The racers at Globe BMX are hoping for a new track.
“A new track would help me push myself harder in ways I can’t push now,” said 10-year-old Taylor Sikorski, who has won 25 races and now competes against racers three years older than her.
The Saskatoon bike motocross club held its second Summer Classic competition on Saturday as a fundraiser for the project. Riders ages three to 40 and above were competing.
Club president Kyle Schmitt says the club needs a bigger track with bigger jumps and a new surface to improve the competition and skill level of the riders.
“We really want to bring that to Saskatchewan, to Saskatoon,” he said.
Kaine Foster, a 15-year-old BMX rider who has competed in the world championships, says a new track would help him improve.
“It would be good because then we can practise for what we’re going to do in Alberta,” he said.
Globe BMX has a smaller team than many of the clubs it competes against from Alberta, a member told Global News, but Globe is still competitive.
“My dream is to be an Olympian, but that might not happen,” Foster said. “But my biggest goal for next year is going to worlds in Houston.”
Sikorski has similar goals.
“I want to go to worlds again and I want to go to the Olympics,” she said.
Schmitt hopes to be able to build a track that at least has a connection to the Olympics — he wants famed circuit designer Tom Ritz to design it.
“He built the last two Olympic BMX tracks,” Schmitt said. “So if anybody checked out the Olympics in Rio — beautiful track, it was all green and red — that was designed and built by Tom Ritz.”
He estimates the cost of the new track to be $500,000 and says the project is still in the conceptual stage.