BMX project on track at Bruce’s Mill

YorkRegion.com
July 11, 2014
By Sandra Bolan

It took seven years, but Brendan Arnold’s dream of a BMX track in Whitchurch-Stouffville is just weeks away from reality.

Construction on the 300-metre track in Bruce’s Mill Conservation Area is expected to start July 21. It will take about 10 days to turn the mounds of dirt into a bike track, which means it should be open to the public early August.

“I want kids to ride bikes,” Arnold said of why he’s been working on this project for so long.

The head coach for the Ontario Cycling Association has been riding since the age of five.

Tom Ritzenthaler, who designed and built all of the UCI BMX supercross World Cup and World Championship tracks since 2003, is constructing the supercross style track. He also designed and constructed the tracks for the 2008 and 2012 Olympic Summer Games and is currently working on the 2015 Pan Am course.

Stouffville BMX at Bruce’s Mill will be located at Sunny Acres, next to the York Region Police Safety Village.

The track will be a smaller, “more mellow” replica of the Pan Am course, according to Arnold, who noted riders as young as three will be able to use it.

However, with the potential for it to one day be utilized for competitions, Arnold said the experienced and elite riders will also be challenged by it.

“Instead of rolling everything, they’ll jump everything,” he said.

Also part of Arnold’s plan is to create a club that will provide coaching and host events. The club is not expected to be formed until next year.

“Anyone and everyone can join that club,” he said.

However, just because there will be a BMX club, doesn’t mean the track is for their exclusive use.

Arnold wants it to be accessible to the entire community, much like the track in Owen Sound, which he said is the only other public track in the province.

“I think some old-school people, who used to race, will find some interest in this,” he said.

Stouffville’s track will be unsupervised and users will be subject to Bruce’s Mill admission fee of $6.50 for adults, while kids under 14, who are with their family, are free.

Long sleeve shirts and pants, gloves and a full-face helmet are recommended, Arnold said.

In order to utilize Bruce’s Mill, the town is leasing the land.

“We’re just the middleman, like in soccer,” said Rob Raycroft, director of leisure and community services for the municipality.

The town is leasing the land from the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority for $2 per year the next five years, with the option to renew, according to Raycroft.

“If there isn’t a demand, certainly we can evaluate that” at that time, Raycroft said.

BMX, which stands for bicycle motocross, got its start in the late 1960s in California.

Kids started racing their pedal bikes on dirt tracks trying to imitate motorized motocross, which was itself, a popular sport in the United States at that time.

By the mid-1970s, BMX racing became a phenomenon, thanks in part to the motorcycle racing documentary On Any Sunday.

BMX racing became a sanctioned medal Olympic sport in the 2008 Games and is a staple of the annual Summer X Games.

SIDEBAR

 Along with the BMX track and Treetop Trekking, which opened in June, the Stouffville Road conservation area’s defunct driving range will be resurrected, but not until next spring.
“Families are looking for an experience to host a day and it’s not just necessarily sitting and having a picnic,” said Joe Petta, manager of Bruce’s Mill.

The driving range will be more than flat grass with tees, according to Petta. It will have targets and long shots, as well as a chipping green. It will be modeled after the driving range at Bathurst Glen, which the TRCA also operates.

The Bruce’s Mill driving range will be environmentally friendly and have a learning component to help grow the game with children, according to Petta.

“We have the infrastructure there, so why not revitalize it? I think we know what we’re doing; we’re in the golf business,” he said.