THE 2012 GOLDCROSS CYCLES BSX
Written by BMX Ultra
BSX (Bicycle Supercross) is one-on-one sprint trails style racing on a backyard track built specifically to test a rider's skills. The short straights, lofty jumps and tight corners are very intense under race conditions but also fun for competitors and create quite a lot of entertainment for spectators.
The events primary function is to raise money for the Royal Children's Hospital Foundation. In just five years the event has raised approximately $24,700 which has provided the hospital with new equipment. Funds have been raised through gate takings, raffles, auctions and donations.
When Shane Jenkins came up with the idea of BSX, about 7 years ago, it was all about the fun. A two man bmx race/trails track built by riders, and a race meeting by riders, for riders. He chose the first Monday of the Track Attack series because, back then, there was a UCI race incorporated into the series. BSX tried to give the elite riders a little something to stick around for.
The first year was an overwhelming success, but not for a minute did they think that the event would be running for seven years let alone double the number of riders involved.
The whole thing is centered around raising money for Charity. 100% of profits raised from the event are donated to the Royal Children's Hospital Foundation. BMX has put a fair share of riders into hospital so it only makes sense that we support the RCH. We have the Kinglake CFA (Country Fire Authority) branch running a mean BBQ, helping them to raise funds as well.
The racing format hasn't changed a great deal. The BSX kick off with about 2 hours of riding, then time trials to seed the riders and eliminations until we find a winner. The track on the other hand, that changes all the time, each year we throw a new challenge at the riders and sit back and watch.
This year it was perfect weather for riding, sunny 30°C and a slight breeze. The track looked amazing thanks to the tireless efforts of everyone who helped prepare it. A big shout out to Ronnie Guyers who put in a massive effort spending two days in the lead up to the event making sure it looked perfect and was smooth for the riders.
There was a notable absense with three time winner Josh Callan (racing in New Zealand) and his sister Ziggy Callan (retired from BMX), typically crowd favourites for the event. Bodi Turner, who was the 2011 runner up, was also racing in New Zealand, and missed BSX2012.
2008 Olympian and numerous times Australian Elite Champion, Luke Madill (DK/Fox), returned to BSX to try to reclaim his crown. Another very popular rider, Stay Strong's Darryn Goodwin, returned to BSX to attempt to claim his first BSX title. They were amongst a strong field that included WA's Matty Justa, USA's Bryce Hocking, South Australia's Scooby Guyers and a strong line up of Victorian's including Levi Collins, Tom Siinmaa, David Lyon and young guns like Max Cairns and Matthew White. Just a few of the 61 strong field of the Open Men's class.
The strongest 30+ Open Wheel class assembled in the seven years of the event would put five time winner Simon Anderson to the test.
The field included past winner Brian "Jock" Kelly, as well as Jade McPherson and Shane Jenkins, both former runners up at BSX. Add the likes of BSX virgins Richard McLachlan, Robert Slatter and Goldcross Cycles' own Daniel Burgess to names like Craig Walczuk, Chris Van Winden, Paul Knox, Paul Tomkinson, Jason Eecen, and a bunch of others and you have yourself some tight racing.
The time trials were run old school. BSX had three stop watches and a spread sheet to average each riders times out. It's not perfect, but it did the job.
After the time trials all eyes turned to the ECI high jump competition at the end of the first straight. This time they were jumping for a trophy that stood over a metre tall. Darryn Goodwin took the win with a massive jump and the crowd were revved up for some great "no bull"/"last guy across the line is eliminated" style racing.
The two top seeded open men riders were knocked out of the competition in round one. First Wade Worth took the win over Luke Madill then his fellow Anarchy BMX team mate James Lautier took the win over Levi Collins. It's just one of those tracks, a slight mistake, even the smallest hesitation is extremely costly. There were no other major upsets in that round, but there were some stand out races by some of the younger riders who seem to be hitting their stride, Hayden Fletcher looked at home and progressed comfortably. Matthew White looked to be enjoying this style of racing too knocking Lachie Tye out early.
Matthew went on to eliminate Wade Worth in the second round and was quickly building a following. The upsets continued in the second round with Max Cairns eliminating Steve Gedye, Connor Hunter knocked out David Lyon, American Bryce Hocking knocked off last years finalist Chase Collins, and Tom Siinmaa got the better of Darryn Goodwin.
By the semi finals our third and fourth seeded riders (Matty Justa and Tom Siinmaa) emerged unscathed, they were joined by young gun Matthew White and American Bryce Hocking. Matty went on to end Matthew's giant killing run and Tom Siinmaa beat out Bryce Hocking for a finals berth. In the B final Bryce Hocking took the third over Matthew White when White went down in the third corner. In the A final Matty Juster had the inside running, Tom Siinmaa had the outside. In the first corner Matty just about over cooked it and kept turning on the exit giving Tom the advantage, but he pulled it all together and powered through the rest of the track to win by meer inches on the line to be crowned the new King of BSX.
In the Open Women's quarter finals all went as expected, well nearly, Prue Harvey beat out Taylah Maurice, Iesha Anderson eliminated Regan Roath, Mikayla Rose knocked Anne Yuke out of the competition and Emily Richardson, well despite being one of the favourites for the win and a great talent, she was knocked out by the lower ranked Isabella Penglase.
In the semis Prue beat Isabella and Iesha beat Mikayla to set up two evenly matched finals. Isabella had just a little more power than Mikayla and took the third place. In the big final though Prue had the power on Iesha but also had the weight of the world on her shoulders, one slight mistake and the race was Iesha's for the taking. When the dust settled though it was Prue who would take the win and be crowned the Queen of BSX.
In the first round of the 30+ Open Wheel Shane Jenkins with 5 top three finishes in the last 5 years faced 5 times winner Simon Anderson.
Jenkins just about pulled off an upset of his own but fell about half a bike length short. That set the tone for the round and the underdogs started to bite back Gordon MacRae took out Jason Eecen, Robert Slatter eliminated Daniel Burgess, Paul Knox knocked off Craig Penglase. But that's where the upsets ended, the top 4 seeded riders all made it through to the finals. Richard McLachlan faced off with Simon Anderson in the semi final, which looked to be the battle of the day. Aussie Vs Kiwi, 20" Vs 24", it had the makings of legend. But it was Simon who would take the win, this time. Richard went on to defeat Paul Tomkinson in the B-final for third and fourth place. Simon and Jade had a re-run of the 2008 final. Jade put up a great fight but once again Simon was just too smooth and took his sixth consecutive BSX win.
When people are eliminated through the day they sign their number plates and hand them back, at the end of racing we auction them off, each year it help raise around $1000.
Initial count puts the money raised so far at around the $6,000 mark with $4,000 in product still to auction off and a number of t-shirts and hoodies still to sell.
