A BMX racer catches air during a night heat at the Whip City BMX track located on the WestfieLd Fairgrounds. This year’s BMX event will be held Saturday, June 15, with proceeds going to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. (File photo by Frederick Gore)
WESTFIELD – His kids got him into it, as kids tend to do with their parents.
Now he can’t seem to get out of it.
Not that Al Pighetti of Whip City BMX is looking to get out of the sport of bicycle motocross (BMX) racing anytime soon.
“I was a motorcycle enthusiast, and my kids got into it,” the Westfield native said. “My son was about eight years old when he drew me in.”
Pighetti’s daughter then took a shine to the sport, making it a family business of sorts, in an era when BMX was really taking off.
“The ’80s were crazy,” he said. “And then it sort of died out until the late ’90s, and now it’s back again.”
Spurred on by the nascent extreme sports culture near the turn of the century, and the exploits of vert ramp and freestyle riders such as Mat Hoffman and Rick Thorne, BMX took off, and while Pighetti credits these men for pushing the sport to its physical limits, he enjoys it for its original form.
“Those guys have more in common with skateboarders than with what we do,” Pighetti said of Whip City’s racing course at the Westfield Fairgrounds. “It makes events like this possible.”
The event in question is The Race for Life for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, which is set to be held at the Whip this Saturday.
After last year’s event raised $5,800, Whip City BMX came in fifth in the country in pledges made, as the event drew in almost 150 participants in various age groups.
As a member of the American Bicycle Association, Whip City BMX has been involved in the event for several years now, and regional support has grown each year, with Belise Auto donating a bicycle and New England Chiropractic Care donating several helmets to be raffled off to participants in the races.
Held in large part to honor the memory of Todd Kingsbury, a rising BMX star from Michigan in the early ’80s who passed away from Leukemia at the age of 12, the American Bicycle Association has been racing for a cure for over 30 years, and shows no signs of slowing down.
“The event gives kids a chance to waive the registration fee to participate,” said Pighetti, who organizes races in novice, intermediate and expert, with riders ages 3-70 taking to the 950-foot course.
Signups for the event will go from 9-11 a.m., with races beginning at noon. The event is free for spectators, with a $20 race fee for participants. There will also be donation seating available, with the person who raises the most money winning a free summer of racing at the track.
