he ISTV crew headed out to the ABA Winter Nationals in normally sunny Phoenix, Arizona over the weekend. The official launch of race coverage isn't slated until late Spring, however the ISTV crew planned on two trial runs. One being this weekend at Black Mountain ABA and the next slated for Nellis NBL in Las Vegas (which was later cancelled due to weather related track conditions).
Even though the rain has been coming down for days in Arizona, the track was covered and was in relatively decent condition for Friday's practice. Practice got under way as normal until the rain came again about half way through.
Saturday's event would be a "one lap - no crap, dash for the cash" for the pros. In fact, due to weather, they even cancelled practice and adjusted the amateur qualifying to a one moto system. If your rider count was 8 or less you actually only ran a main.
The pro racing was intense despite the track conditions. California's Stephanie Barragan had the narrow fast lane for the win in girl's pro. Her Phantom/On Trac team-mate A pro Mike Moeller took his class. The hardest working Vet pro in the business, Jason Carnes, powered through the mud for the win for Redline.
By far the epic race of the day went to the AA pro battle between Redline's Bubba Harris and Fly/Avent sponsored Donny Robinson. Bubba took the early lead and held it for most of the track. However, Donny's intense training paid off with a finish line burst that looked as if it had come from a CRF450R.
The excitement on Sunday came in the Vet pro class when Darrin Mitchell's throttle got stuck and he looped out going down the drop off. Supercross rider Todd Parry ended up with the overall. Todd's team-mate Samantha Cools won the Girl pro class on Sunday. Psykopath's Damian Lopez took the A pro win and in AA Robert DeWilde took the overall score for the big check.
The pros weren't the only ones dicing this weekend. The amateurs provided some excellent battles. Hyper's Jacob Abbe and Answer/Staats' Hunter Pelham provided some intense action in the menehune classes. Pelham won the 8X class and Abbe took the 7-8 open.
Texan Jamarcus White took advantage of some 16X class mishaps and took the win in the main. Now, Jamarcus is an excellent rider for the Crupi/Hurricane team and normally this isn't out of the norm. However, J-Mar did this all with a broken arm - cast and all!
Though the racing was exciting and the ABA crew worked diligently, track conditions did take their toll. Many riders lost positions due to missing the narrow plywood lanes set into the track to avoid especially muddy sections. The track also developed Supercross style ruts that sent even the most skilled riders flying squirrelly.
On the injury front C-Money (Jason Carnes) went down hard and was wondering what state he was in for a while. Matt Faulk went down and hurt his wrist. Nic Long went down when he went for a AA style pass in the corner on Mongoose single amateur Joey Bradford.
When the weekend was through the race was as good as it could have been. The ISTV crew got an event under their belt and are studying the footage to develop strategies for optimizing the coverage.
Many riders had a chance to speak with the beautiful Cathy Rankin and the enthusiastic Matt Hendershott in the live interview section immediately after their race. Also Kim Hayashi, John Purse and others participated in studio interviews with Cathy done in the ISTV trailer.
This is an exciting time for not only ISTV.COM but the sport of BMX in general. The BMX buzz is on an upswing and we here at ISPORTSTV.COM are working overtime to provide the coverage the sport deserves.
