share.

1. Jeff Upshaw, who is one of the squad of AA pro riders who will be leading the Kuwahara clinic in June, is highlighted in this you-tube video. Upshaw is joined by Tommy Board - a vet pro from Indiana (in white) and Marty Wisehart in the vid. The track is Derby BMX and is easily one of the finest in the nation. Funny, as a racer, I'm all about looking over the layout of the track, and I see a bunch of super smooth looking jumps that look like they would be a total blast to ride. Meanwhile, the track volunteer in me notices things like the wooden fence lining the perimeter of the track, the paved berms, the perfect grass on the infield and around the grounds. Pretty much, everything about this video is rad.

This is a screen-cap of Upshaw laying a sweet flattie on the last jump down Derby's smooth looking rhythm section



2. Bonus contest -- a couple of FLY stickies to the first person UNDER 40 -- who can correctly identify the band - song - and lead singer from the music that goes with this clip.

3. While reviewing the news that our friend Jack Hirt -- who's been working with the Bicycle Federation of Wisconsin (BFW), and despite being new to BMX, is a dedicated cyclist of all sorts, has been promoted to Executive Director of the BFW -- I came across this summer employment opportunity. It might be a perfect fit for one of our young Milwaukee BMX racers.

4. We're wishing the best of luck to the racers we know who are heading down to the Cajun Nationals in Louisiana over the weekend. Mike Froh, Tim Eiring, Greg Eiring and a few others will be heading down to represent with a little Midwest Pull in the Bayou state. Go get 'em - fellas.

Thanks again to everyone who came out and helped over the weekend ... add to that list in the post below our pal Brian Schulz, who helped out yesterday. Progress shots will go up soon.

Thanks !!!

For maybe the most productive track work day in the history of Milwaukee BMX.

Among the volunteers helping throughout the day: (I'm hoping I'm not missing anybody -- but, I'll gladly add names if I forgot!)

John, Michelle, Leah, and Dana Mittelstadt
Tim and Greg Eiring
John and Lewis Wethall
Todd Zimmerman
Michael Froh
Bill and Sam Rupp
Brennan Manske
Mark Kluth
Ryan Mcabee

What we accomplished:
-General track maintenance and improvements
-renovated gate drop reinstalled
-sure start system and air ram installed and tested (freakin' YES !!!)
-staging lane posts set
-many rocks picked and dumped

Sunday we will:
-square and level the gate
-water wheel pack and roller pack all straights
-continue setting remaining staging lane posts
-post up some photos of the updated track and improvements

We're sure to be trackside by 9 a.m. ... but, very likely to be calling it a day by early in the afternoon. Milwaukee BMX is right on track !!!

Thanks again to everyone listed above for their help.

Kevin O'Donnell

4/4/2007 MEETING NOTES:

Last night's meeting focused on final track modifications and preparation, and a few of us will be meeting trackside the morning of April 14th to mark off the areas where the fence will go, locate the staging area, as well as adding another drain tile to relieve the first and last straight.

The work weekend is scheduled for April 20th thru April 22nd and we'll appreciate all the help we can get. Please shoot us an e-mail at lavacycles@sbcglobal.net if you think you can help. Volunteers are needed to help with the handwork associated with final shaping of jumps, shoveling, raking, etc. Also, if anybody has a four wheeled ATV that we could use for track packing purposes available on that weekend ... we'd love to hear from you. We have one, but, at the rate that Mike Froh can run the loader, packing with two ATV's would be helpful.

We should also have the air ram, sure start and compressor by that weekend, so, with a little luck, we may try and drop a few gates late Sunday afternoon.

Thanks to all for your continued support and we're definitely looking forward to getting back track side soon.

KUWAHARA CLINIC -- Wednesday June 13 - 6:00 - 8:00 p.m.

