Ireland’s leading BMX rider Kevin Batey will be one of the stars in Ratoath (Photo: TwentyInch Ireland)
Get the Raleigh Burner back out, the padded tracksuits and the full face helmets; BMX racing is coming back.
On Sunday week, November 27th, the new BMX track in Ratoath, Co Meath, will host the first BMX races in the Republic since the late 1980s.
The first races in over two decades have come about largely due to a long labour of love from those who dominated the scene of the 1980s.
They’ve recently reunited to breathe new life into the dormant scene; securing land to build a new track and the funds to complete the construction.
The result is a brand new facility in Ratoath - complete with floodlights – with those behind the project now hoping to not only get the scene going again, but to expand rapidly with a full ongoing programme of racing.
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Shay McNally and Eamonn Wyer both rode at Superclass – or professional – BMX level back in the 1980s and are both involved in the relaunch of racing here now.
McNally, who lives in Ratoath, was instrumental in securing the land from local people needed to build the new track.
Ratoath BMX Club has over the past couple of years raised €40,000 – much of it from donations with a contribution from Meath County Council – to build the tarmac and stone all-weather track, which is fully drained and constructed to international BMX racing standards.
Wyer describes himself as the BMX track and club’s test pilot and technical advisor.
“I was looking at BMX on the Olympics and I was thinking, ‘yeah it’s about time’,” he says of the decision to get involved in the sport again.
Spotting himself in an old BMX video clip from the mid 1980s, he posted a message online and “people I hadn’t even thought about for twenty years” also left messages.
They decided to meet up with their bikes just over two years ago and arising from that the idea to get the scene moving again was born.
“You’ve always had freestyle in the years since racing stopped, but there’s been no BMX racing here for pretty much 25 years,” he said.
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As the scene peaked in 1986, a 50-strong team went to the World Championships in then UK.
“We all camped at it because that’s what you did then; it was great, people still talk about it.”
With the UCI World BMX Championships on in Birmingham next year, Wyer says he and those experienced racers now trying to revive the sport want to have an Irish team ready to go to those championships.
He says the race programme for the first meeting in Ratoath will cater for all ages, from four-years upwards with races for BMX riders and also MTBs and cruisers.
“We actually have some 4-year-olds who can go around the track and are really very good,” Wyer says.
“We will see how the entries go online before we start planning how many races we are going to have. If we get a full race of eight riders or even six or seven of a certain age then we’ll have a race for that age group. If only a few of one age turn up, they’ll be mixed into other races; we’ll just have to wait and see.”
For full details of the Nov 27th events and to register for yourself or your kids, check out…..
Irish BMX photos from back in the day….
(Photos courtesy Stephen Clancy and TwentyInch Ireland)
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