Roger York Photography:Jim McNally

MOTOCROSS, BMX, both the same thing right? A bunch of riders on motorized bikes going around an oval track. Wrong! In fact I couldn't have been more wrong. But, you see, I had never been to a BMX race and there were a lot of things I needed to learn about the sport. The first thing that Darren Williams, Coach of the Lethbridge BMX Club, hastened to tell me was, "There are no motors, speed is achieved by the individual riders pedaling, and skill plays a very large part in getting to the finish line first." Then he invited me to come out to see a race. What a hoot.

I went to the season opener on April 29, and got there a bit early, just to see the track and perhaps to meet some of the families and kids involved. Everyone was excited, and I must say, there was a great spirit of co-operation and friendliness. There were jobs to be done, people selected to do them, and the kids were all busy testing out the track conditions. There were beginners, learning a bit about the obstacles, the starting gate and just getting used to their bikes and the track. And there were the "old pros," some of them all of 10 or 11 years old, but who had been racing for five or six years already. When the races started, everyone cheered on their favourites, and the action was nonstop.

Darren explains, "The trick is to be consistent. There could be as many as eight riders in one moto [or race], and you race three times a night. You get one point for coming in first, two for second etc. until you reach eight for eighth. The lowest aggregate score wins." All I knew was that everyone was trying his or her level best to win each time they raced, and everyone seemed to be having a ball, both racing and watching.

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