One of the most legendary brand names in the history of BMX, KUWAHARA, has recently resurfaced, and with former ABA #1 Pro - Warwick Stevenson (left image) leading a team loaded with talented riders including Pros -- Matt Pohlkamp (right image), Jeff Upshaw, Natarsha Williams and Ryan Birk -- are poised to return to the position of dominance held by the brand when team roster included Anthony Sewell, Frank Post, Lee Medlin, Gary Ellis and Clint Miller. Team KUWAHARA will be running a BMX racing clinic benefiting Milwaukee BMX (all proceeds go to Milwaukee BMX) on Wednesday June 13th, 2007 from 6-8 p.m. Cost of this clinic is $20 per rider and we have spots available for ONLY 30 riders.

Spots can be reserved on a first come / first serve basis. You can e-mail me at Lavacycles@SBCGLOBAL.net to hold your spot. Please include your name, age, class you race in, mailing address, phone # where you can be reached with your message ... and be sure to include KUWAHARA CLINIC in the subject line of your e-mail. Payment in full need to be made to John Mittelstadt by Friday May 4th to guaranty your spot. Checks should be made payable to "Parks People" and you can note Kuwahara Clinic - Milwaukee BMX on the MEMO section of your check.

For more information on Kuwahara BMX ... please visit http://www.kuwaharabmx.com/

Miscellaneous:
If anybody is planning a visit to the Wheel and Sprocket bike expo this weekend, stop by and say hello to the guys at Metro Mountain Bikers. They will have a limited supply of 2007 Milwaukee BMX Schedules to share



Roxanne Schneider continues working on the final version of the Milwaukee BMX schedule and reminded us that we hadn't noted any fees for "Open Class" ... good catch Roxanne !!! We definitely will have open class, in addition to the regular classes, and the cost will be $3. You must be signed up in a regular class to run open.

WATTS new at Milwaukee BMX !!!

Yeah, if you can feel the energy in this post ... it's all about the electrical runs and power boxes that Craig from PRO ELECTRIC is installing at the track RIGHT NOW !!!

Additionally, another +120 cubic yards of clean clay are arriving today.

Please plan to attend the next GENERAL CLUB MEETING - Wednesday - April 4th - at 7:00 p.m. at Bennos in West Allis (7413 West Greenfield Avenue - West Allis, WI) for additional details on upcoming track work days.

MONTHLY MEETING NOTICE:

A reminder that the general monthly meeting of Milwaukee BMX is scheduled for next Wednesday - April 4th - at 7:00 p.m. at Bennos in West Allis (7413 West Greenfield Avenue - West Allis, WI)

We'll have lots of ground to cover, but the two top priorities will be:

1. 2007 Track Preparation / grounds improvements - including finalizing anticipated work weekends


2. Volunteer Coordination

I should have a short run of print schedules to hand out by this weekend. And, I'm hoping to make the trip to Rockford on Sunday to begin distribution - weather permitting.

MOTO SHEET:

From time to time, I'm struck both by the generosity and the loyalty of the Milwaukee BMX community. Recently, there was an article written about cycling as a "business development" opportunity that featured one of my colleagues who works for another architectural firm. The Business Journal article illustrated the strength of business relationships that are being built through group road rides. Now, while I'm not suggesting that we all pimp one another for business ... I absolutely subscribe to the theory that we at least regard ourselves as a community ... and, continue our support of one another away from the track, as well as at it. This little network of BMX supporting superheros we have developed may be small, but can still be mighty.

Many non NASCAR fans wonder what gives NASCAR such strong sponsor appeal. The answer is simple enough ... its the loyalty of NASCAR fans ... many who will choose a sponsors product over a competitive product, simply because of the sponsors involvement with NASCAR.

So, if you are a small business owner with ties to Milwaukee BMX ... no reason to be shy about what you do away from the track. In fact, a response to this post with what you do away from the track would be rad.

Similarly, if you are in need of something ... landscaping is a good for instance, since Fred Yanke is the owner / operator of Sandpiper Landscaping in Waukesha, and made many of the aesthetic improvements to the start area of the track -- Or, Brian Schulz, another Milwaukee BMX volunteer, who is an Operations Manager at Bothe Associates, Inc (Machine Shop) in Kenosha.

