*** BMX Fans Get Tanglewood Track Ready ***
Winston-Salem, NC -- 03/09/2008
Parents association helps prepare for March 11
opening; layout has new turn called the Berm.
http://img99.imageshack.us/img99/1556/02282008azf5.jpg
Photo - Ken Robison (left) and Marshall Swiergiel
work on the BMX track at Tanglewood Park.
Ken Robison walked away from BMX racing when he
became an adult, but his passion for the s****t lured
him back.
Once or twice a week, Robison and one of his children
travel from their home in Greensboro to the BMX track
at Tanglewood Park.
It may seem like a long drive to ride a bike, but the BMX
track here is one of the best in the country, Robison said.
Robison and a few other people involved in the BMX Parents’
Association spent several hours Saturday grooming the track
- blowing away leaves and picking up limbs in anticipation of
the new season.
The track will re-open for practice on Tuesdays and Thursday
nights beginning March 11. The first local race of the season
will be March 15.
Weekly races last through October.
Marshall Swiergiel of Advance is in charge of keeping the track
groomed. Over the off-season, he helped install a wide-banking
turn known as the Berm. Swiergiel said the turn is the biggest
change at the track in about two years.
“Everybody who has ridden on the track wants to see the changes
I’ve made,” he said. “We like to change the options to entice riders
to come out.”
The first big race of the year will be on April 12, when more than
200 racers from North Carolina and South Carolina will participate.
Part of the challenge for Swiergiel is to make sure the track can
accommodate beginner and expert riders. The people who use
the track range from 3-year-olds to daredevil teenagers to adults
returning to the s****t after riding mountain bikes. Robison is one
of the latter.
He competed in BMX races from 1977
to 1987 then took up mountain biking.
“I always followed the s****t,” Robison said about BMX. “Basically,
I went on with my life, and like a lot of adults who get back into, I
got back into it when my kids got involved.”
His daughter and son both compete in BMX races at Tanglewood Park.
Robison said that getting back on a BMX bike “was a blast.” The tracks
are a bit different, however. When he raced as a boy, the turns were
tighter, which led to more crashes and injuries.
“But the racing itself was a very familiar feeling,” he said. “The
camaraderie you have with the guys, it’s like a reunion each week.”
Swiergiel said that someone who wants to try BMX racing at the track
can come by Tuesday or Thursday from 6 to 8 p.m. If they like it, they
need to join the National Bicycle League (a yearly member****p costs
$45),
which enables them to ride at Tanglewood and other tracks sanctioned by
the NBL.
Each practice session costs $3. About 30 people
might practice. Races draw about 75 riders.
Swiergiel has been keeping the track in shape since 2006.
“I do it for the kids,” he said. “If I had a place like this when
I was younger, then maybe I wouldn’t have gotten into so
much trouble when I was a boy.”
Geneb...Wenatchee,Wa****ngton-USA
All Things Northwest in BMX!
***** Gene`s BMX *****
http://www.genesbmx.com
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