But that's OK because the Bennett, with construction and componentry designed to handle the impact of the occasional flat landing on hardpacked dirt, is tough enough to be ridden away from all but the worst rookie-beaters. Where he rode to was BMX glory. Brandon, his parents, and his brother Kyle are about to decamp to the nearby Lake Perris BMX course, as it has on nearly every Sunday afternoon for the last seven years. Once rolling, the Nicholls van takes on the glow shared by all family vehicles on the way to uplift and togetherness. Bill, a contractor who grew up in nearby Huntington Beach, brags about the preeminence of BMX here in the suburbifying drylands of Riverside County, the sport's Fertile Crescent.
Daddies here share a predilection for things that burn gas and go like hell.
Motorless kiddie motorsport, then, is a natural. Today at Lake Perris, Brandon Nicholls is in his element. He rockets down the starting hill, looking like a steelhead swimming with catfish. Keeping kids clean in the dirt. More than a dozen L.A. suburbs have BMX tracks.