In fact, I'll start ... if any of you are, or have any racing friends involved with exterior masonry repair (window lintels and tuck pointing on a lannon stone cape in particular), get in touch ... I'm going to be looking for a quote later this summer and I'd like to hear from you.

Welcome to the Milwaukee BMX community. We'll get the job done !!!

Kevin O'Donnell

A-Pros -- Kaht, Carter and Lundy exploding out of the first turn and ready to take care of the second straight in a jiffy.

An overdue note of thanks:
As the 2006 / 2007 winter indoor season at Walworth BMX winds to a close -- you read it right, this Sunday will be the last indoor event of this spring -- it's easy to wonder where the time has gone. I want to personally thank Jake and Candy, along with all the Walworth BMX volunteers for continuing to run a program that is such a pleasure to be a part of. I have to say, the weeks I couldn't make it out to the races because of work, or illness ... whatever the excuse, were always bummer weeks. Meanwhile, every week that followed a weekend of racing just seemed to go more smoothly.

Schedule Change:
MilwaukeeBMX, in support of our good friends at the Fond du Lac BMX Club, have agreed to move our Saturday July 14th single points race to Thursday, July 12th. Between Milwaukee, Fondy and Oshkosh, a coordinated effort is happening on that weekend to offer SE Wisconsin racers a whopping 800 point weekend from July 12 to July 15 !!! If you are working toward earning a low district number for 2008 ... this is one weekend of racing you won't want to miss. Schedule is as follows:

• 7/12 single points, MilwaukeeBMX
• 7/13 single points, Fond du Lac BMX
• 7/14 double points, Race For Life, Fond du Lac BMX (daytime)
• 7/14 single points, Winnebegoland BMX (night race)
• 7/15 triple pints, Redline Cup, Fond du Lac BMX

Club Notes:
MilwaukeeBMX is now a recognized 501c3 not-for-profit group that is under the common charter of Friends of Milwaukee County Parks. This means, we can finally accept the generous donations many of you offered in the past. Please contact track operator John Mittelstadt @ 414-429-3485 or through e-mail mjmittelstadt@yahoo.com for more details.



We may take a look at adding the weekend of April 13 - 15 to the spring workdays. Workdays are currently scheduled for the weekend of April 20-22 and April 27-29.

* I'm asking any and all who think they can volunteer shoot me an e-mail at lavacycles@sbcglobal.net to advise of your availability so that I can start to generate a master list of who can work when. The list will be kept and published at MilwaukeeBMX.com

Additionally, if you are interested in volunteering in any of the following areas, please drop John or I a line ASAP:

• New Rider Registration (help sign up new ABA members and renew existing memberships)
• Sign-ups and Registration (help sign up racers for each event)
• Staging (assist riders in identifying and joining their proper moto and lane assignments)
• Scoring (help score racers in qualifying and main event races and hand out trophy cards during mains)
• Track Officials

The gate drop now resides at the workshop of Mark Kluth's brother, where it is undergoing some necessary TLC to get prepped for the 2007 racing season.

Print Schedules:
Will be out very soon. We'll have a short run of them by the time Rockford opens with a follow up batch designed by Graphics Arts student Roxanne Schneider produced by middle April.

GENERAL MEETING NOTICE:

There will be a general membership meeting next Wednesday night, March 7th @ Bennos in West Allis. Hope to see you there at 7 p.m.

Please be reminded that club meetings are scheduled for the first Wednesday of every month at 7 p.m. at Bennos.

Re-Scheduled 28+ Short Track Open at Elkhorn

Mother nature wins the first round of the 28+ Short Track Open by a couple of straightaways easy. A few of you learned of the cancellation of this weekends track activities from a very astute Sandi Eiring, who posted the news to MilwaukeeBMX.com on Saturday morning.

The re-scheduled event will take place on the evening of Saturday, March 11.

Tim Eiring leads out a gate of 28-35 experts at the Midwest Nationals last summer. Eiring is one of the early favorites for the BS Short Track Shootout at Walworth BMX later this month.

