WITH strong entries, a bumper crowd and six riders qualifying for their age finals, Sunday's BMX NSW State Series round was a success for the Bathurst BMX Club.
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The fourth round of the annual series hosted by the Bathurst club attracted 562 entries across the more than 50 classes. Once family members and support crew and officials were factored in, over 1,000 people attended.
"When you looked at the amount of cars and amount of people at the site, there were quite a lot there," Bathurst BMX Club's Hayley Wolfenden said.
"For the size of the site - it's a huge site - that it still felt busy shows there was a pretty big number there. It was great."
READ MORE: Wolfenden wins a thriller at Macarthur
While Wolfenden is a regular at State Series events, many of the 19-rider Bathurst BMX Club contingent were far less experienced at this level of competition.
So that they produced strong results across the big day of racing was promising sign. Wolfenden and Nathan Franklin both gained podium finishes in their respective classes, but they were not the only members of the host club to impress.
"Tom [Gordon] just did incredible, he missed out on semis by one point in his first event and he's only about one or two months into the sport. He's very, very fresh," Wolfenden said.
"He was stoked with how we went and once we build his bike to suit him and not the previous rider who rode it, he'll shave even more time off his laps.
"Dom [Pappas] made another semi, which is a big achievement again. Hopefully he can become a regular semi-finalist.
"Liam [Westman] made his final, I believe he ran into the back of another rider which was why he was eighth in his final.
"Evie Campbell is very new to big events, I think she's done one other big event, she got sixth in her final for eight girls. So that was a big step up. Her father Mitch got fifth in his cruiser.
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"Nathan Franklin got second in his final ... so all up we had six finalists in the competitive age groups, we had two semi-finalists and there's one rider than missed on finals by one point. It's not a bad rap sheet and a decent turnout."
In the Superclass women's event, Leanna Curtis won each of her motos and took out the final ahead of Ashlee Miller and Leah Hearne.
Andrew Hughes also had a perfect day in the Superclass men category, winning his three motos, semi-final and final. Bathurst-based Blue Mountains rider Adam Carey placed fifth in the decider.
Wolfenden hopes more Bathurst riders will now go on to contest other State Series events.
"You'd hope that it has developed some confidence in the club's riders. They've obviously shown they can keep up with state standard," she said.
