Families Celebrate Thanksgiving At The USA BMX Grand Nationals Race

When most people think about Thanksgiving, they usually think of the turkey dinner with all the fix-ins. But for some people, Thanksgiving is all about the USA BMX Grand Nationals Race at Expo Square.

"You know Thanksgiving is about food, it is about family, but you got to have some fun too," said Justin Wahl with USA BMX. 

Each year USA BMX hosts the Grand Nationals Race during the week of Thanksgiving. "If you're in BMX you know you're going to be spending Thanksgiving with your BMX family and some of your own family," Wahl said. 

Some visitors said they didn't mind spending the holiday outside of the kitchen.

"I was fine not cooking, I was like yep, okay good," said Kim Anderson.

Anderson and her family spent their first Thanksgiving at the BMX Grand Nationals Race this year. They went to watch their son compete. 

"It's nice to have the time off, but it's more important. I am so proud of him, and he's trained really, really hard and he's worked really hard to get here," she said. 

Her son Daxton has been racing since he was 3 years old. He said even though he loves Thanksgiving dinner, he didn't mind spending the holiday on his bike, "I love biking, so this is kind of my passion," Daxton said. 

While many people usually spend Thanksgiving at the dinner table with their families, some folks at the race made their own family at the racetrack. "You know, unfortunately my family's at home, but I get to spend Thanksgiving with my other family which is my race team and their families," said Gus Lanzilotta.

Lanzilotta works for Profile Racing and has been traveling to Tulsa for the race for 22 years. Members of his team decided they couldn't miss out on the festivities, so they brought the turkey dinner with them. "Just enjoy a meal, laugh and talk, not talk any business, you know just be regular, it's a lot of fun, it is."

Lanzilotta said he's grateful to spend the day with his team that feels like family. "When you're able to sit down with people that you talk to everyday, but you don't see them, and have Thanksgiving dinner with them, it's just as meaningful as if I'm sitting down with my own family as well," he said.