28 & OVER BS SHORT TRACK SHOOT OUT
$$$$$ MONEY OPEN $$$$$

Walworth County BMX will play host to the 2nd annual 28 and over BS Short Track Shootout, Saturday February 24th as part of the weekend activities associated with the ABA Race for Life.

Registration is from 2:00 – 4:00 p.m. and racing A.S.A.P

REGISTRATION FEE: $12.00

The format of this unique race allows all riders with valid ABA memberships, who are 28 or older, to compete against each other in a single class and run "what ya' brung" be it a 20”, cruiser, mountain bike, or schwinn pixie. There is no pedal rule meaning that either flats or clips are allowed. About the only pre-requisite to join the fun is that riders must be signed up for a regular class (novice, intermediate, expert or cruiser).

Normal 2 moto system will apply to transfer riders into quarters, through semis ... and those who make the main will run three times under the ABA pro format, with low total points determining the finish positions.

Sponsored by: Fly Racing, HRP Designs, Sun Ringle, Sandpiper Landscaping and Jeeps Auto Body, LLC

Contact for any questions: FYANKE@WI.RR.COM (Fred Yanke)

Here's a recent scribble depicting the Milwaukee BMX layout

Upcoming Meetings:

Club meetings will be held the first Wednesday of each month starting February 7th. They are open to all that can attend and have an interest in Milwaukee BMX. As always, Bennos is the place at 74th and Greenfield in West Allis and 7 p.m. is the time.

Track Work Weekends:

One of our members is optimistic that we can condense the majority of spring track maintenance into a "Walworth" type program in which a large amount of people come out on one weekend and tackle as many of the tasks associated with spring clean up as possible. Walworth's indoor track builds start on Friday and generally are completely wrapped up by Sunday afternoon of one weekend.

To that end ... please save the following dates as "track maintenance" dates:

April 20-21-22

April 27-28-29 (alternate for weather - if it looks like too many people will be lost to the ABA Cajun National - we can back off another week)

Wisconsin State Championship Qualifier weekend at Walworth BMX

Not that most of you need a reminder that this weekend's racing at Walworth BMX consists of a Saturday night single points race followed by a Sunday Wisconsin State Championship Qualifier double pointer, but, hey ... promoting BMX is what we do around here.

For what it's worth, the above photo was captured a few years back (we can tell by the 2002 / spring '03 Torque Center uniforms) by Bricker Photo.

Walworth seems to be averaging around 50+ motos per week. No wonder they call it the biggest little indoor in America.

2006 ABA points have been finalized, but, I'm not sure if we'll be running '07 numbers or not this weekend. If you want to check your final points online ... visit, http://www.ababmx.com/. We are also expecting the February issue of BMX'er shortly, which should have your 2007 district earned # on the cover.

Good luck to all who participate this weekend. We are looking forward to seeing you there.

Kevin O'

Milwaukee BMX 2007 Schedule

MAY:
Saturday - 19th - New Rider Clinic
Thursday - 24th - Gate Practice
Thursday - 31st - Gate Practice

JUNE:
Tuesday - 5th - Race
Thursday - 7th - Gate Practice
Saturday - 9th - Race (click for results here)
Tuesday - 12th - Race (cancelled - ran gate practice)
Thursday - 14th - Gate Practice
ABA MIDWEST NATIONAL - Rockford Illinois - 6/15 - 6/17
Tuesday - 19th - Race
Thursday - 21st - Gate Practice
Saturday - 23rd - Race (possible Race for Life)
Tuesday - 26th - Race (click for results here)
Thursday - 28th - Gate Practice

JULY:
Tuesday - 10th - Race (click for results here)
Thursday - 12th - Race

Fond du Lac BMX / Single pts. / Race for Life 2x points / Redline Cup 3x points - 7/13 - 7/15
Tuesday - 17th - Race
Thursday - 19th - Gate Practice
Tuesday - 24th - Race (click for results here)
Thursday - 26th - Gate Practice
Saturday - 28th - DOUBLE POINTS RACE - Wisconsin State Championship Qualifier (click for results here)

