Beaumont is a city in Texas that lies on the extreme east side of the state. It's close to Houston, Galveston and the Gulf of Mexico as well as the neighboring state of Louisiana. As the ISTV crew checked in to our motel on Friday, this was evident in the sharp Cajun that was being spoken by the guest in front of us. It was also evident by the multitude of "Crawfish" eateries around the area. Hurricane/Crupi's Cameron Lowery shared some of the region’s delicacy with us Saturday when he brought a huge box filled with Cajun style Crawfish for Jim Reilly (the announcer) to try out. ISTV interviewer and myself also got a taste of the region's dialects as we sat outside at the hotel on Saturday night talking with riders from Mississippi, Louisiana, Dallas Texas and so on trying to decipher each unique accent and colloquialism (OK, $10 word quota filled for this article). There was a good number of A Pros that showed up for the weekend. The class was only two riders shy of quarters on Saturday. My buddy Doug-E-Fresh, whom I hadn't seen in quite a while, even took a break from his MXer to race Beaumont. I've had an ongoing bet with SE's Travis Postany that I think is causing some problems with the "Preacher's" karma. I bet Travis last weekend in Atlanta ten dollars that he couldn't win every moto. He proceeded to go down hard in his first moto and ruined his chance at taking that bet. This weekend I doubled it up; Twenty bucks if Travis could go undefeated the whole day on Saturday. Travis won each of his motos (exception is the third moto but we had agreed that if he is in first to the second straight he could shut down to conserve energy for the semi and main). Travis went on to win his semi. Looked like I might be digging into my pocket. However, in his first of three mains Travis got the pop but was bumping with Psykopath rider Damian Lopez the whole first straight. The dual between those two gave J&R's Jason Bennet the inside line for the first corner. Bennet dove in and took the line from Postany. Postany hit Bennet's back tire and went down hard tweaking his wrist. Bennet went on to win the first main with Action Bikes rider Chad Street avoiding the first corner carnage to take the second. In the second main, Bennet got balled up straight out of the gate and Lopez turned on the after burners. Lopez flew out into the lead with Redline/Supercamp rider Ken "Big Rig" Cools in tow. That's the way the second main would go down in the books with CMC/BKS rider Kenny Holston rounding out the top three. In the last A Pro main Lopez got a nice pop from an outside gate. However, Big Rig wanted some of the day's glory and got his first straight pull on. Tim Kneip rode into the mix down the second straight but Lopez wanted no less than a second to seal the overall win. Lopez pulled into the second spot into the third straight and that's how the race ended up. Cools scored the win and Lopez settled for second. The points added up for Psykopath's Lopez though and he took the overall win with Cools in the second spot and Street with the overall third place money. On Sunday Bennett was on and by the third main had only three points. The closest rider was Holston with seven points and a ton of other's tied with nine points. I'm sure Bennett would have loved to have won the third main but Kneip and Answer/Staats rider Chris Ham had the lines. Kneip won with Ham in second. Bennett did what he needed to do though and took a third to seal the overall win with 6 points. AA Pro had a small, six-man turnout. There were no slackers however. All the riders had some type of title to their name. The field included Harris (Redline), Bennett (Free Agent), Holmes (Free Agent), Stumpfhauser (GT/Hyundai), Castro (Psykopath) and Rogers (Avent/Fly). Saturday Bubba was on. You could tell he was having fun when in practice he boosted from the triples on the third straight and hipped into the first corner backwards. When Bubba is having fun it's usually a bad sign for the other riders. Bennett was right there for every one of the three mains but it was Harris with the pull on Saturday. Harris took the overall win with Bennett in second and the consistent podium maker of Randy Stumpfhauser.
