THE Portland BMX Club is a long way from where it was a couple of months ago.
Then, it had less than 20 members and was not able to race because of coronavirus restrictions.
Now, the club has over 40 participating members, three of whom went off to Shepparton last weekend to compete in the State Championships.
Two of these came back with silverware, too, with Jack Thorp and Stella Middleton coming back with third-place plates in their respective cruiser class (17-24 men for Thorp and 13-14 girls for Middleton).
These two, along with fellow Portlander Seb Finck, were some of more than 400 riders who took part in the event last weekend, the first of its size since restrictions eased.
All three Portlanders registered personal best times on the Shepparton track, with Thorp coming 15th in his non-cruiser race, and Middleton coming 8th in her non-cruiser race, both of which were in the same age groups.
The cruiser class is essentially bikes with bigger wheels, with normal races using bikes with 20-inch wheels, and cruisers using 24-inch wheels.
“It was a very hot weekend up there,” said Portland BMX Club president Tim Thorp, father of Jack and one of the event’s main organisers.
“(It was a) big weekend of racing over three days, practice on the Friday, racing on Saturday and racing on Sunday and then a six-hour drive home on the Sunday night after racing.
“The kids all had a good go on the weekend, I think all of them set their fastest lap times they’d ever done up there.
“It’s just good to see kids back on bikes; it was a huge effort by everybody involved to get the state titles up and running.
“I was on the organising committee, and just the amount of COVID regulations we had to go through to get 400 kids.
“We were lucky enough to get the event through, no major injuries, no major incidents, it was just a good event.
“It’s given the kids a bit of drive now to get on with the rest of the year.”
With over 30 new racing members since the come and try day a few months ago, the club is hoping to be able to send more and more riders to events like this.
Club members going to be unable to attend National Titles this year, given they are in Queensland the weekend before Christmas, but next year, State Championships are in Bendigo, and Nationals are in Tasmania, both of which, while not easy journeys, are far more accessible.
“You bring home state plates and kids get keen and interested,” Thorp said.
“It gives other kids a bit of motivation to say ‘yeah, I could do that too’.
“I’ve been in the club for 10 years, and the club’s growing, and that’s all we can hope for really.”
