Moses Lake BMX hosted a record number of riders for Gold Cup and Washington State Cup series events June 26-27 at the Moses Lake BMX Track.

Nearly 330 riders came out Saturday afternoon for the Triple-Point Gold Cup regional qualifying event, giving riders from Washington, Oregon, Montana, Wyoming and Alaska a chance to earn triple points toward the Regional Gold Cup series.

First-place finishers had the opportunity to earn nearly 100 Gold Cup points and boost their District ranking. The Gold Cup Finals will take place in Tri-Cities this summer. Sunday’s State Cup Qualifier saw about 310 riders come out to compete looking to qualify for the finals in Spokane this year.

Tarin Fields, a 14-year-old rider out of Spokane, is the number-one ranked “cruiser” rider in his age group. Fields said he just credits his success to the work he’s put in with his BMX team and on his own the past few years.

BMX events were some of the few events that were able to keep going last summer amidst the pandemic regulations. Fields said for him as a rider, the regulations didn’t really make much of a difference.

“For BMX it was only half the year, like the second of the season it really didn’t change much,” Fields said.

Evan Bader, 15, is a local rider from Moses Lake who picked up the sport about three years ago.

“My little brother came over here one day with his friends and saw BMX riders and he started riding,” Bader said. “After a few months, I joined him.”

Bader said he’s always liked riding bikes and found some success on the BMX track. He said it was pretty awesome seeing the huge crowd of fans and riders out at his local track on Saturday afternoon.

“It’s pretty cool for us having a small track like this town and hosting the Gold Cup event this weekend,” Bader said. “I think this is the most riders we’ve had.”

Jeff Niehenke, track operator for Moses Lake BMX, said it’s really rewarding seeing the work the local organization has put in building the program and its reputation paying off.

Niehenke said the group is working hard to make the local track one of the top venues in the state.

“We’ve probably increased our rider numbers 30 to 40 percent in the last two years and its showing with yesterday and today’s events with record turnouts,” Niehenke said on Sunday. “Not only are we increasing local riders, the industry is really booming. BMX numbers across the country are way up and we’re seeing that here.”

He said the goal moving forward is to continue to try and make improvements to the track and try to add as many advancements and amenities as possible to compete with tracks in Tri-Cities and Spokane.

As a volunteer-powered group, Niehenke said none of the weekend events would have been possible without the help of the 35-40 volunteers on hand.

Casey McCarthy can be reached via email at cmccarthy@columbiabasinherald.com.