It was approaching dusk as Michelle Curtis and Chris Beasley piled out of the car at a BMX bike track in Spartanburg. There was no time to waste. They rushed around to the trunk and pulled out a heap of bike parts and frames, wrenches and pliers that were quickly strewn across the parking lot. They rapidly assembled the small sport bikes and wheeled down to the track to grab a 90-minute practice before dark.

Michelle and Chris — both just finishing their freshman years at Tuscola High School — are on the BMX circuit, traveling to tracks across the Southeast every weekend to race.

After each lap around the BMX track, Chris and Michelle returned to the starting gate for a critique from Chris’ dad, Glenn Beasley.

The starting gate — perched at the top of a steep ramp designed to give the riders momentum as they shoot down onto the course — affords a bird’s eye view of the track, perfect for Beasley to watch the kids hone their techniques.

Today, Chris was working on a jump between two mounds in the second switchback.

“Jumping is not necessarily faster,” Beasley cautioned. It depends on the distance between the berms, the height differential and how much of a dip you’re avoiding by jumping.

“Some tracks are designed where if you don’t jump you’re not going to win,” Beasley said.

Tracks have so many nuances that simply knowing the best gear for a track can make or break a rider. A BMX bike isn’t like a road bike that carries all the gears on its frame. That’s too much weight. BMX riders are constantly taking one set of gears off their bike and putting another set on.

That means bringing a hefty tool box to the track. The inside of Chris’ tool box looks like a cross between a mechanic’s garage and a bike pawn shop, packed with wrenches, spare peddles, a headset, tubes of grease, wire cutters and loads of gears and chains.

Everybody rides

Beasley’s older son played more traditional sports in school, at least wanted to play. Not one of the stronger members on the team, he spent games on the bench.

“For any parent who takes their kid to practice four or five nights a week only to go to a game to watch your child sit on the bench all night, this is the sport for you,” Beasley said. “Everybody rides.”

Michelle’s mom, Melanie Curtis of Waynesville, found she loves being a BMX mom. It’s one of the most accepting sports, she said. There are no cliques, just a genuine welcoming atmosphere. When Curtis knew nothing about the sport, other parents taught her the ropes, from how the scoring works to the lingo use by the racers.

“They were very supportive. We’ve got a community of friends now and they all help each other out. You get addicted fast. It just sucks you in,” Curtis said.

The same atmosphere goes for the kids.

“They beat each other then they come off the course and high five each other and were best friends,” Curtis said. “They teach good moral character. They teach good sportsmanship. That’s something I wanted for my daughter.”

Beasley said he and Chris have made friends all over the country by going to BMX races and tracks.

“I think this is the greatest sport in the world. The person you are racing against will give you tips for the track,” Beasley said. “This is one of the only sports I’ve ever seen where you can cheer your son’s competitor.”

It’s also a family sport. Your parent is your coach, your bus driver, your team captain.

“It gives parents and children an opportunity to spend a lot of time with each other and work together to accomplish goals. Before you know it, parents and their kids are having fun together,” Curtis said.

‘Riders ready?’

One of Michelle and Chris’ missions today was practicing their start. They lined up at the gate, shot down the ramp, walked back up and did it again — over and over.

“You want to be the first one out of the gate. That makes it or breaks it,” Beasley said. “Every rider is wanting to be the first one in that first turn. The first rider down there doesn’t have to worry about rubbing or hitting with the other riders because they’re first.”

So, first out of the gate means first into the turn, and an advantage that carries them the rest of the race, Beasley said.

The trick to being first out of the date is a technique called “slingshot.”

“It’s all in timing and practice,” Beasley said. The riders have to anticipate the gate lowering half a second before it actually does. In that half second, they rear back on their bikes a few inches and propel themselves forward just as the gate drops. To practice their timing, they listen not only to the announcer’s words, but the sound of the hydraulics in the gate mechanism, developing a sort of Pavlovian response. The sounds and timing of each gate is different, though, so it takes a certain level of familiarity with the track.

