PORT ORCHARD, Wash — A single-speed bike pulls up to the gate, but it's clear the rider has a different gear.
Sean Day is the Pacific Northwest's poster boy for BMX.
He's the top-ranked 16-year-old in the world.
"If I'm not winning, I'm not happy," Day said, who's been advanced for his age since the beginning. "And if I'm not happy, then it's just not fun. By the time I turned three, my neighbors were annoyed with the training wheels sound on the concrete, so they came over and they were like, 'We're taking your training wheels off.'"
The training wheels have since become racing wheels.
They're at the perfect PSI, which allows Day to give an important PSA.
"It's really difficult for us because it's freezing cold, it's raining, we don't always have the best tracks and it's kind of difficult for us to ride all the time," Day said.
Day has no doubt shined where the sun does not.
"I remember the first Grand Nationals he won, the announcer was like, 'The rider out of Washington?'" said Lisa, Day's mother. "Like it wasn't heard of."
With the Seattle area spending the winter months soaked in rain, outdoor tracks are tarped and bicycles are cycled out until the summer.
Elite riders like Day are forced to flock elsewhere. From 2021 to 2022, he spent 17 months in Florida.
"I do miss home and I miss being with my own family, but sometimes the dedication really takes over and if you really want to be the best, then you have to be where the best training is," Day said.
"There's nowhere to ride once the rain comes and if you can't keep moving and honing your craft, then you're kind of stuck," Lisa said.
Stuck in the mud was exactly how the folks at Peninsula Indoor BMX felt not too long ago.
The Port Orchard facility had 40 years of history that were in jeopardy this summer.
"This is the only indoor BMX track in Washington state and the tri-state area really," track operator Tom McClure said. "Two of the big 501(c)(3) non-profit tracks in the state both joined forces together to kind of superfund this place and get it back off the ground."
The impact is being felt by everyone.
"Without this, how do these athletes compete with kids that are in Arizona and southern California and Florida that can ride year round?" McClure said.
"When I heard the track was going to reopen, I was like, 'Ok I can go home,' because the final race of the year is at an indoor track in Tulsa," Day said.
Day led wire to wire at that race in late November.
It was a first-place showing, which his mom credits to the first place he trained.
"If he didn't have this place to ride and be able to hone the craft that he's doing, it might not have worked out," Lisa said. "He's homegrown Washington. This is where he came from, this is where he honed his craft, he did it here. And you can do it here."
"You wouldn't have a Sean Day if you didn't have an indoor training facility like this," McClure said.