Tuesday - 31st - Race (click for results here)

AUGUST:
Thursday - 2nd - Gate Practice
Tuesday - 7th - Race
Thursday - 9th - Gate Practice
Saturday - 11th - Race
Tuesday - 14th - Race
Thursday - 16th - Gate Practice
Tuesday - 21st - Race
Thursday - 23rd - Gate Practice
Saturday - 25th - Race
Tuesday - 28th - Race
Thursday - 30th - Gate Practice

SEPTEMBER:
Thursday - 6th - Gate Practice
Saturday - 8th - Race
Saturday - 29nd - Race

OCTOBER:
Race or Practice - TBD


Milwaukee BMX 2007 Fees
ALL Gate Practice - fees $5.00
Single Point Race - $10.00 - class (open TBD)
Double Point Race - $20.00 - class (open TBD)


Registration and Sign-ups
ALL Gate Practice - 6 p.m. until ???
Tuesday Night Races - REGISTRATION 5-6 p.m. Racing ASAP
Saturday Races - REGISTRATION 10 - 11:30 a.m. Racing ASAP

HELP SUPPORT THOSE THAT SUPPORT THE SPORT !!!

The following Manufacturers support Milwaukee BMX through donations, sponsorships and with discounted product.

SunRingle BMX

Fly Racing BMX

Waste Management

The following Milwaukee area businesses and bike shops have agreed to lend their support to Milwaukee BMX through their participation in the 2008 Milwaukee BMX HOT SHOP program !!!

For the Moments Photography - John Themmes - 414.333.0686

Crank Daddy's Bicycle Works - 2108 N. Farwell - Milwaukee, WI

Wares Cyclery - 1306 S. 108th St., Milwaukee, WI 414-454-0550

South Shore Cycles - 4758 S Packard Ave - Cudahy 414-831-0211

Ben's Cycles - 1018 W Lincoln Ave - Milwaukee 414-384-2236

Johnson's Cycle & Fitness - 6916 W North Ave - Wauwatosa 414-476-2341

Allis Cycle - 9622 W. National Ave - West Allis 414-327-1290

Emerys Cycle and Fitness - Milwaukee / Glendale / Menomonee Falls 414-463-2453

Ride Extreme Sports - 14666 West National Avenue - New Berlin 262-789-7433

Wheel and Sprocket - Hales Corners, Brookfield, Delafield, Fox Point, Oshkosh & Appleton

Have all signed on to the Milwaukee BMX HOT SHOP program. These are the local shops that support Milwaukee BMX and we encourage our riders to get your goodies at these places first. Note, every sponsor phone number above and below starts with a 414 area code ... just like our track ... COOL !!! Remember ... think global, buy local.

MEETING UPDATE:

TONIGHT'S MEETING AT BENNO'S WILL TAKE PLACE AT 7:00 P.M.

Happy New Year Everybody !!!

MEETING NOTICE:

Those who can are asked to attend an update meeting this Wednesday night at Benno's on Greenfield Avenue in West Allis.

Jersey Update:
MilwaukeeBMX.com jerseys are in and being distributed first to those who we took pre-orders from. Thanks for your patience. In the next couple of days, I'll have an update with remaining colors and sizes and we'll sell those that were ordered as extra for $20 / each ($1.95 under the MSRP + shipping - if necessary). The project has been more successful than we imagined. We've now got more than 30 out there. Seeing all the Milwaukee-BMX logos at the track is personally gratifying. We appreciate your continued support.

$$$ DONATIONS:
We heard that a cash donation was sent to the track address in the "directions" area of this site recently. Please do not send your donations meant for MilwaukeeBMX to Crystal Ridge. There will be a new website coming soon with additional information on how to make cash donations. Please bear with us as we make this change and thanks for your patience in the meantime.