“I got the gate Dad! Woo-hoo!” Chris yelled, slapping a high five with his dad.

When a new technique clicks, it just clicks.

“I figured out a new technique, too,” Michelle said, pulling back into the starting gate. Michelle discovered by pushing her hips forward into the handlebars, it propelled the bike.

Top racers are constantly thrusting their hips. While it looks somewhat like an Elvis impersonation, the extra propulsion can provide a serious advantage over a rider who doesn’t.

Another technique is pumping, a very literal description. As riders go up and down over the mounds, they push up and down on handlebars like they are pumping a well. They push down on their bike handles when they reach the crest of a mound to redirect the upward momentum of the bike down the other side of the mound. And when they reach the valley between two mounds, they pull up on their handlebars.

On a BMX, the riders never sit in their seats and pedal like a traditional bike. They stand during an entire race, using their center of gravity to push and pull the bike. That’s why the seat is so low, so it won’t get in their way when they crouch into a jump.

It’s possible to ride a course without pedaling at all, propelling the bike just by pumping and thrusting. It’s all about anticipating the terrain and working with it rather that against it.

“There’s really nothing you can do to help somebody except tell them what to do and show them what to do, but the rest is up to them,” Chris said.

Chris is the top BMX racer in the state in his class this year. Last year, he was first in the nation in the 14-year-old rookie division. This year he bumped up to the novice category.

Attraction

Since Chris began racing, Beasley has dreamed of having a BMX track in Haywood County. He has tried off and on to talk to the Waynesville Recreation Department and the county’s new recreation department, but has had a tough time convincing them of the merits of a BMX track.

Beasley contends it would be a substantial economic development engine. A track would draw people from five states just to come practice on weekends, Beasley said, citing some families who travel to different tracks every weekend, driving up to five or six hours to reach them. The races attract hundreds of people who book hotel rooms and go out to eat.

The proximity to a BMX track partly governs the family’s vacation planning.

“When we’re going somewhere, the first thing we do is see if there’s a track where we’re going or somewhere on the way. We go out of our way all the time just to get a little experience in on another track,” Beasley said.

A membership to the National Bike League gets you a magazine with maps that show all the tracks and races in the country.

“I always have a copy in the truck,” Beasley said.

It’s an easy reference that would literally put Haywood on the map for thousands of BMX-ers. Right now, there is a BMX track void in this region. The closest are in Spartanburg and Morristown, Tenn.

When Michelle got into racing — and Curtis fell in love with being a BMX mom — Beasley wasted no time planting the idea of a local track in Curtis’ head. Curtis, who has a degree in human resources and management, wasted no time jumping on the bandwagon.

“I saw how important it is for them to have a local track to practice on. They are at a huge handicap,” Curtis said. “Chris wants to go to the 2008 Olympics and Michelle wants to be a Super Girl, so the only way they could do it was if they had a track to practice on.”

Curtis has been to races from Florida to Alabama in the short time Michelle has been riding.

“We’ve been going everywhere. Sometimes doing more than one race a weekend, too,” Curtis said.

A local track would benefit the whole county, she said. Most kids don’t have parents willing to drive them all over creation in search of tracks. A local track would open the door for other kids to discover BMX, a good clean sport that inspires them, motivates them and keeps them out of trouble, Curtis said.

When she’s not taking Michelle to practice or races, she spends all her time drumming up support for the idea of a local track. She has met with public officials all over the county to pitch her idea of a BMX track at one of the existing public recreation parks. She has also been courting private landowners who could be interested in leasing their property for a track. “Everybody I talked to has had nothing negative to say about it,” Curtis said. But she hasn’t gotten any commitments either.

“I was getting aggravated because I couldn’t get any definite answers from anybody,” Curtis said. “It seemed like for every two steps forward, we took four steps back.”

Curtis has already gotten volunteer labor committed to design and build the track. She just needs somewhere to put it.

