by Shane Jenkins

I came home from racing at Knox on Sunday with a smile on my face and a spring in my step, so I was told. When I stopped to think why it became obvious to me. It was a great day to be at the BMX track.

It wasn’t the results, although I won’t complain about finishing second in the 40-49 class, an age bracket I graduated out of this year but I chose to race against my friends and like minded BMXers. Results driven BMX isn’t for me, it hasn’t been for many years, if it was I would hire a personal trainer, do gates, gym, sprints and everything else that goes along with it. I’d rather just have some fun on, and off, the track.

BMX made me smile because I got to hang out with friends, old and new. I got to talk about racing through the early days, about the state of the BMX industry and some of the latest products on the market. There was some trash talk under the race tent about who got a better start or a better lap time. I stayed upright and got to keep all my skin fully intact for another week. I got to play Santa, handing out prizes from the Answer/SSquared BSX2020 event that was held earlier in the week and got great feedback about the track and the event, which was nice to hear given all the hard work done by the tiny BSX crew. A small circle of great (and hard working) people who I am proud to call my friends.

It was the realisation though that I had officially raced my BMX bike across five decades, having started in 1982. So that’s the 80’s, 90’s, 00’s, 10’s and now the 20’s. My longest break would have been six or maybe as far as nine months due to injury. That’s five very long decades filled with all the fun you can have on a BMX bike. While BMX is an individual sport it’s the people in it that keep me coming back, it’s the social side of it, without that key factor I would be long gone. People with varying backgrounds all putting all of (or at least most of) their differences aside and sharing a common interest.

When I started racing BMX in ’82 it was at it’s peak, the sport has never been bigger than it was then, and it probably never will come close. I was raised in a small footy town, my friends at the time were all footy heads, and they were convinced that BMX was just another dying fad, way back then, nearly forty years ago. But here I am still at it and still loving it.

I smile because I get the same buzz out of BMX now as I did back then. I race BMX for the fun of it, nothing more. I’ve learned these past years that BMX certainly isn’t the fountain of youth. I’ve learned that it may not keep me young, but it still keeps me happy. And I’ve been told many times through my life do what makes you happy, very wise words indeed. So I’ll keep riding my BMX bike for as long as I can, and I’ll keep smiling.

Why do you still go to the race track? What makes you smile?