History of BMX (USA)

History of BMX Queensland

Up until 1980 race meetings were largely held as one off events run by single clubs who provided racing to any rider who wished to race and the club chose the weekend to run the event by any reason they saw fit. As well as this, different clubs ran to different rules, raced on different days, provided different classes and ran differing numbers of motos and transfer rules. It was around 1980 when events started to get large enough to warrant an organisation or association to promote and manage events on an interclub level.

In January 1980 many of the clubs within the Brisbane region came together to elect a state body to control and direct BMX in Queensland. On Sunday the 27^th of January eighteen officials from nine clubs met at Past Brothers Leagues Club in Brisbane. The nine clubs in attendance were The Gap (Windsor), Cleveland (Redlands), Nambour, Centenary, Nerang, Ipswich, Lawnton, Ashmore and Springwood. The meeting was chaired by David Woodhouse (Nambour) with Barry Coombe (Nerang) acting as secretary. At the start of the meeting the eighteen officials present listened to guest speakers Mike Victor, secretary of the Queensland Amateur Cycling Association (QACA) and Lyn Caston from Redline Engineering USA. Mike Victor spoke on the formation of their association, control of bike racing, amateur and professional, insurance and professional earnings. He also offered the meeting affiliation with the QACA which was declined at the meeting. In fact the first motion passed by the newly formed association was that the association would “remain a separate identity for a period before affiliating with any other bodies”.

Lyn Caston from Redline BMX spoke on the pros and cons of the system used in the USA. Their organisation and administration system was run by professional bodies such as the ABA (American Bicycle Association). The meeting decided against this and opted for a non-profit club orientated association.     

As a result of the meeting the Queensland Bicycle Motocross Association QBMXA (Later changed to BMX QLD Inc.) was formed and named. Election of office took place and Barry Darwin (Windsor) was elected president with Ellen Magnussen (Nambour) elected secretary.

The initial goals of the newly formed association were to develop standard racing rules, organise expert and novice classes, develop a uniform scoring system and promote the sport of BMX on a statewide level. The first competition run by the QBMXA was a six round state plate series consisting of one race meeting held per month on a different track. The winners were decided using their accumulated points over the six rounds.

The State Championships became later became a one weekend event in 1982 and remains as such today. Locations for hosting State Championships are selected by a nomination system. The State Body calls for submissions from clubs each year from the North or South of the state with Rockhampton being the mid line. The 2008 State Championships will be held at the Cairns BMX Club, September 26th - 28th.

BMX QLD Inc. became an association before the ABMXA (Australian BMX Association). The ABMXA was partly established at the 1981 Nationals but without all states on board – Queensland was one of the founders. In fact, David Lloyd, president of QBMXA in 1981, took it upon himself to travel around Australia to speed up the process of forming the ABMXA. This was achieved and the 1982 Australian Championships in Melbourne were attended by all states. 

Thank you to Paull McLaughlin (BMX Historian) for providing this information.