Rattler Nationals

The seventh (and final) stop on the BMX Canada National Series brought us to the sunny Okanagan city of Vernon, British Columbia.

- Lee Cejalvo

Since its inception 38 years ago, Vernon BMX has raised an incredible amount of BMX talent. It’s always a pleasure to return to this gem of a track, which is nestled in Ranger Park - smack dab in the center of a neighborhood community. Shylo Orchard and the fantastic crew at Vernon BMX run a fantastic local program here, with surrounding tracks at Kelowa, Kamloops and Penticton. The BMX scene in the Okanagan is thriving with thousands of kilograms of excitement (that’d be tons, to you Americans).

Vernon’s track obstacles have been unchanged since our last visit here, however, the addition of a new ProStart safety barrel gate was a nice new addition. Fast, quiet - and most of all, safe, these barrel gates are well worth the investment in peace of mind for all the riders and their parents.

The first corner, partially covered by a canopy of trees, created a lot of excitement for the Pro class. We had a full rack of Pros this weekend, and you know a tight dirt corner will always provide plenty of chills and thrills. This weekend was no exception. Iron Joe went OTB (berm, not bars). Thankfully, the trees were there to prevent him from landing too far on the backside. Nanaimo’s Ben Leslie lost some spokes (Ok, well ... a LOT of spokes) from a fellow pro’s pedal getting tangled up in his wheel on Saturday, and Lukas Ferguson’s pretty (expensive!) carbon rim also received some hefty gashes on Sunday. Thankfully with some assistance from other BMX’ers, who unselfishly offered up replacement components, all the Pro’s were able to continue racing all weekend long.