Rockford BMX

The Rock, the Drop, and the land nobody else wanted

Legend Bike Co · BMX heritage series

What it is An outdoor dirt race track — open, racing, and one of the longest-running nationals on the calendar

Where Searls Park, 4950 Safford Road, Rockford, Illinois

Known as The Rock

Opened 1977, built by the Jaycees of Rockford

Who runs it Jake and Candy Karau, in since 1982, running it since 1984

Sanction ABA, then USA BMX after the 2011 merger. Ranked the No. 2 Central Division track by the ABA in 2004

Nationals One day of a two-day national in 1987, then the MidWest Nationals nearly every year since. The ABA World Cup in 1999

Signature The Drop, Bermzilla, the Rockness Monster

The Rockford Park District gave the Jaycees a piece of ground on Safford Road in 1977 because it flooded when it rained and there was nothing else to do with it. That is the whole origin story, and it is a better one than most. Half a century later that same flood-prone parcel is one of the most recognizable race tracks in American BMX, and the national that runs there is one of the few weekends on the calendar that riders plan a summer around.

Jaycees, a Bike Shop Gate, and a Family

The Jaycees of Rockford started it in 1977 because their kids wanted to try this rather new sport of bicycle racing. They asked the Park District for land, got the parcel nobody wanted, and built a track on it.

In 1980 one of their own members took it over and ran it for profit. The starting gate in those years had been donated by Kegel's Bike Shop, it was operated by hand, and it stood about two feet high. That is the correct picture of a first-generation Midwest track: a local service club, a local bike shop, a hand-cranked gate, and a lot of volunteer hours.

In 1982 Jake and Candy Karau turned up because their son had started racing. In 1984 the operator wanted to retire and the Karaus stepped in. They have run it ever since, and effectively every good thing on this page dates from that handover. A track is a piece of dirt. A track that lasts forty years is a family that refused to quit.

1987: The First National, Split in Half

Rockford's first national was not a whole national. In 1987 it hosted one day of a two-day event, sharing the weekend with a track in Janesville, Wisconsin, about forty minutes north, which has since closed.

That half-share turned into the MidWest Nationals, and the MidWest turned into a fixture. It has run at Rockford nearly without interruption ever since — the sanctioning body's own account of the 2021 race describes the 2020 cancellation, forced by Illinois Covid shutdowns, as the first year in decades that Rockford had not held a national event.

In 1999 Rockford hosted the ABA's World Cup, which the track describes as the first world-class event ever brought to the city. Whatever your feelings about the sanction politics of that era — and this library has covered plenty of them in the ABA and NBL chapters — a volunteer-run track on a Park District flood plain landing an international event is not a small thing.

The recognition followed. Transworld BMX ranked Rockford the No. 8 BMX track in the United States in 2002. The ABA ranked it the No. 2 Central Division track in 2004.

The Course

Most tracks get described by their nationals. Rockford gets described by its jumps, and that is unusual enough to be the point.

The start straight is flatter than most, which makes it a horsepower test. You go from zero to thirty in three or four cranks or you do not win. Lane choice matters here in a way it does not everywhere: gate one is a bad draw because you get shut down by the first obstacle, while gates five and six are the ones riders want.

The Drop is what Rockford is famous for. It is a drop-off, right at the front of the course, and it is deliberately old-fashioned — you almost never see one on a modern track. You pre-hop it at speed, catch the backside cleanly, and come off it faster than you went on. Riders will tell you it is simple in practice by yourself and a completely different animal in a main with seven other people beside you.

After that comes an oversized step-table-stepdown, then a set of high-speed triple rollers feeding the first turn.

Bermzilla is that first turn. In the late 1980s it was as big and as banked a first corner as existed anywhere in BMX. In 2002 Rockford blacktopped its berms — and immediately started fielding phone calls from tracks all over the country asking how they had done it. Bermzilla today is paved, carvable, and lined along the top with white dots.

The second straight is short, possibly the shortest on the national circuit, and stuffed with more obstacles per foot than anything else out there. Then a second berm, then a long rhythm section that rewards riders who have it memorized and eats the ones who do not.

The third turn is the flat one. In the 1990s, before clipless pedals were normal, it was genuinely flat — what old riders call a Euro turn. Some outside banking has been added since, but it is still short and still shallow, and a pass made there still gets the crowd on its feet.

Then the Tombstones, the last straight's rollers, named — by local legend, and we will flag that this is legend — for dirt said to have come from a nearby graveyard. Then the Rockness Monster, a climb almost everybody has to pedal over. And then the finish sprint, a straight so long that the sanctioning body has called it probably the longest finish-line sprint in North America.

Two more details that tell you what kind of operation this is. Rockford covered its staging area in 1998, one of the first outdoor tracks in the country to put a roof over the riders waiting to race. And the starting gate is built by ProGate, whose shop is in Rockford. The gate on the national circuit's most distinctive track is made in the same town.

The Grass

Ask anybody who has raced the MidWest what they remember and a lot of them will say the camping. Searls Park has rolling green lawns for pitting, trees for shade, and enough room that the 2021 event held over 120 motorhomes and tent campers. Riders rank it among the best camping weekends of the season. That is not a footnote. A national is a three-day event for the families who come, and the reason this one keeps drawing is that Rockford figured out early that it was hosting people, not just races.

The numbers hold up. Rockford's all-time single-day moto record is 264, set in 1998. The 2021 return after the Covid year came within two motos of it.

Charity, Written In

Every year since 1982, Rockford has held a Race for Life. Its riders have given more than $172,000 to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. Starting in 1995 the track ran a Race Against Hunger, knocking a dollar off entry for every non-perishable food item a racer brought in, covering the race costs itself — eight years, roughly 14,000 food items, more than $20,000 in value to the Rock River Valley Food Pantry. A Boy Scout troop from Belvidere has cleaned up after the MidWest Nationals for years and the track has donated around $15,000 back to them.

