now, I think this is a VERY cool idea!

[greg]

copied from VintageBMX.com

We opened a new year round indoor track 3 months ago and have signed up quite a few new members (over 100 to date) and wanted to think of a way to include them in the mix of team challenges.

Each Saturday we have a team challenge for the local teams for small prizes such as pizza night at the local pizza place, Ice Cream gift certificates at Baskin Robbins ($8.00 to each rider on the team sheet so they could take their family), Movie night from Hollywood video, etc. Each week we spend about $50.00 for the prize for that week. (which is usually covered by the entry fee)

We thought it would be fun to try and change things up a bit and somehow include the new members into the team racing environment. We tried a new team challenge a couple weeks ago which we call the Random Team Challenge. Each rider that signs up to race can pay $1.00 to enter and we put all the names (boys and girls separate) into a pot and draw teams from it. Every rider is awarded the same points as if they were expert and we put four boys and one girl on each team. We then post the "teams" up with the moto's and let the racing begin!

Its been great to see the new families and riders meet each other and to have the more experienced expert riders helping that new novice by encouraging them and cheering for them during the race. Its fun to see those novice/intermediate kids that normally aren't on a team enjoy some team racing and learning about sportmanship and giving your best because they don't want to let their team down.

So far, not many riders want to go back to the ol'e team challenge way and they seem to be enjoying this more and having fun while doing it. Of course for larger races we'll have the normal team challenges, but for now, our Saturday nights are pretty fun for everyone!

Barb Linder
Willamette Valley BMX
Chehalem Valley BMX