It’s been a bit quiet here lately and still not much to post. Bruce and his boys competed at the ACT BMX titles held last weekend at the Tuggeranong BMX track. No action shots of Bruce as he must have been riding too fast. Well not fast enough because a couple of guys finished ahead of him in the final. Still, much better than I would have achieved.

I tried to add up the years of the guys in the photo below and ran out of fingers and toes pretty quickly. 40-44 Cruiser final. The other photo is Bruce’s son James powering along on his Crupi race bike.

Thanks Mark for the use of the photos.

Bruce at the 2009 ACT BMX Titles

James at the 2009 ACT BMX Titles

Bruce Watman is a good friend of RSABOUT and gave the brand plenty of exposure in the Track Attack BMX racing series held across six track in Melbourne, Victoria recently. He was racing in the 30-44 years cruiser class that featured a number of very fast riders. By combining skill, luck and persistence he managed to take out first place for the class. Well done Bruce.

If you were to count up the total age of riders in the last photo it’s probably about the same as the total of all the other younger classes. Thanks to Ian for the photo.

Bruce on the podium for Track Attack 2009

Team rider Luke Parker is racing the first four rounds of the Track Attack 2009 series before trying his hand at the BMX Games on the weekend. As I sit here writing this post round 3 is underway. I thought it best if I didn’t go to this round as I’m not sure I’m a good influence on Luke. I went riding on Saturday and called in afterwards to check out the end of the racing. I arrived just in time to see Luke go down in the second corner of his semi and miss qualifying for the final. No pictures so I though I’d head out Sunday to watch round 2. Get a good position near the first corner only to see Luke go down in the first corner of his first moto. Not a good start to the day and with the competitive A Pro class that makes it all but impossible to progress out of the motos. Oh well, better luck for the rest of the races Luke.

Bruce Watman was also sporting the RSABOUT colours and he and Paul Morris was having a great battle. Good to see an older guy giving the youngster a run for his money.

Thanks to Mark and Ian for the photos as all the ones I took were useless!

Luke Parker racing in Track Attack 2009

Bruce Watman racing in Track Attack 2009

Bruce Watman and Paul Morris racing in Track Attack 2009

Team riders Andrew Gul and Luke Parker will be competing in the BMX GAMES to be held at Melbourne Docklands over the Australia Day long weekend from 24-26 January. More information about session times can be found at the BMX Games website.

It will be an especially busy week and a half for Luke who is racing A Pro in the first few rounds of Track Attack 2009 then putting the race bike away and grabbing the street bike for the BMX Games. More details can be found at the Track Attack 2009 website.

Good luck guys.

Rockstar Energy Drink BMX Games

Track Attack 2009

It all started back in November 2005 with the first Australian Vintage BMX gathering and after trips to Terrigal and the Gold Coast it is back in Melbourne with the 4th Australia Vintage BMX gathering for all the old school BMXers. The first one had a good turn out with most people getting to put names with faces for the first time. It’s now to the point that these gatherings are a chance to catch up with friends made over the years, show a few new (well old) BMXs and generally have a great time. Saturday afternoon at the Knox BMX track and see the flyer for more details.

Jeff S has come through again and put together a cracking video from Brian P’s Summer Slam 2008. Check it out.

Brian was a freestyle BMXer back in the day and never raced. From the sounds of it he is having a great time jumping on an old school BMX and lining up on the start gate as part of the old school BMX race series held in New Jersey, USA. He finished fourth overall for the series which is a great result considering he had only raced one before (last year) in his life and also missed one of the race meetings. Well done mate.

Day one of riding was a huge one for me. Normally it’s only a couple of parks in a day, however, with only one day in Sydney we tried to fit in as much as possible. I was staying with Bruce and his family and after the kids were packed up and sent off to school we headed out for breakfast for a bit of carbo loading and hit up a few parks. First up was a nice mellow one at Cherrybrook where we also caught up with Rohan. Once we had warmed up it was off to Thornleigh where I pulled out the camera for a few shots.

Next up was Five Dock and after looping out of a jump I decided to take it a bit easier on the first day of the trip. As I’m travelling solo I need to be able to drive and having driven before with a broken collarbone, I know things like that are not fun. Bruce was having a bit of fun out of the bowl whilst Rohan was doing toe wheelies and I just sat around.

There was also a guy about our age with plenty of style on an old school skateboard. I ran out of fingers trying to add up the combined ages of the people riding and skating there. It was my first time there and I now have an even greater appreciation for Coasty’s Five Dock photo. That old bowl is insane.

Next up was Monster Skatepark at Homebush. Also my first visit to the Sydney 2000 Olympics site. Bruce and I had the ramps to ourselves which was sweet. The camera stayed in the car. A few slams here and there but we both walked away having pulled off a few things on the list. A bruised ankle and elbow was a small price to pay although our old bodies were starting to feel it by the end.

A quick stop at Bruce’s to pick up his two boys and it was off to Castle Hill BMX track for a midweek gates session. By this time I wasn’t moving that well and with major works in progress at the track and the final surface to to be laid down it was pretty rough. I spent more time sitting and watching some of the guys on their dirt jump mountain bikes that were more suited to the track. Should be a great one once it is finished.

Really need to get some riding done with others so you don’t always see just photos of me. Anyway, here’s a few from my first decent session out on the jumps. A dodgy sounding one piece driver didn’t instill a lot of confidence in really cranking it out, however, I survived unscathed which is always a bonus for me. Many of the landings were old school flat which was a bit of fun. And speaking of fun, The Park Orchards BMX track is way better as a jumping place rather than a race track.

Brian P’s Summer Slam 2008 was held on the weekend and by the looks of the photos it was a great day. Once again I have to rely on Guav to provide the photos as I was stuck in Melbourne. One of these days Brian…

Here’s a photo of the host delivering the beer on his Vector freestyle BMX. Plenty of extra tubes on the frame perfect for carting stuff.

There’s a few more photos in the Summer Slam 2008 gallery plus a link through to more of Guav’s photos.