That is not a press release. That is what a track looks like when the people running it have been there four decades.

What Stands There Now

Rockford BMX is open, at Searls Park, still on Safford Road, still run by the Karaus, still holding the MidWest Nationals. Of all the tracks in this library it may be the only one whose chapter needs no past tense.

Where the record runs thin

The exact month and date of the first race in 1977 are not documented. The name of the Jaycee member who took the track over in 1980 and ran it for profit until 1984 is not documented in anything we could reach. The name of the Janesville track that shared the 1987 national weekend, and the exact date of that event, are not documented in our sources. We could not build a year-by-year list of MidWest Nationals editions or their winners; the sanction's public results archive and photo galleries render in the browser and could not be read directly. We also could not confirm whether Rockford was ever sanctioned by anything other than the ABA and its successor USA BMX. The NBL was active across the Midwest in the same decades, and it would be reasonable to assume Rockford crossed paths with it, but assumption is not record and nothing we found puts an NBL sanction on this track. The Tombstones graveyard-dirt story is told as local legend by the sanctioning body's own writer, who flagged it as rumor; we repeat it as legend and not as fact. One small housekeeping note: the park's name appears as both Searls Park and Searles Park in published accounts, including in the sanction's own event coverage; the Rockford Park District spells it Searls. On sources: bmxsociety.com was unreachable throughout this research and bmxmuseum.com blocks automated access, so their Midwest track threads could not be read.

Raced The Rock in the 1980s? Know who ran it between 1980 and 1984, or which Janesville track shared that 1987 weekend? Got a plate, a flyer or a photo? Legend Bike Co wants to hear from you — this page grows as the people who were there fill in the record.

Timeline

  • 1977The Jaycees of Rockford petition the Park District for land, are given a flood-prone parcel on Safford Road, and build a BMX track on it.
  • 1980One of the Jaycee members takes the track over and runs it for profit. The gate, donated by Kegel's Bike Shop, is hand-operated and about two feet high.
  • 1982Jake and Candy Karau get involved when their son starts racing. The first Race for Life runs, and has run every year since.
  • 1984The operator retires and the Karaus take over the track.
  • 1987Rockford hosts one day of a two-day national, sharing the weekend with a Janesville track that has since closed.
  • 1995The Race Against Hunger begins. Over eight years it moves roughly 14,000 food items to the Rock River Valley Food Pantry.
  • 1998Rockford covers its staging area, among the first outdoor tracks in the country to do it. The track sets its all-time single-day moto record of 264.
  • 1999Rockford hosts the ABA World Cup, the first world-class event brought to the city.
  • 2002The berms are blacktopped and tracks around the country start calling to ask how. Transworld BMX ranks Rockford the No. 8 track in the United States.
  • 2004The ABA ranks Rockford the No. 2 track in its Central Division.
  • 2020The MidWest Nationals is canceled by Illinois Covid shutdowns — the first year in decades Rockford has not held a national.
  • 2021The Return to The Rock draws 262 motos on Saturday, two short of the 1998 record, with over 120 campers on the grass.
  • TodayOpen, racing, and still run by Jake and Candy Karau.

Where Rockford fits in the bigger story

The sanctions that shaped it: ABA, NBL. The other tracks still standing: Chandler, the ABA's own Track 001, and Apple Valley. Tracks that carried a national: Azusa, Anaheim Stadium, La Mirada, and the wider survey in The Tracks That Built BMX. Riders who came up through the ABA system: Gary Ellis, Mike King, Pete Loncarevich, Brent Romero. Our own team has raced this dirt: Supercross BMX, Bill Ryan. The full arc lives in our History of BMX series.

Sources

Rockford BMX, About page (rockfordbmx.com) — the 1977 founding by the Jaycees of Rockford, the petition to the Park District, the flood-prone Safford Road parcel, the 1980 handover to a Jaycee member running it for profit, the hand-operated two-foot gate donated by Kegel's Bike Shop, Jake and Candy Karau arriving in 1982 and taking over in 1984, the Race for Life running every year since 1982 and its $172,000-plus total to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, the 1987 one-day national shared with Janesville, the track becoming home of the MidWest Nationals, the 1999 ABA World Cup, the 1995 Race Against Hunger and its Rock River Valley Food Pantry totals, the Belvidere Boy Scout troop and the roughly $15,000 donated to them, the 1998 covered staging area, and the 2002 blacktopped berms. USA BMX, Return to The Rock — 2021 MidWest Nationals (June 23, 2021) — the nickname The Rock, the 2020 Covid cancellation described as the first year in decades without a national at Rockford, the 262-moto Saturday against the 264-moto record set in 1998, the 120-plus campers on the Searls Park grass, the ProGate starting gate built in Rockford, and the obstacle-by-obstacle course description covering the flat start straight and lane preferences, the Drop, the step-table-stepdown, the triple rollers, Bermzilla and its paved carvable surface, the short jump-filled second straight, the long rhythm, the flat third turn, the Tombstones and their graveyard-dirt legend, the Rockness Monster, and the finish sprint. Rockford Area Convention and Visitors Bureau (gorockford.com) listing for Rockford BMX — the No. 2 ABA Central Division ranking in 2004 and the No. 8 United States ranking from Transworld BMX in 2002. Rockford Park District — Searls Park as the venue and its spelling. Rockford BMX and USA BMX track listings — the 4950 Safford Road address and current operating status. Not reachable during research: bmxsociety.com was down throughout; bmxmuseum.com blocks automated access; and usabmx.com's results archive and photos.usabmx.com render client-side, so year-by-year MidWest Nationals results could not be read directly.