BMX track brings some new tricks, draws thousands to north Houston
BMX bike racers from across Texas plunged down the rollercoaster-steep incline of the enormous track at Rockstar Energy Bike Park on Saturday, picking up speed as they prepared to fly over the undulating hills.
“It’s an amazing track,” said Kim Beebe, resting in a rare patch of shade with her son Bennett, 6, and his bike. Since Bennett began racing in November, they’ve gone full in, joining the circuit of events that makes up the Texas BMX scene. They’ve visited the Houston track five times, Kim said. “Maybe six. We’ve done a lot of races.”
Bennett was excited to compete on the track where U.S. Olympics star Connor Fields had trained. But his mom shuddered, remembering the spill that Fields took in the Tokyo Olympics. After his front wheel landed on a competitor’s back wheel, Fields was thrown facefirst onto the ground. He suffered a brain hemorrhage and a broken rib.
Beebe looked warily at her son. “It’s not the world’s safest sport,” she said.
Between 2,000 and 3,000 people were expected to visit the bike park this weekend, as competitors in all age brackets and disciplines attempted to qualify for the state finals. It also marked the bike park’s second anniversary.
From the window of the COVID-empty VIP room, Sally Bradford had a splendid view of the track races. Bradford, 75, polite and elegant, did not look like someone who’d be described as “the driving force behind the United States’ largest extremesports complex.” She’s the executive director of the North Houston Development Corporation, the quasi-public entity that built not just the BMX park but also the North Houston Skate Park next to it.
Her introduction to extreme sports began in 2009, when she asked teenagers from Aldine High what sort of recreation amenity they’d like to see in Spring. She expected them to mention soccer or basketball.
Instead, they asked for a skate park.
Bradford, searching for ways to rebrand North Houston, saw an opportunity — not only to build something the area’s kids wanted, but also to create a major attraction. Her board was skeptical — skateboarders often look unsavory — but she urged them to go study Jamail Skate Park, near downtown Houston, and to watch the culture there. She loved the way that even in competitions, when someone does a great trick, all the skaters applaud. “It’s all about the tricks,” she said. “Everybody has respect for the tricks.”
In 2014, when North Houston Skate Park opened, it was the largest of its kind in North America: 78,000 square feet, with a 10foot competition bowl, a full pipe, a 12-foot vertical ramp, speed hips and banked walls. “I could talk skating with the best of them,” Bradford laughed.
The skate park’s opening was a big deal, full of skaters and families and dignitaries. But not everyone was happy, Bradford remembered. Out in the parking lot was a group of BMX riders, angry kids in their teens and 20s, who’d hoped to ride their bikes on the skatepark’s ramps and bowls.
Bradford went out to talk with the bikers. “I won’t even repeat the language they used,” she laughed.
Mayor Annise Parker and Bradford’s board members, including chair Elvin Franklin, saw the whole confrontation. “Could you build a bike park?” Parker asked.
Bradford tracked down the guys in the parking lot, and asked them to serve on the planning committee.
Rockstar Energy Bike Park opened in August 2019. Though COVID has blighted most of its existence so far, the park has hosted the BMX nationals and brought bikers flooding into area hotels. Pros and Olympians from many countries come to visit. Area kids spend entire days there, and parents bring toddlers, equipped with “strider” bikes with no pedals.
Bradford’s dream is to add a third piece to the park: An official Olympics training center. “If we had that,” she said, looking out a the riders, “we could go for the Dew Tour, the X Games ….”
Bradford laughed at herself. Sometimes she thought it was time to retire. Her daughter has urged her to step down instead of pushing the training facility, noting that the new project would take two or three years to finish.
“But I’m enjoying myself,” she said.