I Flew into Utah on Friday morning. I have to be honest I was a little worried. I saw the snow on the mountains almost at the bases. Well, living in Phoenix currently and it being in the upper 90's I hadn't brought anything warm at all. I'd also heard it had been raining and cold there for the week before the nationals.
Well, to my surprise I walked off the plane to a beautiful, sunny day in the mid 70's on Friday. When we got to the track (we being myself, Kim and Jeff Hayashi) the ABA crew as well as the Rad Canyon staff were diligently working on the track's surface. I got out there on a single speed mountain bike and found the track to be in great condition with very few soft spots. The forecast was for sun all weekend and I knew the race would be unaffected by the recent weather all thanks to the hard work of the people I mentioned.
This race wasn't designated a Vet Pro or Girl Pro race. However, Kim and Staats' Arielle Martin decided to dice it out with their male counterparts in A Pro. The mix of girl pro, vet pro and the normal contingent of A pros made for an interesting mix in that class. An interesting mix that included a newly turned pro TJ Johnson! TJ plans to brush up his act and make a showing for his Hyper sponsor in the vet pro class.
Unfortunately, Kim and Arielle found the out of gate power of the male pros was enough of an advantage for the guys to be able to squeeze them out and neither of the girls advanced to the mains. Arielle pulled out for Sunday but Kim decided to give it another shot. Kim again was "Malache crunched" (terrible Happy Days reference) out of the gate each moto.
On Saturday in the first of the A Pro mains Canadian rider Ken Cools (Redline/Supercamp/Oneil) got a great pop out of the gate. However, factory Brew/Promax rider Aaron Johnson kicked in the burners and pulled out into the lead down the first straight. Psykopath rider Damian Lopez pulled into the second place spot in the first turn. From that point on it was single file riding to the finish line.
In the second main, Lopez decided he wanted to lead the pack. Damian popped out of the gate and lead from start to finish with Johnson on his tail. Third and final main it was Johnson from gate one all the way followed by Cools. The only extracurricular activity in Saturday's mains in A pro were Renato Silva putting Avent's Adam Treadwell over the last turn and Standard's Mike Gonzalas with the one footed, flat track turn style in turn two. Other than that it was Johnson with the fast way around the track. Final results Saturday for A pro went Johnson with the win, Lopez with the second and Renato Silva with the third.
In AA Pro on Saturday Crupi's Christian Becerine was looking strong. However, come main time some gremlins worked their way into Becerine's program. In main one Christian was blocked out of the gate from lane seven. Haro's Warwick Stevenson and Redline's Bubba Harris were left to battle for the lead. You'll have to check out Bubba's wicked line through the second straight that got him the clear lead into the second turn over Stevenson. Harris won the first main with Stevenson in for the second. In the second of three mains Becerine had the perfect setup. Gate one and a hell of a start. He flew into a commanding lead down the first straight and railed the first turn. However, he seemed to either bonk the table out of the first turn or possibly came unclipped and that blew his whole flow.
The whole class blazed right by Christian and that was the end of the perfect lap. Stevenson, with GT/Hyundai's Randy Stumpfhauser in tow, lead the rest of the AA's to the finish line. Now, I'm not real sure what happened in main three with Becerine. Christian came out of the gate like a slingshot and pulled the rest of the AA pros down the first straight. Bubba Harris was following through the second turn and all of the sudden Christian just shut down. It was kind of like when a pro has low points in the third moto and they shut down. I'm not sure if there was a chance a win or at least top three finish would have upped Christian's overall but it was just weird to see a rider shut down leading a AA pro main. Anyway, Bubba went around Becerine and won the third main with Avent's Javier Columbo in second. The overall went to Bubba with Stumpy in second and Stevenson in third.
I asked Warwick how long he was going to put off surgery for his knee and he told me that they had just drained it and it felt pretty strong. It didn't sound like Stevenson had a solid timeframe for scheduling the surgery. So, we'll have to keep checking to see what the status of that is for the future.
There was a little more action on Sunday in the pro class. In the A pro first main Lopez got the lead with team-mate Sergio Salazar in second. In the first corner SDR/Porter rider Wade Wilson dove down low and came up to put Salazar over the first corner. Silva took advantage and maneuvered into second. Wilson took a good shot at Silva on the last straight but ran out of real estate and took the third. In main two Wilson made a statement by leading from the gate to the finish unchallenged. Lopez got the second and UFO/BMXTREME rider Eric "The Gangsta" Meyer took the third. Eric, by making the main on Sunday, automatically qualifies for the move up to AA pro. Congrat's on the move up to the highest level of BMX racing Eric. In main three, Lopez got the pop and Silva followed. Down the second straight Wilson tried to move inside of Silva. However, over the double before the second turn ran out of airspace and basically landed on Silva's back tire and went down. Silva survived and went on to take the second behind Lopez. The overall went Lopez, Silva and even with the crash Wilson retained the third spot on the podium.
On Sunday AA pro Brandon Meadows was a little tired of not having his name mentioned. So, the Specialized sponsored rider shot out of the gate in the first main on the inside of Becerine. Brandon had a good lead into the third straight but started to fade a bit. Well, you can't fade when you have Bubba right behind you. Sure enough Bubba rode by on the last straight and took the first main win. Main two Bubba was a little tired of the passing so he proceeded to get the hole-shot and pull the AA pros single file around the track for the win. Becerine, who had a much better day going, got the second and Columbo came in with the third. Brandon finished in fifth and it looked like points were adding up in Bubba's favor.
