Lake Perris BMX Sanction Revoked

Late today, USA BMX announced that, effective tomorrow, the sanction of Lake Perris BMX would be revoked. Here is the official statement:

As of Friday, January 20th, the USA BMX sanction for Lake Perris BMX has been revoked. There will not be any sanctioned, insured events at Lake Perris BMX until further notice.

This means that ANY event held at Lake Perris BMX on or after January 20th, 2012 is NOT insured by USA BMX and no USA BMX points of any kind will be awarded.

The staff at USA BMX will be working with the management team at the fairgrounds to get the track reopened with an interim Track Operator as quickly as possible. In the meantime, we regret any inconvenience that this short-term closure causes

UPDATE 2:04PM CST 1/20/12>>>>

BMX News Spoke to Track Operator, Ronda Linck, to gather more details on a possible sale of the track to an interested party. She told us that the track is currently for sale, at an asking price of $50,000. This would include “everything you see” at the track, from the gate to the finish line, as well snack bar, web site and other support assets.

Linck also said that there is a deadline for such a sale to be made. If no buyer presents themselves by Saturday night or Sunday morning, they will begin selling off the assets piecemeal, including the dirt out of which the track is constructed. “The dirt is worth money, so we’re going to sell it to try and recoup some of the money we put into the track.” She said.

It was not immediately clear from official sources whether a new owner would also be responsible for the outstanding debt the track has on the books, estimated to be about $30,000. A newspaper story last month seemed to indicate that the Fairgrounds (landlord to the track), would be willing to wipe the slate clean if a suitable tenant were found. That would still leave a sizable debt owed to the ABA, and it is unclear how that would be handled in a new-owner scenario.

The closing of Lake Perris BMX would leave a fairly large hole in the BMX Racing scene in Southern California’s “Inland Empire.” Apple Valley BMX is about an hour away, and the Orange Y track is about 45 miles west (which can be two hours in the notorious So. Cal Traffic). Some have speculated that there will be a “significant” rider fall-off due to parents not wanting to make the drive to Orange or Apple Valley.

We’ll keep updating this page as new developments arise.