USA BMX to Host Winner Take All Pro Championship Finals at 2020 Grands

Jun 20, 2020

Written by Bart de Jong

Read 2636 times

With communities and tracks across America slowly reopening, USA BMX is working hard to confirm our originally scheduled events for 2020. As you can imagine, this is no easy task. We continue to work daily to assist local tracks in reopening, and currently less than a third are operating at some capacity. We are also rescheduling postponed national series events while navigating ever evolving guidelines. In some cases we are going to the extreme measure of finding tracks not previously on the schedule that can host an event. With that being said, we know your questions center around the return of the pro series. Unfortunately, restarting the pro series at this time is an impossible task considering these unprecedented circumstances.

Here are the challenges:

-Host sites are slow to confirm their ability to host races as originally planned. So while we'd love to say the pro series events on the schedule will happen, we just don't know.
-International travel bans limit some of our usual pro participants.
-The financial commitment to offer standard pro purses runs counter to our current focus of bringing back our employees who remain furloughed.
-Our Pro Series sponsor GoPro has canceled their sponsorship for 2020 due to the COVID-19 crisis. This not only eliminates the GoPro Cup Series but negatively impacts our sponsorship forecast for 2020.

In an effort to provide USA BMX women pro riders more options to compete, we have implemented a

female specific Pro Open class that debuted at the Desert Classic Nationals this past weekend.

Despite these challenges, we feel it is imperative to crown a 2020 USA BMX National #1 AA Pro, Woman Pro and Vet Pro. Given the uncertainty and financial limitations, we have concluded that these USA BMX titles will be awarded, and solely based, on the results from the 2020 Grand Nationals in Tulsa.

The Grands will feature one day of pro racing for AA Pro, Women Pro, A Pro and Vet Pro on Saturday with motos during the day and the qualifying rounds, NAG 5 Challenge and 3 mains during the Pro Championship Finals. We increased the AA Pro and Women’s Pro Purse to $25,000 each*. As the series will culminate from this one race, all year-end prize money is built into the purse money listed below.

Purse Money:

NAG 5 Challenge Men - $2,500
NAG 5 Challenge Women - $2,500
Vet Pro - $5,000
A Pro - $7,500
Women Pro - $25,000*
AA Pro - $25,000*

*17 or more riders are required for $25,000 prize money for AA Pro & Women Pro. If 16 or less riders, prize money will be $10,000

This decision and the current challenges are some of the most difficult our staff has faced in the company's 43 year history. We do not make these decisions lightly and understand the impact on our professional riders. We appreciate your understanding and support during these difficult times and are looking forward to seeing you soon.

Thanks for your understanding,

BA Anderson