The AA pack went four wide down the second straight in main three. Becerine and Mongoose rider John Purse were in the lead with Meadows and Harris being balled up in the pack. However, into the second turn Meadows found a clearing and railed low to take the lead from a battling Purse and Becerine. Harris was towards the back of the pack and searching for a line. Harris tried a last ditch move in the last turn but went down and Meadows went tire to tire with Becerine at the line. When the points were all tallied up Brandon Meadows took the win with Becerine in second place and Harris took the third place money.
There was a special podium ceremony Sunday morning with the winner and second place finisher at the first annual "Rama-lama-ding-dong-ping-pong" tournament. It was held at Steve Spencer's training facility (otherwise known as his house) and the home court advantage paid off for Steve. He took the win with the second place finisher, Greg Leasure, getting the "Galen Starlin smack talking award". Man, I'm thinking I'd take the cool framed Starlin award over the $5 check.
One of the great things ISTV has brought to the table with the interviews is the ability for the teams to basically start some good natured trash talking. On Saturday, the Brew/Promax team lost the Factory team sheet by one point to Phantom/On Trac. The Brew/Promax team, along with TM Jeff Glynn proceeded to do a great interview with Matt under the winner's tent on Saturday. They slinged some great challenges to the Phantom team for Sunday.
The Phantom team unfortunately did not do a rebuttal but were rumored to have said they weren't worried. They had won the Factory division with a sleek, five rider contingent and felt the riders could repeat their performances on Sunday. One of the rides on Saturday that put the Phantom/On Trac team on top was from 16X Jay Greene. His main included names like Josh Oie, Kris Fox, Joe Sowers, Travis Healey, etc. Jay was riding strong though and pulled out the win with some of the other riders left in a heap in the first corner. Fernie Jaquez was also on fire and won every 12 year-old class and cruiser main the whole weekend. Texas represent!
Shelbi Long also did the dominating in the 13 girls and 11-13 girl's cruiser classes. AND, Shelbi finally did an interview with Matt on Sunday. She had a great time when it finally came down for her interview. Riders and team managers - you have to be seeing what a great tool this interview section is for your sponsors. Make sure to have your riders not only do the interviews but coach them a bit on how to work their sponsors in as well. It's a great promotional tool for you provided by ISTV.COM
Well, the predictions of victory on Sunday came true for the Brew/Promax team as they won Sunday's team sheet by two points. With great rides turned in from riders like Andrea Dressler (first in 7-8 mixed and 8 girls), Nathan Miller (first in 13-14 open and 14 Expert), Joseph Szurek (first in 17-24 open and 19-27 Expert) the team sheet added up for the win. I don't have to tell ya what that interview went like on Sunday. You'll have to check out the video and see the excitement for yourself.
There were other teams that put on a great showing as well.
UFO/EXTREME riders were seen out front quite a bit. It was great to see the Linder team with their new uniforms and looking strong. The Redman/Yamaha team including the VanOgle power duo of Lain and little sister Kelsey were in first all weekend. The Answer/Staats team was in the house. Bellflower had a great group of riders there and the list goes on and on. The trophy, bike shop and factory team races are going to be interesting to say the least this season.
I gotta give props to Steve Spencer for winning one of the most exciting, and the last, race of the day in 36 and over Expert. I really thought he was going down as Kirk Chrisco leaned on him in the last straight. However, Steve wanted the win for his Staats' and hometown Utah crew and held on for the win.
Congratulations to Challenge / Intense rider Dakota Isenberg for double/doubling this weekend and doing it in style. Dakota looked great in San Berdoo and stepped it up to the top in Utah. Dakota had some great competition from riders like local boy Mitch Ropelato who was constantly in the mix but just couldn't quite match Dakota's strength (
Note: I just checked out the awesome UTAHBMX.COM web site and they have rider profiles on there. In Mitch's profile he lists Mario Soto as one of his influences. How cool is that?!).
The racing in 9 Expert was tight all weekend. Hurricane/Crupi's Derik Bergh had a lock on it all weekend until Phantom/On Trac's Sean Gaian checked his Rolex and saw it was time for a win on Sunday. Revolution's DJ Stephan had been struggling a little lately but seems to be gaining momentum. Supercross rider Alex Jones was turning in consistent finishes as well. Look for those two riders to be giving Derik close battles at future nationals.
There's some rumors about new pros going on for the Roseville race in a couple weeks. With Mike Brabant's dominating wins in 17-18 Expert this weekend I asked if he was one of the riders looking to make the leap. Mike told me he's interested but most likely not in the near future. Check out the interview with Matt for more insight into that from Mike on Sunday. As for who the other rider(s) might be - you'll just have to stay tuned to ISTV for the latest race coverage, news and interviews. I talked with Texas based SE rider Travis Postany and he told me he's "got some" for whoever joins him in the pro ranks in Roseville. So, make sure to watch the A pro moto sheet and for sure listen to the live audio webcast of that on Saturday.
Well, the weather played nice for us this weekend and the Utah race went off with some great races and great extracurricular events. The whole crew looks forward to future events at Rad Canyon. We at ISTV had a great time.