EXPANSION OF FACTORY DIRECT LINK TEAM INVOLVES AREA RIDERS:
Congratulations Mike Froh, Desiree Roeder, and Dallas Wiemer for recently being picked up by factory DirectLink. They join other Wisconsin hot shoes, Tim Eiring, Randy Behnke (TM), Curt Zizzo and Bryan Dickerson, who have been scoring well in the factory team cateory at the ABA nationals they attend.

ON THE ROAD AGAIN:
All of the riders above, + Fred Yanke, Jason Leikam and a few others, will be heading South for next weekends ABA Volunteer Nationals in Tennessee. Good luck, you guys.

That's it for now ... we hope we'll be seeing a few of you Wednesday at Bennos.

Kevin O'

BMX News ... Congratulations Ryan Birk!


Kuwahara Factory BMX Team adds Upshaw (re-posted from BMXNews.com)

Kuwahara BMX Bikes is proud to announce the US debut of the 2007 Kuwahara Factory BMX Team at the upcoming NBL Christmas Classic race on Dec. 26. And what a marque team it's going to be. Original team pro Matt Pohlkamp will be joined by Australian Warwick Stevenson who will be returning to the US to compete for both the ABA and NBL titles this season.

Also signing with Kuwahara after coming off a nasty wrist injury and making his rookie pro debut at the Christmas Classic in front of his home state fans is Jeffery Upshaw. Sun Ringle's Ryan Birk will be mixing it up in the vet pro class for Kuwahara as well. And even Natarsha Williams, Kuwahara's US Sales and Marketing Manager will be back out mixing it up in the women's pro class on occassion.

The 2 lone amateurs on the team will be national #1 13expert Justin Posey and little 8expert radster Luke Howse.The Kuwahara Factory team would like to thank it's 2007 co-sponsors, Maxxis Tires, Sun Ringle', Funn Components, Fly Racing, and Tangent Products.The team will be riding the all new 2007 line of Kuwahara race bikes available in complete bikes as well as frame only. So stop by the Kuwahara pit at the Christmas Classic and check out the 2007 line of products and meet the team.

It's going to be a big year at Kuwahara with this lineup of bikes and riders.For more info on Kuwahara BMX Bikes check out kuwaharabmx.com.

In other Kuwahara BMX news, US Sales and Marketing Manger and Girl Pro Natarsha Williams and Sun Ringle' BMX Director and Vet Pro, Ryan Birk were married on Christmas Day and will be spending their honeymoon the way any BMX crazed couple should....at a BMX race. So if you see Ryan at the race ask him how the heck he pulled that off and if you see Natarsha...wish her good luck.

Happy Holidays and Merry BM-X-Mas !!!

Time for bikes to hit the racks, and rakes, shovels, and paperwork to get set aside for a few days and enjoy time with our families over the holidays.

But, first, another update for you guys!

The second batch of FLY jersies have arrived and will be taken to the printer next week. We'll definitely have 'em ready in time for the 2007 season opener at Walworth on January 7. I ordered a bunch of extra's in the adult L / XL sizes ... so, if you didn't get in as part of the order, fear not ... we may still have you covered.








The meeting with Milwaukee County this week was both informative and productive. We should have the County contractual language in place by mid-January and then be ready to proceed with the final use-approval process with the City of Franklin. We were also advised that our 501c3 application has been received by the County and may be approved as early as January.

This has been a super exciting year (more on that next week) and John and I just want to say thanks again to all those who have helped advance Milwaukee BMX to this point.

Kevin O'

Milwaukee BMX 2007 Schedule Progress:

John Mittelstadt has arranged a meeting with Milwaukee County Parks, Trails Coordinator, Guy Smith, to move forward with the contractual language that will allow us to race in 2007.

We've also had continued discussions with other local track operators to coordinate schedules, and, by the time you read this, John will likely have submitted to the ABA a schedule that includes racing on Tuesday nights and every other Saturday next summer, during the months of June, July and August. We have no weeknight races scheduled for September, but, plan on a couple of Saturday races to close out the season. Gate practice will be run on Thursday evenings. We plan to get things started with a couple of new rider clinics in late May and early June.

