‘Godfather of freestyle BMX’ Bob Haro visits Gosport – home of the number three ranked club in Great Britain
Gosport BMX Club welcomed one of the sport’s legendary names - a man who appeared in the smash 80s film ET as a stunt rider.
American Bob Haro picked up the nickname ‘The Godfather of freestyle BMX’ during his racing career, and later put his name to a global brand of BMX bikes.
He visited the Gosport club at their Grange Road track thanks to the work of Lee Burack, who is part of the South Coast Old School BMX group based in the Horndean area.
SCOS members - whose passion is restoring 80s era BMX bikes - hold a summer festival, which this year took place last weekend with Haro in attendance.
Gosport members of all ages - ranging from just three to fiftysomething - took part in a skills competition in front of Haro, who is based in San Diego.
The Gosport club, formed back in the noughties, currently have around 175 members - ‘getting towards the highest it’s ever been,’ said chairman Darren Fells.
‘I’ve been involved for around 17 years, we started off with literally nothing - just a mud track.
‘Since then we’ve added containers, toilets, a welfare facility.’
Next on the list of improvements is floodlights, funded by the Veolia Environmental Trust to the tune of around £45,000.
They should be in place by late October, bringing Gosport’s facility up to one of the best in the entire country.
‘Floodlit tracks are very rare,’ said Fells. ‘The nearest one to here is Peckham in south London.
‘When the lights are up, there’s only three or four clubs in the country whose facilities will be at our level.’
Fells admits the ‘end goal’ is the club’s own brick-built clubhouse, to replace the container they have been using.
‘There’s no timescale on that,’ he said. ‘It would cost between £100,000 and £200,000.
‘The great thing is that having the floodlights means we will be able to offer more sessions, and that will generate more income.’
Gosport are the number one ranked BMX club in the south region, based on the results of members at events.
They are ranked third in the whole of Britain, with only Manchester and Peckham above them. ‘We’ve never got higher than third,’ Fells remarked. ‘But that’s not bad for a little town like Gosport!’