The starting gate is about to drop on one of the biggest weekends River City BMX has seen, bringing three days of racing, regional competition and a whole lot of hometown excitement to Grants Pass.
From September 11 through September 13, BMX riders from around the Northwest will converge on Southern Oregon for the USA BMX Gold Cup Championship Series Northwest Final, transforming the local track at 251 Agness Road into a gathering place for racers, families, spectators and a BMX community that stretches well beyond Josephine County.
For Grants Pass, this is considerably more than another weekend at the track. River City BMX is a nonprofit organization built around local riders, families, volunteers and businesses, and the arrival of a regional championship gives the community an opportunity to see what years of grassroots work have created.
Racing begins at 5 p.m. Friday, September 11, continues at 11:30 a.m. Saturday and gets an early start at 8 a.m. Sunday. Admission for spectators is free throughout the weekend. Parking is $15 per day.
The competition will put accomplished regional racers on the same grounds where local children learn the fundamentals of BMX, sometimes beginning before they are old enough to pedal a traditional bicycle.
“River City BMX is a nonprofit track that I like to say is ‘owned by the kids,’ and that includes the adults, too, because they’re just big kids,” River City BMX track operator James Martin said.
That sense of community is central to the operation. Members and volunteers help sustain the track, local businesses provide support and generations of riders have spent countless hours learning how to handle its turns, jumps and straightaways.
Hosting the Gold Cup Northwest Final gives all of them a much larger stage.
“Our track is supported by our members and volunteers, the community and local businesses, so having the Gold Cup Finals here in Grants Pass gives us an opportunity to showcase our track and let everyone involved show the BMX community who we are and what we’re about,” Martin said.
River City BMX was deliberately developed to accommodate riders at different stages of the sport. Newcomers can learn without being overwhelmed by the course, while experienced competitors still encounter the technical demands expected from a serious BMX track.
“We built Grants Pass to be a skills track that’s welcoming to new riders while still challenging advanced racers,” Martin said. “As soon as a kid can ride a balance bike, they can race here.”
That open door has helped turn the track into a place where children can discover BMX at an early age and continue developing as their confidence and abilities grow.
Local racers have not been sitting around waiting for September to arrive.
Riders have spent the summer preparing through clinics and race days, including a training clinic led by BMX riders Burlin Harris and Tyler McGuire. Every practice lap has carried a little more significance with a regional final looming on their home track.
For local youth rider Lakiya, the size of the upcoming competition is difficult to ignore.
“It’s kind of crazy because we’ve never had a huge race like that in the seven years that I’ve been racing,” Lakiya said. “So it means a lot to have this huge final come to our track.”
There is another side to the weekend that matters to the young racer. BMX is a competitive sport, but experienced riders also become examples for the children who are just beginning to understand the starting gate, the course and the confidence required to race.
“It means a lot to me being able to help younger riders advance into their BMX careers,” Lakiya said.
Some relationships with River City BMX reach back considerably further.
Local rider Will Williams has been riding at the Grants Pass track since 1992. More than three decades later, what stands out to him is not simply the competition. It is everything that happens around it.
“The most fun part is the time we get to spend with our friends and family and the memories we create throughout the entire process, whether it’s riding a couple of times a week or taking a weeklong trip,” Williams said.
Those relationships are part of what has allowed BMX to develop into a sport where a child can begin on a balance bike and gradually work through increasingly competitive levels of racing.
USA BMX traces its history to the American Bicycle Association, established in 1977. The organization now has more than 70,000 members participating in racing and freestyle events at more than 300 sanctioned BMX tracks across the United States and Canada.
Its developmental structure gives young cyclists opportunities to begin at the grassroots level and continue progressing through organized competition. For the most accomplished athletes, that pathway can eventually reach national competition and even the Olympic level.
For one September weekend, part of that much larger BMX world will be rolling directly into Grants Pass.
The influx of competitors and their families will also introduce visitors to a community surrounded by outdoor recreation. The Rogue River offers rafting, kayaking, fishing and paddleboarding, while nearby trails provide additional opportunities for hiking and cycling. The Dollar Mountain Trail System sits close to town, and the Applegate and Illinois valleys add wineries and rural destinations to the surrounding landscape.
Downtown Grants Pass offers another stop between races, with locally owned restaurants, coffee shops, bookstores, antique stores, galleries, boutiques and other businesses within a relatively compact downtown district.
For local families who have never attended a BMX race, the Northwest Final also offers an easy introduction. There is no spectator admission charge, and the competition will provide three separate days to watch racers negotiate the speed, jumps, corners and rapid positioning that make BMX a distinctly different form of bicycle racing.
For the people who already call River City BMX home, however, September 11 will carry another meaning.
It will be the evening when riders line up at a Grants Pass starting gate for a regional championship that local racers once had to travel elsewhere to experience.
Martin hopes it will not be the last.
“After this event, we hope USA BMX will return for more events in the future, allowing the track to continue giving back to the community and building a future for BMX in Grants Pass,” Martin said.
When those gates begin dropping Friday evening, River City BMX will have three days to show the Northwest what its riders, volunteers, families and supporters have spent years building in Grants Pass.
And this time, the hometown crowd gets to watch it happen right here.