By Danielle M. Crosier, Vermont Country Magazine.
Vermont’s only bike motocross organization, Bennington County’s Catamount BMX, is back in full operation.
For frequent Catamount BMX participants, the track offers a feeling of pure and utter exhilaration.
“BMX is so much fun. When I’m on my bike, I feel free. I can fly over jumps – and go as fast as I want,” said Deegan Durkee, age 11. “It’s so much fun racing my friends and trying to get better. Even when I crash, I still want to get back up and do it again. I have made so many new friends – near and far – and look forward to traveling every year to see them.”
Although the Catamount BMX track has existed for nearly 30 years – since 1996 – current track manager Andre-Anne Chenaille noted that the facility and organization were in need of some real repairs post-COVID.
While the reintroduction of the Catamount BMX track programming took a lot of work, interest in the track has grown exponentially in just the past few years, especially under Chenaille’s leadership.
“BMX racing is a unique sport in that the entire family can participate in a single event,” said Chenaille, her face lighting up. “The age classes start with the Striders Program, which is as soon as you can walk. And, the age classes go all the way up – so, we say, ‘zero to 99.’ You could be 80 years old, and you could be racing.”
In BMX racing, there is the novice class, the intermediate class, and the expert class.
“Kids kind of progress faster,” stated Chenaille, adding that a rider must accomplish 10 wins in the novice class to progress to the intermediate class and then accomplish 20 wins to move to the expert class. “And, the people you get put with, aren’t necessarily your age.”
For 10-year-old Schwaner, that is a bonus, “I like that I get to race different kids, and that they have age groups up to adults, so I can race for the rest of my life.”
For Jennifer Knapp, who participates with her son, the experience is about bonding, but it is also about maintaining a healthy lifestyle.
“BMX is the best full body workout around,” stated Knapp.“I started when I was in my early 40s , and I am in the best shape of my life now at 50. Catamount BMX is the closest track for me and my son, and it’s a beautiful ride into Vermont. Besides being a great track to ride, the volunteers are amazing, and everyone there feels like family.”
The path to bring the Catamount BMX facility and organization back into the regional fold was “a bit of a struggle.”
The track sat between 2017 and 2019 with little oversight, as the track operator before Chenaille had children who had outgrown the sport, and she had expressed interest in wanting to move on. Away from the area and fresh out of college at the time, Chenaille was unaffected and largely unaware of the situation.
“There wasn’t somebody at that time that wanted to step up and take over. So, 2017 was the last full season. 2018 and 2019, it sat. Nobody maintained it,” explained Chenaille, who had been active in the organization back in her high school days. Then, COVID hit.
“I raced at Catamount for the first time when I was 8 years old,” said Chenaille, laughing as she remembered her own youth. “I was mostly racing boys and I wasn’t that good, so I kind of got out of it. Then, in 2011 when I was about 16, I kind of got back into it. I felt like BMX was really a big part of my life, even when I wasn’t racing. I wasn’t ever into your typical sports, like soccer and basketball; for some reason, I just wasn’t attracted to them. I’ve just always been into things like snowboarding and BMX, and stuff like that.”
“It was in 2016 that I got back into it – heavy,” continued Chenaille. “I was on a team, mostly traveling, and the Moto tracks at this track were really low – and I just didn’t really have anyone to race. Then, the Catamount BMX track closed.”
The Moto tracks are built on the age and the skill level – and Moto groups are built based on who is there on a specific day, to build those race groups. As of now, the facility is operating at about 20 Moto groups, but back in 2016, the organization was dwindling.
Chenaille said that it was then that she started thinking, “Hey, wait a minute. I don’t have to travel. We have this perfect opportunity to have this awesome track right here. And, that’s kind of when I started to figure out how I could take it over – and I just kind of did.”
The track was in terrible condition, but USA BMX, the sanctioning body that Catamount BMX had been insured under, stepped up, “They sent us their professional track builder, Billy Allen, and we had to basically rebuild everything.”
The project was daunting, and took several months to complete. The professional track builder “roughed in” the layout. From there, local and regional volunteers arrived to commit to the heavy labor.
“The track surface has to be super smooth,” explained Chenaille. “It’s not like a dirt bike track where you can have ruts. It basically needs to be as smooth as a table, and hard packed. We first got it hand raked, and then packed. It was a lot of hard work. I mean, [the professional track builder] came in June, but our first day back wasn’t until August 30 – so months of hard work.”