On Sunday Bennett must have got some good sleep because he was winning everything even from the outside gates. We saw the return to American racing of Dale Holmes. Dale has recently returned from his native UK and it seems the 4X Mountainbike racing he's been doing there has given him a boost. In two of the three mains Holmes was right behind Bennett all the way to the last rhythm in the third straight. That's where Harris would continually pull out his well known skill and pass for the second place finish. Free Agent's Kyle Bennett took a commanding first place overall with Redline's Bubba Harris in second and an awesome showing by Free Agent's Dale Holmes. Dale told me after the race on Sunday that he would be soon returning to the UK and this was most likely his last US national for a while. It was a great note to leave the US racing scene on. Have a safe trip and hope to see you soon. If you haven't noticed, two Bennetts won the pro classes on Sunday. I wonder when was the last time that riders with the same last name have won both A and AA Pro? I was wondering why the ever present John Purse wasn't at the last couple races representing Mongoose factory. I come to find out from Cash Mathews that John and his wife Nicole have a new addition to the Purse family. Jaxon Ryder Eric Purse was born on April 15, 2005. Congratulations to John and his wife Nicole. With the new Purse and the new Richardson in the BMX ranks, be looking for some awesome 5 and under Expert races in the near future!
The "Dinky Dudes" as announcer Jim Reilly calls them are creating quite a following on the ABA national circuit. I've honestly never heard the cheering and yelling that I heard in Beaumont for the little guys before. Not only little guys but little BMXettes. There was a cute, little 3 year-old racing (yes, I said 3 year-old) that everybody was going nuts over. I mean I couldn't even ride a bike at 3 years let alone make it around a BMX track. Not only did 3 year-old Madison Smith make it around the track but she scored a second place finish on Sunday. Another of the BMX girl highlights was the racing between Phantom/On Trac's Shelbi Long and Hurricane/Crupi rider Samantha Bretheim. Shelbi was on fire this weekend and scored an awesome triple win on Saturday. Samantha has a competitor's heart and was frustrated. Shelbi continued her wins on Sunday. However, Samantha pulled down deep and won a fiercely contested race in 11-13 Girls Cruiser. Definitely keep an eye on these two awesome girls for some great racing in the future. Everybody's favorite National Anthem singer (well, co-favorite because Jessica Nicely sang a rendition on Sunday that was awesome as well) Robin Russell made a return to the national scene this weekend. Unfortunately, Robin went down hard in her main on Saturday and wasn't feeling 100% the rest of the weekend. Stephanie Shannon took the wins in the 17-27 Girls class for her sponsor Sun Bru. I hope to see Robin make it out to more races in the future. It was great seeing you again. Check out in the picture here how Intense rider Alden Volle not only rocks on the track (he won 7-8 Open and 8 Expert all weekend) but he can also head bang with the best of them. Rock On! The Phantom/On Trac team pretty much dominated the whole weekend. I think Shelbi's brother Nic won every race he was in (and can perfectly with his hands upside down on the bars - you gotta ask him to show you that one). Billy Russell's only challenge in 11 Expert came from fellow teammate Jacob EZ-J Kinman (don't play black jack with this kid - he'll rob ya blind - haha just kiddin' EZ). Sergio Pena was looking at clear track all weekend as well. Jay Greene is an awesome rider as well (and likes to have a little "Fun" as well, like puttin' somebody over the second turn or using the airline pillow for fake terrorist masks on the plane KIDS DON'T TRY THAT ONE - YOU WILL MOST LIKELY END UP IN JAIL!) Basically, Mr. Russell and Mr. Long have for sure got a great group of riders put together. One class that everybody made sure to watch was the 16 year-olds. Meyers and J-Mar have built up a great (and friendly) rivalry that was evident in Atlanta last weekend. Well, this weekend a couple other riders decided they wanted to get in on the first turn slam fest as well. I won't mention any names or whether I felt the moves were blatant or not but lets just say that tempers were flaring and I bet WWE slamfest type races are in the future for the hotly contested 16 Expert and Cruiser titles. I have to give a big shout out to my buddy Howard "HO JO" Johnson for winning his first Expert main for his sponsor CMC/BKS this weekend. Also John Dinnella for taking the win in the same class on Sunday as well as the win in 17-24 Open. John is definitely getting some great flow going. Big Ups to one of the nicest, and hardest working, guys in the industry Steve Spencer for his win in 36 and Over Expert. Steve works extremely hard to help build tracks and then has the energy left over to pull a win from an extremely competitive class. Must be all the clean living up there in Utah that facilitates that? Well, Beaumont provided some excellent racing and definitely has an abundance of character. I mean where else would you have a relatively local 14 Expert wearing blue, polyester leisure-suit pants and getting away with it? I always look forward to the trip down to Texas. I'm sure the rest of the ISTV crew had a great time as well. Make sure to check out all the mains and winner's interviews in the video section of ISTV.COM _
Article Series
This article is part 3 of a 5 part series. Other articles in this series are shown below:
Hurricane/Crupi's Cameron Lowery shared some of the region’s delicacy with us Saturday when he brought a huge box filled with Cajun style Crawfish for Jim Reilly (the announcer) to try out. ISTV interviewer and myself also got a taste of the region's dialects as we sat outside at the hotel on Saturday night talking with riders from Mississippi, Louisiana, Dallas Texas and so on trying to decipher each unique accent and colloquialism (OK, $10 word quota filled for this article). 
