Sports

BMX New England National Tournament to Hit Trumbull This Weekend

The weekend event includes camping.

More than 1,000 BMX racers from all over the United States will converge on this weekend for the 2012 New England Nationals competition.

The tournament will be run by BMXUSA, a combination of the American Bicycle Association and the National Bicycle League. The track was also recently renovated, said Wallace Thomas, past president of Trumbull Racing and Cycling Kids (T.R.A.C.K.).

"The nationals are all getting bigger and drawing bigger crowds because you have groups together," Thomas said.

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Past nationals have been held at the park track but this year should be different.

"It was often over 1,000 people and we're expecting more," Thomas said.

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"We’re expecting this to be big,” he added. "A lot of them will come and camp. There will be motor homes there. There's a lot of money getting spent in the area because of the event."

The event starts Friday with pre-races.

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Winners of racers have different goals. Some are gathering points for national rankings, some for trophies and some for prize money (in the case of professional racers), Wallace said.

Teams will also be competing. 

Thomas added that he hoped local racers will have home field advantage. The new design features leveled jumps.

"We just leveled the jumps and built all new jumps. It makes the flow a lot better," according to Wallace.

Future competitions could bring as much as $1 million into town business, a TRACK official told the Parks and Recreation Commission.


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