Federal Member for Page Kevin Hogan last Thursday announced a $15,000 grant to the Clarence Valley BMX Club to upgrade its track and improve safety. “This is a great win for the club, which has well over 100 members, and the wider Clarence community,” he said. “The upgrade will make the track safer for riders and require less maintenance by volunteers, allowing them to focus more on assisting the riders and growing the sport in the Clarence.” The grant will allow the club to upgrade the existing track, replacing the dirt berm (banked corner) with asphalt that require little to no maintenance and making it much safer for riders. About 50 tonnes of asphalt will be used in the upgrade, requiring a specialist contractor to undertake the work. The track is open to the public on non-race days and is widely used by the general community. Club spokesperson Greg Brown said Club is over the moon with the asphalt sealing of the two remaining dirt berm corners at the track. “The local BMX Club volunteers have been maintaining the dirt track and berm corners for years to keep the track in a safe and usable condition. The old dirt berm corners would wash-out with every storm or heavy rain, making the track unrideable and dangerous. Asphalting the corners will allow riders to go safely around the corners without having their wheels skidding out in the loose dirt. Two of the four berm corners were asphalted 2 years ago which greatly reduced the work load on the BMX Club”. “The Clarence Valley BMX track has grown from the old sale yard paddocks from years gone by to a BMX facility that the Clarence Valley can be proud of and what we are now seeing now is the result of many years of hard work from past and present BMX members and their families. With all the berm corners now asphalted the BMX Club is set to host round 5 of the BMX NSW State Series in July with an estimated four to five hundred riders coming to the area for the Clarence Valley BMX Carnival which starts with night racing on Wednesday July 6 and goes through to the State Series Round on Sunday July 10”. Said Mr Brown. The Clarence Valley Council has put its support behind the BMX Carnival in July and the expected boost to the local economy from the influx of BMX riders and their families throughout the Clarence Valley. The next project for the BMX Club is to resurface the rest of the track with special blend of top soil from Thorley Sand and Gravel, then seal the track with a soil stabiliser before the July Carnival to make the track smooth and fast for the big event.