“Kids get out there and enjoy theirself. It is well worth the effort. It is something our kids need,” Curtis said.

One of the concerns Curtis has heard is liability insurance. That’s not an issue, she said. If the track is sanctioned by the National Bike League or American Bicycle Association — which it will be in order to qualify for hosting races — the association pays the insurance out of membership and race fees.

Curtis talked to the chamber of commerce director in Morristown, Tenn., about the economic impact of the BMX track there. He told her the track has an economic impact of $1.7 million annually. During national races, all 785 hotel rooms in Morristown are booked, Curtis said. Curtis said the sales tax generated by all the people coming into the county will be beneficial as well.

“We come up with all these tourism ideas, but we don’t come up with anything for the kids,” Curtis said.

Getting hooked

Michelle has gotten hooked on BMX racing in just a few months.

“When someone asked me how old I was I almost said ‘14 girl,’” Michelle said. That’s her racing category — 14 girl. “Then I thought, oops, never mind, you don’t know what that means. I’m sure you know I’m a girl.”

Michelle fits in with guys, but doesn’t hide her femininity. She just got a brand new racing tag — a license plate more or less used to identify riders in races — that’s pink and black. She has plans to paint her bike pink and black and get a pink and black racing suit and helmet.

Despite the lack of a nearby track to practice on, Michelle has quickly picked up the ropes and carved out a place for herself in the girls’ racing circuit.

“I want to take home number one nationals for my sake. For nobody else’s sake but me,” Michelle said. “You should see me at that finish line. If someone is close I’ll kill myself to get across first.”

At a recent race in Tanglewood, Michelle got sponsored by Schane Wolf Racing, a bike shop in Shelby.

“They talked to her before the race and told here they were going to watch her and afterwards they might sponsor her on the team,” said Curtis.

Chris introduced Michelle to BMX biking in January. They had been dating a little over a month when Michelle went to Charleston to watch Chris race.

“I don’t know exactly how they talked me into it. Mom told me I should tell Chris that I wanted to try it at least once so I told him I wouldn’t mind trying it. Then he got it on his mind that I was going to try it,” Michelle said.

When Michelle went to Chris’s next race in Summerville, S.C., he began pulling an extra bike, racing jersey and helmet out of his dad’s truck and told Michelle is was for her. Michelle hadn’t ridden a bike in a couple of years, but she put the gear on and did three laps around the track during warm-up. She came back and told her mom she wanted to sign up to race. They signed her up and she was issued a number plate for the bike.

“She got second place and got a trophy, and that just did it right there,” Michelle’s mom, Melanie Curtis said.

Michelle borrowed a bike from Chris for several months until she could get one of her own. They finally found one that would fit her on e-Bay, the on-line auction company. Items are posted by a seller and buyers have two weeks to enter bids. Michelle checked the site everyday to see if anyone had come along and outbid her. For a while, everything held steady and they had no challengers. But the bidding can get fast and furious in the final day before the auction expires — and especially in the final minutes.

“I was bidding against another person and just on the last minute I got the last bid and I won it,” said Curtis.

Chris got his first BMX bike when he was 9.

“When I was little, me and my dad always watched X Games. I was always interested in the bike part,” Chris said. “One day we were watching and there was a number if you wanted to get into it. So me and my dad called the number.”

They directed Chris and his dad, Glenn Beasley, to the closest track, the one in Spartanburg. So the next weekend they loaded up Chris’ regular bike and went to the track. It wasn’t long before Beasley bought Chris a real BMX bike.

Over the next six years, Chris collected so many BMX bikes and parts he ran out of places to put them. He began hanging them from the walls in his room, but there was only a enough floor space to have one or two down at a time. So he sacrificed his bed, leaning it up against the wall to make more room for the bikes. He now sleeps on the sofa. Meanwhile, his room is looking more and more like a bike mechanics shop.

He has to start turning down trophies at races, because he ran out of shelf space for those.

“I don’t need them. They take up room,” he said.