Wow! If you are Tom Ritz and you build the finest BMX racing tracks in the world, you've got a lot to think about. You have to take into account what the tracks operators and benefactors (in this case the City of Napa, CA) want it to be. You have to take into account a track Board of Directors who have dedicated kids racing all over the country. You need to adjust for beginners and still allow some room for dR our resident Olympic Bronze Medalist in the sport, while at the same time stay true to your own track building philosophy and desire to do something really special. It goes without saying that this is a pretty daunting task and Tom Ritz lives for this stuff. Everything is built with the flow of the track in mind. Flow helps everything go smoothly even when there are challenging obstacles everywhere. Flow helps with the overall safety of the track because it allows for beginners to get used to going up, down and over all sorts of hills, jumps, step-ups and rhythm sections. Tom is building this track with alternating sections for power riders (like dR) and technical riders (like "Mikey Day" our Silver Medalist). Turns are constructed not to just help the flow, but to teach beginner and expert riders alike to use the turn effectively. The kids won't realize they are learning but they'll be guided to better turn technique because Tom Ritz thought of that for them. Every little aspect is gone over and thought out. To listen to Tom Ritz is to listen to someone who loves every aspect and challenge of building a track. Stay tuned. All of northern California is going to like this one. Tom Ritz is gonna make sure of that! Keep looking for photos as the track takes shape.

Hi everyone. It's been a long time since dad and I worked on this blog. We've been really busy with lots of stuff and we haven't been doing any racing really. But everything is going to change, now. Tom Ritz who is famous for building the greatest tracks in the whole world is in Napa building us a new "world class" track. Today, I wanted to go with dad and help work on the track. Dad said it would be good for me to feel like I helped build it from the beginning. Today, they poured the starting gate pad. It is made out of concrete and man is it hard to work on! Concrete is super heavy and super wet and Doug Mayer came out and built the wooden forms (which hold the concrete in place) and helped pour it and smooth it. It was a beautiful day and it didn't feel like I got sun burned but I got roasted. Mr. Tracy, Lake's dad was really cool and put sunscreen on my super red neck and shoulders. Then I went and picked up all the nails from the forms. There must've been a hundred! I got to ride in the dump truck with Dylan and Mr. Molles. It was way up high and really bumpy. I thought we'd all flip over. We picked up all the tires and threw them in the dumpster. Us kids couldn't because there might have been snakes or black widow spiders! Anyway, we are all really psyched. Donny Robinson came out and he is going to be very involved with the way everything is going to be set up. He wants it to be great for us kids. It is going to be shaped to teach us the best habits for the way to race properly. It'll be exciting for pros and for us kids. He really wants to make it the most awesome track that Napa could ever hope for. I'm going to help as much as I can. I hope you like the photos. We'll be taking tons more. For all my friends racing tonight and this weekend, have fun. I'll be coming soon. I miss all you guys!

Hello everybody. First I want to thank all of the riders and friends that keep coming to my web site and checking it out. I really am thankful and kind of shocked. My site is popular and I hope that everyone likes what they find here. It is because of all of you that I love BMX so much. I have made so many new friends all over the country and I am always surprised when someone comes up and says who's Tobias or where is the rider Tobias. We love the sport and we like sharing what we learn with other riders and families. My family figures that if we all help each other, we help the sport that we all love. But enough of that stuff, I want to tell you that I had a blast in Livermore, yesterday.

Dad and I got up early and went to the track for the first time in two years. I didn't remember it much and I thought it would be fun to race NBL. Even though our track is an ABA track and I race mostly ABA, I really like going to the NBL tracks because they seem to be a little different. Livermore is like that . it's got some pretty technical jumps and obstacles. I tend to like this kind of track. I am learning to jump and Livermore had some cool doubles, triples and tables that were a blast. Lot's of my friends came down from Napa Crush and we all had a great time racing. I went down with no thought in mind other than getting back in shape and having fun. NBL is different because the racing is always like a total point race in ABA, but with more than three riders. They don't run mains in NBL unless they have at least 6 riders, I think. Each race counts for your finish at the end if the day. They run a morning race and an afternoon race so it can be really tiring. my friend Cooper raced class and cruiser and boy he must've been really tired! He still had a great time though. I got second to Robbie in all my races that day. He is definitely in better shape right now. Robbie pretty much got the hole shot every race. I was able to get behind him and stay there for the whole day. Last moto in the afternoon I got the whole shot but left too much room on the inside for him and he passed me going into turn 2. We banged elbows going into the turn which kinda freaked him out but he was going so fast that I knew I couldn't stop him. We had sooo much fun! I wondered why he was in such good shape, already. We've all been getting rained out for the past month. When we took him home I found out what he's doing. he's got this cool little General Lee pit bike and every day he tries to pull the longest wheelies he can! What a fun way to get in shape. Dad said we're not going to keep waiting for my Redman to get in. We're going to get something pretty quick now. I can't wait. It's a fun way to get in shape. Anyway, it's raining again. My track is under water and dad says the renovation won't be able to start until the end of March. He also said that the new track won't have all the water problems the one we have now does. It's going to be awesome. So, see you at the next race - ABA, NBL, I don't care. I'm planning on having fun no matter what.