I've had an ongoing bet with SE's Travis Postany that I think is causing some problems with the "Preacher's" karma. I bet Travis last weekend in Atlanta ten dollars that he couldn't win every moto. He proceeded to go down hard in his first moto and ruined his chance at taking that bet. This weekend I doubled it up; Twenty bucks if Travis could go undefeated the whole day on Saturday. Travis won each of his motos (exception is the third moto but we had agreed that if he is in first to the second straight he could shut down to conserve energy for the semi and main). Travis went on to win his semi. Looked like I might be digging into my pocket. However, in his first of three mains Travis got the pop but was bumping with Psykopath rider Damian Lopez the whole first straight. The dual between those two gave J&R's Jason Bennet the inside line for the first corner. Bennet dove in and took the line from Postany. Postany hit Bennet's back tire and went down hard tweaking his wrist. Bennet went on to win the first main with Action Bikes rider Chad Street avoiding the first corner carnage to take the second. 
In the second main, Bennet got balled up straight out of the gate and Lopez turned on the after burners. Lopez flew out into the lead with Redline/Supercamp rider Ken "Big Rig" Cools in tow. That's the way the second main would go down in the books with CMC/BKS rider Kenny Holston rounding out the top three. 
On Sunday Bennett was on and by the third main had only three points. The closest rider was Holston with seven points and a ton of other's tied with nine points. I'm sure Bennett would have loved to have won the third main but Kneip and Answer/Staats rider Chris Ham had the lines. Kneip won with Ham in second. Bennett did what he needed to do though and took a third to seal the overall win with 6 points. 
Saturday Bubba was on. You could tell he was having fun when in practice he boosted from the triples on the third straight and hipped into the first corner backwards. When Bubba is having fun it's usually a bad sign for the other riders. Bennett was right there for every one of the three mains but it was Harris with the pull on Saturday. Harris took the overall win with Bennett in second and the consistent podium maker of Randy Stumpfhauser. 
On Sunday Bennett must have got some good sleep because he was winning everything even from the outside gates. We saw the return to American racing of Dale Holmes. Dale has recently returned from his native UK and it seems the 4X Mountainbike racing he's been doing there has given him a boost. In two of the three mains Holmes was right behind Bennett all the way to the last rhythm in the third straight. That's where Harris would continually pull out his well known skill and pass for the second place finish. Free Agent's Kyle Bennett took a commanding first place overall with Redline's Bubba Harris in second and an awesome showing by Free Agent's Dale Holmes. 
Dale told me after the race on Sunday that he would be soon returning to the UK and this was most likely his last US national for a while. It was a great note to leave the US racing scene on. Have a safe trip and hope to see you soon. 
The "Dinky Dudes" as announcer Jim Reilly calls them are creating quite a following on the ABA national circuit. I've honestly never heard the cheering and yelling that I heard in Beaumont for the little guys before. Not only little guys but little BMXettes. There was a cute, little 3 year-old racing (yes, I said 3 year-old) that everybody was going nuts over. I mean I couldn't even ride a bike at 3 years let alone make it around a BMX track. Not only did 3 year-old Madison Smith make it around the track but she scored a second place finish on Sunday. 
Check out in the picture here how Intense rider Alden Volle not only rocks on the track (he won 7-8 Open and 8 Expert all weekend) but he can also head bang with the best of them. Rock On! 
I have to give a big shout out to my buddy Howard "HO JO" Johnson for winning his first Expert main for his sponsor CMC/BKS this weekend. Also John Dinnella for taking the win in the same class on Sunday as well as the win in 17-24 Open. John is definitely getting some great flow going. 
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