Saturday, September 22, 2012

First BMX Race

We've been taking Lucas to the BMX track since mid-April... so for about 5 months now.  He has gone on summer mornings and weekday afternoons, and usually has the track pretty much to himself.  He talks a lot about racing for real, and has gone many times to the open practice sessions on Wednesday nights (which only really means that there are a bunch more people there and volunteers are working the start gates).  The real races are Friday nights and Sunday afternoon, and we are usually busy people :)  So, we haven't made it to any of those...  Until last night. 

There were about 100 registered racers there that were divided up into groups called "motos", based on age and expertise.  Lucas was in the novice group.  It's the only group where boys and girls race together, and had 2 four and 2 five year olds.  Everyone gets to do 2 rounds of the race, and the best make it to the 3rd and final round.  So, for Lucas' group, all 4 raced in the 6th moto. 

Round 1...  Lucas got off to a great start, but on the first big turn, he was peddling so fast that his feet flew off the pedals.  We couldn't believe he didn't fall... He slowed down BIG time, but got his feet back on and kept going.  I think he came in 3rd.  So, the winner of that heat automatically made it through to the final round. 

Round 2...  The 3 that weren't first last round raced again.  Lucas looked strong and came in 1st!  There is someone doing commentary/announcing each race, and Lucas LOVED hearing his name on the speakers.  The last kid from this race was eliminated.

Final round...  3 kids left...  Lucas and another racer almost collided going down the first hill...  Ah!  Scary...  Somehow, after much wobbling, they both kept it together.  It was a pretty close race the whole time, and Lucas ended up with 2nd place (behind a girl!). 

Afterwards, 1st and 2nd places get trophies.  Lucas was over the moon excited about his, and Lottie was pissed she didn't get anything.  Since then, he has been holding it almost non-stop.  It was the first thing he grabbed when he got up this morning too!  He was back at the track practicing before lunch today again...  Of course, Tony got him some new pedals and a different sprocket in hopes of giving him more edge next week :)

There's a guy who takes pictures at each race and posts them on facebook... Here are the ones of us:

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