Down in the dirt:
Motocross finally finds a home
Chris
O’Neill is soaring like a motocross racer after lift-off from a jump at top speed.
The starter’s gate will be lowered this afternoon on the first official race at Riverview Motocross.
“Honestly, it’s like a dream came true,” O’Neill said Thursday at the facility he and business partner Steve Anstey have built in Butlerville, a Bay Roberts neighbourhood.
The course has been a long time coming.
Races were going strong on Bell Island for a while, but the numbers dwindled as riders and their families became frustrated with the ferry schedule.
So O’Neill started searching for a spot on the eastern Avalon seven years ago. He figures he’s looked at every suitable block of land from Whitbourne to St. John’s.
He came close enough to securing a place in a couple of towns, but ultimately some residents voiced opposition because of the noise or the stereotypes they held about the people involved.
“It wasn’t the communities themselves,” O’Neill says, “It was just a few people who got their back up. C.B.S. thought it was a great idea, Torbay thought it was a great idea, but there’s always somebody who says no.”
He’s now relieved “somebody took us in.”
The track is not within the Bay Roberts boundary, but is inside the town’s planning area, so the council could have tried to block it.
But Mayor Philip Wood says council has no objection because the planning committee supported its economic and recreational spinoffs, and O’Neill’s group provided satisfactory answers to all their questions.
“There is potential there for it to be a very positive step forward for the town,” Wood says.
“The potential is there to bring a few people to the town, and of course, the more people you bring to town, it’s good for our businesses.”
O’Neill says many of those firms are seeing spinoffs before the first race even starts.
“You see the value,” he says. “We’ve spent a lot money already in Bay Roberts (and the) Butlerville stores we’re buying in. ... They’ve already seen the benefit that none of the other towns are going to see now.”
Some preliminary work began last fall, but the bulk of the track was made over the past few months, as topsoil from the land was sifted, mixed with truckloads of sawdust and sculpted by heavy equipment into bumps, turns and jumps — “all the elements that make a good dirt bike track,” O’Neill says.
And the starting gate on the 1.4-kilometre course is the province’s first.
Registration for today’s races began at 8 a.m. and runs until 10:30. An hour of practice is set for 11, with competition beginning at 12:30 p.m.
O’Neill is anticipating between 65 and 70 participants, ranging in age from eight to 45.
He expects it’ll take a year for numbers to return to what they were on Bell Island.
By 2017, he’d like to see a couple of hundred racers using the track, a 200-lot trailer park at the facility, and a BMX course built for those who prefer pedal power.
He’s also thinking about adding a mud hole for 4x4s.
O’Neill, who has already landed Browning Harvey and RockStar Energy Drink as sponsors, hopes to grow the sport’s numbers by holding schools for youth on proper riding.
“Once people realize there is a safe place to ride, we’re hoping they come here,” he says, noting there are strict rules on proper gear.
For those who don’t want to race, recreational riders can pay $20 and try the track at designated times.
O’Neill says he and Anstey opened the course as a business, Riverview Motocross Ltd., but they don’t expect to make any money.
“I did it because I like it, and that’s why Steve did it,” says O’Neill, who says his 24-year-old son’s long involvement in the sport is a motivating factor for him.
Besides putting the time into finding land for the track, he’s poured a lot money into building it.
“I don’t know (how much),” O’Neill says with a smile.
“I wouldn’t tell you anyway. It’s just something we wanted to do. That’s as simple as I can put it to you. There are times I get up and say, why did I do it? But I’m glad it’s here now.”
So is veteran rider Brad Squires, who was out doing a few spins with friend Steve Harvey on Thursday.
“The track is awesome,” he said. “It’s got lots of screened topsoil on it. It’s a very technical track, a lot of technical jumps and corners, a lot of elevation changes. It’s a very exciting track to ride.”
O’Neill hopes the excitement spreads, and that a few of the naysayers — the people who didn’t want motocross in their communities — might start seeing the sport differently.
“It’s a nice atmosphere,” he says of the track. “You come up here, everybody is helping everybody. If somebody’s bike breaks, there’s a dozen people who run over to see if they can fix it. If someone gets hurt everybody is concerned. I like the feeling of being around the track, I really do.”
He later notes, “And we don’t bring a bad element. You don’t spend $10,000 for a bike, $2,000 for gear and a trailer to get your bikes out here and then go tear up the place. We bring good families, and good people out. …
“I want to show people the people involved with motocross racing are very good people.”