Excalibur Race Report: NBL Hoosier Nats
The Excalibur BMX team showed up in force to the Hoosier National at Burdette BMX in Evansville, Indiana. The 2009 team was slightly revamped with the addition of a couple more studs. In the 9 Expert class we added Christian "The Machine" Cloutier and in 17-18 Expert we added Kyle McRory. The track was in beautiful shape and the weather was stellar. The Evansville people had an awesome vibe going on which made the race tons of fun. Our team goal was to show up and score at least 88 points each day and have an awesome time doing it. Mission accomplished!! With the likes of Jeff Upshaw, Josh Meyers, Tommy Zula, Crystal Kalogris and the rest of our squad that showed, the team was hard to stop. