On Saturday September 17th under unexpected sunny skies, nearly one hundred BMX racers from all over Vancouver Island converged on Coal Hills BMX in Cumberland to participate in the 2011 Vancouver Island Challenge finals. Riders varying in age from 2 years old to a more mature 42 years young came to Coal Hills to compete for a Vancouver Island Championship plate.

The Vancouver Island Challenge series was created by the late Marie Davidson, head of Canadian ABA BMX. Her vision was to provide local Vancouver Island racers the opportunity to compete at a local level for a title. Marie wanted to provide as many children as possible with the self confidence an award or championship title can bring. The Coal Hills volunteers had the opportunity to carry this tradition on and provide as many smiles as possible to an amazing group of kids.

However, a champion should be given an award. Coal Hills BMX is a not for profit society that gets no government assistance to operate. Without the generous private donations they receive, operations would be hard pressed to continue.

Wayne Proctor and GasnGo heard about the trackÕs attempts to host the Vancouver Island series in 2011. Mr. Proctor, a family man and a strong believer in sports and recreation for children, made an amazing gesture and provided the club with a check for $2500 to provide prizes to not only everyone who participated but those who won the series overall.

Not only was Coal Hills able to provide every racer with a dog-tag type medal for the dayÕs race but each overall winner of this five part series was presented with a championship plate to adorn their race bikes, plus a tuque and a t-shirt to be worn proudly as a champion should be recognized. Every racer who qualified for the championship by racing three of the series races plus the finals was presented with a plate and a t-shirt as well.

With the small amount of money left over after prizes were purchased a giant cake congratulating all Vancouver Island racers on the 2011 season and festive balloons made the dayÕs event seem more like a party than a competition. Even those who didnÕt walk away with an over-all title seemed happy and could seen smiling and enjoying the dayÕs festivities. Thank you to Aero Art, and Engrave- It for creating such amazing prizes. Thank you to Wayne Proctor and GasnGo for your continued generosity. The Coal Hills team will be filling up at GasnGo!

Click here to download the overall winners (PDF).