u/russellenvy

My son is 8i in North Central. He won his first Gold Cup race and he finished second in his second gold cup race. So he has 41 of 42 available points.

Three kids have a perfect score of 42.

Two have 41.

Two have 40.

There's still one more race in the gold cup series before things are finalized in MN.

My question is: Realistically, in your opinion, are we in the hunt "point wise" for a Gold Cup plate, should things go right and some luck falls our way?

It's our first year and I'm really looking for advice from people that have been to a gold cup final / maybe have been in our position?

Obviously we don't know because the races have to be run and anything can happen.

I'm more looking to see if we're sitting in a good position at the moment? 1 point doesn't seem like it's a big deal to some. But we think it could be the deciding factor compared to years past.

I understand it's a two day event to decide the gold cup standings. How do points and things work in the finals?

Thank you in advance. L

Have you ever had a situation where the state race and the Gold Cup qualifier race were the exact same race? This weekend we have a race with this very scenario.

Moto 1. Moto 2. Mains. The Mains will determine points for both your state series and Gold Cup. Not two separate races in the same day. 1 race to determine both.

Last time these two events were held on separate days about two weeks ago. States on Saturday and Gold Cup on Sunday.

I'm just wondering if this is something that happens a lot or does this sound unusual? Every other Gold Cup event we've been to this year has been a separate race on a different day.

In one sense it's a good thing because the gold cup finals are like a national event and you know there's going to be good racers there. But I feel bad for the kids that might get edged out of state race mains by the out of state riders.

Happy to hear your thoughts.

I've been reading a lot of blogs lately and watching videos that say BMX racing has been declining over the years. I understand that money is a huge Factor for a lot of families. But let's say you have the money.

What I've noticed is there are either people in the community that will talk your ear off and will give you every piece of advice that you could ask for, or people have a stick up their butt. And I'm just trying to figure out if that's something that is normal and part of the problem?

Auto racing, is a very competitive sport. But as a kid, all the parents had a tight bond and each others back. Regardless of teams and sponsors etc. They refused to let rivalries go on outside of the walls of the track. We were friends off the track no matter what.

For instance, my son is an 8-year-old novice. He is winning races all over the country. That's by design. He's gonna become an intermediate at the Midwest Nationals.

We completely understand that leveling up to intermediate means the competition will get a little harder. The same thing when he levels up to be an expert. And especially as he gets into the 10 to 15-year-old expert classes.

But everywhere we go it seems like nobody wants to even acknowledge that we're about to level up and give some kind of congratulations or even a thumbs up. Everyone has something to say like "don't celebrate just yet, it gets deeper and the current gets stronger". Nothing like "Hey, great job sticking with it and working hard on this. Stay in the sport."

We're not looking for a pat on the back or anything. But if the common message is that many kids like the highs of racing novice for the wins, and then drop out after they realize they're not gonna win every weekend - wouldn't it make sense to be encouraging and offer some advice to help keep people in the sport.

I guess we're lucky that we ride/practice with some really awesome people like Drew Polk that have a good attitude towards life and can accept where they went wrong and want to do better.

But it seems like the parents are either in a clique, will be cordial to an extent or flat out act like you don't exist?

What has your experience been like?