The newest opening in Grand Forks may get you a little dirty.
Hugo’s Raceway – a BMX track built with thousands of pounds of dirt – held a ribbon-cutting to commemorate its grand opening Tuesday night, July 13. Around 100 spectators and 50 children – most of them with bikes in tow – came to the new facility, located in the parking lot just south of the Alerus Center. The facility will host BMX competitions for all ages.
Red River BMX board member Danny Weigel gave opening remarks before the ribbon-cutting.
“We just want to say thank you, and that we’re so excited to have this new facility,” Weigel said while standing at the starting gate on top of a 15-foot mound of dirt and asphalt. “We’ve got a ton of supporters with Hugo’s coming on board from Alerus Center and Spectra (Health), all the way to Deek’s Pizza and everybody in between.”
The national anthem played over loudspeakers and all of the children in attendance took a parade lap around the track once the ribbon was cut, commemorating the official opening.
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“Typically, we start in May, but with the new track built, we got a little bit later of a start,” Weigel told the Herald. “We’ll run practice every Monday night, so we’ll be racing every Tuesday and Thursday night, but we’ve got a state qualifier this weekend, which is one of our big (events) where we’ll have riders from South Dakota and Minnesota and they come from the region to come race.”
Red River BMX is a nonprofit organization run by volunteers that has overseen the completion of the Hugo’s Raceway over the span of nearly eight months. It organizes weekly BMX events for children based on age and proficiency level, but children aren’t the only ones welcome at the track.
“We’ve had kids as young as 1 or 2, but we also had a lady who is in her mid-60s who traveled here from Illinois who raced in Grand Forks,” Weigel said. “It’s truly a sport for all ages, no matter the ability. Kids love it, and so do the adults.”
Weigel has high hopes for the track – especially considering the old track hosted large events as recently as last year.
“We hosted the Gold Cup at our old track last year, so we had people from probably about 15 different states that came for that,” Weigel said. “In the future, we hope to host a national event that will bring riders from 45 or so different states and a couple of different countries all to Grand Forks to take in the track.”