Bench racing:

I've been a part-time competitor, but mostly full time observer of BMX racing for decades. Looking back, the most memorable moments in BMX racing involve rivalries. In the formative years of PRO racing, it was all about Stu Thomsen (#1) and Greg Hill (#3).

It's not like the supporting characters in pro racing we're giving Stu and Greg anything easy. Scott Clark, Brent and Brian Patterson, Kevin McNeal, Anthony Sewell, Tommy Brackens (the Powerlite rider leading the pack in the image above) Frank Post, Clint Miller, Turbo Harry Leary (amazingly still at it in Vet from time to time ... Leary was the "old" guy then!) and Perry Kramer were all amazing riders that could kill it on any given day. But, consistently, race after race, for year after year ... it was “Stompin'” Stu and the "Business Man" Hill that always seemed to factor in for the number 1 plate.

There have been other classic duels between then and now. Pistol Pete Loncarevich and Ronnie Anderson is one example that comes to mind, as do: Gary Ellis and Charles Townsend; Mike King and Eric Carter; Danny Nelson and John Purse ... all good battles. But, none really consistently measure up to the wars held between Hill and Thomsen. Maybe it's because they are actually family (through the marriage of Hills' sister to Thomsen). Perhaps it was that they were once team-mates on Redline. Whatever the reason, these two clearly set the pace for several years in the early 80's.


Fast forward to this moment. For several years now, Bubba Harris (Redline) and Randy Stumpfhauser (GT) have gobbled up the #1 or #2 plates in the two major sanctions. This year at the ABA Grands was an absolute classic showdown between the two. Harris was hurt for a while early in the season, but steadily worked his way back up to (his normal) speed. Stumpy, on the other hand, had been killing it at pretty much all the NBL races and always in the mix at the ABA events that he made. We invite you to check out the mains, captured by Millineum BMX by saving the files to your hard drive with a right mouse click and "save target as".

The pair split the first and second rounds of the mains, setting up main #3 with the two tied at 3 points each. We can only imagine how that third lap would have gone down if it were not for Bubba clearly coming unclipped right out of the gate. Yeah, Harris finishes the lap fourth, but, down the first straight, the pack has hit the big double by the time Harris is at the drop off.

Harris, who is now the first three-peat #1 AA Pro in the history of ABA racing, has been a phenom since he was a kid, and has been a consistent winner throughout his career. We’ve seen him grow up in BMX, and noticed his work ethic and commitment a long time ago so it’s really no surprise that he’s achieved so much so quickly.

Stumpy, predominantly a player in the NBL until the last year or two, on the other hand, seems to have clearly stepped up his game.

Looking back, it seems evident that Hill and Thomsen were the first to recognize and fully capitalize on the rapid growth of BMX in the early 1980’s. When Stu was on Redline and Hill was on GT from late ’81 through sometime in ’83, the two were the first six figure salaried pros in the sport.

Today, it seems pretty evident that the addition of BMX Racing as a medal sport at the 2008 Olympics is playing some role in the continued commitment of these two riders. Harris and Stumpy both want it … and it shows. Not to take anything away from other contenders, Donny Robinson finished third at the Grands, and Kyle Bennett is a consistent front runner when he’s healthy.

Stumpy and Harris, at the moment, however, just seem to want it more. That’s what rivalries are made of, and theirs is a good one for sure. There’s a lot to look forward to in 2007.

More NAG(ging)

We're happy to pass along the following note from Mike Welch -- who reminds us that the WI-01 riders profiled in a previous post are not the only Wisconsin riders to earn NAG honors this year ... We send our congratulations to both Dallas and Desiree for top finishes against national competition.

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Hello
Just thought I'd mention that two other Wisconsin riders ended the year with some
super strong nationals this year to end up with NAG plates.

Dallas Weimer is NAG 7 on his cruiser (13 year old) and Desiree Roeder is NAG 3 in 11girls. Those are two kids that pretty much everyone racing in Wisconsin knows. Dallas started racing when he was 4 and i think Desi has been racing for at least 4 or 5
years now.

Mike Welch

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Thanks for the heads up Mike.