Locally, businesses assisted as needed. HNB in Bennington donated heavy machinery for a week. According to Chenaille, Joe Mintroni helped with paving and Steve Tatro of Tatro’s Concrete Construction also assisted. From outside the local area, BMX families and individuals came to assist with labor and expertise. One of those was Scotty Doland of Schenectady, whose maintenance knowledge, Chenaille said, was “monumental” to the efforts to restore the facility.
While the rebuild was begun several years ago, portions of the track remained dirt until May of 2023 when it was determined that the maintenance of the two dirt 180 degree turns was not sustainable, largely due to the rate of erosion. After any heavy rain, the turns and the track became unusable until repairs were made.
“So that was one of our huge projects after the main rebuild,” said Chenaille, adding that paving the starting gate was also a major endeavor for the group. “Paving is no joke. That was really hard work. Keegan Nelson from out of Central New York – he’s from a super BMX family and they used to come to the track a lot as kids – was literally using a plate compactor on the turns, and that’s what he used to compact the whole thing.”
The track has held its integrity since then, taking the team only about a month to get the track ready after the following winter seasons. Last year the track was ready mid-May, and Chenaille said she hopes for the same this year.
Of the growing popularity and engagement in the sport, Chenaille is very pleased with where the organization is headed.
As the first and only BMX track in the State of Vermont, Catamount BMX hosts the Vermont State Championships each October. During their first year back in action, in 2021, the facility hosted 120 qualified riders for the State Championship titles.
The 2025 State Championships are scheduled for October 18 and 19, with the Vermont State Qualifiers on July 13.
Each BMX season Catamount BMX holds races every Saturday from mid-May to the end of October, or early November, depending on the weather. Evening practices are held on Wednesdays. And the track is open to the public at all times.
“Regarding getting more girls and women into BMX racing, a few local women have started a BMX team called ‘Mother Pumpers,’ which is generally comprised of BMX moms of kids who race. The idea is, ‘we are at the races anyways, so we might as well race,’” said Chenaille.
The Mother Pumpers team is owned by Samantha Durkee, who said, “It’s never too late to try something new. I love racing BMX because it allows me to be on the track alongside my kids, sharing their excitement and pushing myself in ways I never thought possible. And it’s not just about racing – it’s about growing, bonding, and proving to ourselves that we are capable of more than we imagined.”
Proving themselves is also motivating for the youth involved in the sport. For Chenaille, seeing the joy that young riders who race at Catamount BMX experience is fulfilling enough.
“Watching kids arrive on their first day at the track, and seeing them progress – even through a single race season – is an amazing thing,” said Chenaille. “Operating the track is a lot of work, but seeing the smiling face of even a single kid on race day makes it all worth it.”
“So many wonderful memories have taken place at Catamount BMX,” said Mary Pleasant, BMX mom and Fearless BMX team owner. “Catamount has always been our son’s ‘happy place.’ He’d go there to hang out, work on the track, spend alone time, and of course – race. My heart was always in my throat as he flew around each berm. I absolutely loved watching him race, cheering him on, seeing his eyes light up when he’d see a racer he admired, or holding those trophies he worked so hard to achieve.”
While Pleasant’s son no longer races, and “his torch has been passed to other young racers,” the family still enjoys the sport so much that they have their own BMX team, “It’s a lot of work, but it’s totally worth it,” said Pleasant. “BMX is more than just a sport, it becomes your life. Every weekend will be consumed, your car will be filthy, you will wear the track home – and you’ll be excited to do it all over, again and again.”
For Chenaille, Pleasant’s statement says it all.
“I was born and raised in Bennington, and I had an amazing childhood here,” said Chenaille, noting that the world she grew up in has changed considerably over the years. “But, something that I don’t want to change is the opportunities for kids and families to have a great time together in Bennington. Every kid deserves the opportunity to have a place to go where they feel safe and get to have fun. Catamount BMX is exactly that.”
Catamount BMX is a non-profit “run by volunteers for the love of the sport and the love of the community.”
More information can be found at www.catamountbmx.org.
Danielle Crosier is a landlocked mermaid who found her way to Vermont by accident. She is a wife and mother, a former technical writer (10 years), former educator (19 years), and glass artisan with a background in marketing and strategic management. Her interests, though, lie mainly in studying and understanding systems and improving the lives of those around her. She also loves spending time with her precious children and their significant others, organizing, learning about social geography, creative endeavors, experimenting with various cuisines, and exploring the world around her.
