FATBMX Your Online BMX News Resource Since 1998

The 2009 NBL Competition Congress was a success in many ways and this year's event drew record attendance. More than 225 NBL track directors, clerks, state commissioners and volunteers, along with the NBL Staff and Board of Directors, came together for a weekend of learning, sharing and networking. To empower tracks with more knowledge on how to run and promote their own successful local programs, NBL hosted a wide variety of seminars throughout the three-day gathering. Topics included Local Promotions, Track Building and Maintenance, Refereeing, Clerking, and Medical Training. Each volunteer who attended Congress walked away with valuable information to take back to their own local programs. In addition to a learning experience, Congress has a long-standing tradition of recognizing the outstanding efforts of past and present volunteers who have helped build and lead the organization. 

The American Bicycle Association hosted the SO. CAL. Nationals this past weekend, February, 6-8 in Lake Perris, CA. This weekend was a test to see who the hard-core BMX racer were. Mother nature threw us curve was some rain, wind, mud, and cooler temps for the weekend. But, that didn't stop the BMX faithfull. The riders, families, fans, and industry still showed up in full force to an amazing 221 motos! Thanks to the efforts of the Lake Perris BMX crew and the weather savvy ABA BMX national crew the show would go on!

The NBL Coyote Nationals, held at the popular Estrella Mountain BMX track in Goodyear, Arizona, continues to grow and has become a must-race event on the West coast NBL circuit. It was also the season opener for the NBL Elite Series and a larger-than-expected turnout that included Olympic medalists, National stars and fast amateurs, raced their way around the smooth and fast course. Under sunny skies west of Phoenix Arizona, the Coyote National featured more than 80 motos of great racing action to kick off the 2009 ‘League of Champions’ Elite Series.

ELITE MEN
1st Joey Bradford
2nd Maris Strombergs
3rd Randy Stumpfhauser
4th Martijn Scherpen
5th Nic Long
6th Danny Caluag
7th David Herman
8th Khalen Young

ELITE WOMEN
1st Dominique Daniels
2nd Arielle Martin
3rd Stephanie Barragan
4th Ashley Verhagen 

AA Pro
1 Mike Day
2 Barry Nobles
3 Travis Ohrazda
4 David Herman
5 Joey Bradford
6 Khalen Young
7 Tyler Brown
8 Randy Stumpfhauser

Girls Pro
1 Dominique Daniels
2 Brooke Crain
3 Stephanie Barragan
4 Arielle Martin
5 Taylor Walcott
6 Kaila Sweeney

Indoor BMX is back in Columbus Ohio and the NBL Buckeye National will feature more than just racing. On Friday, NBL will host a Pre-National clinic with NBL head instructor Justin Travis and Elite star, Matt Pohlkamp. The Pre-National clinic will help riders develop their current skills and apply them to the indoor track so they can achieve the best possible results for the weekend. A great chance for extra track time on what promises to be an awesome indoor track at the Ohio State Fairgrounds. Construction begins on Monday, February 9 in the Voinovich Center and doors open Friday morning at 8:30am.

The clinic will focus on first straights, cornering and passing, manualing, pumping, jumping and mental readiness.

Date: Friday, February, 13th.  Times:
11:00 – 11:30am…..Registration and warm up
11:30 – 1:45pm……Clinic
1:45 – 2:00pm……..Question and Answer with Matt Pohlkamp

Free Agent's AA PRO, and Latvia's own MARIS STROMBERGS made his ABA BMX debut in Reno, NV. earlier this season and made a great impression with the fans. MARIS is excited about the ABA BMX SO. CAL. Nationals and will be doing a few autograph sessions through the weekend at the Free Agent Team pit area.

MARIS will have his actual 2008 Olympic GOLD medal on hand for the fans to see as well! Be sure to stop by the Free Agent Team pit area to say hello to MARIS. He's a super nice guy, a great rider, and how often do you get to meet an Olympic GOLD Medalist with his medal in hand?

This is a great opportunity for the fans and a HUGE thanks goes out to Dale Holmes, Free Agent , and MARIS STROMBERGS for coming out this weekend. The ABA hopes to see everyone there!

Following the success of its various junior and U23 programs across other disciplines of competitive cycling, USA Cycling is expanding its efforts to develop America’s extensive pipeline of Bicycle Motocross (BMX) athletes. With a focus on the future, the national governing body announced today plans to roll out a national BMX junior development program in 2009. “Throughout the course of the last two years, our primary attention was focused towards preparing our elite athletes for the Olympic Games and providing them with all of the resources necessary to succeed in Beijing,” remarked Mike King, director of BMX programs for USA Cycling. “But now that the Games are behind us, it’s imperative that we begin focusing more intently on developing up-and-coming athletes. We have an extremely deep talent pool here in America with more kids racing BMX compared to any other county. Now we need to encourage them to think on an international level and prepare them for the opportunity to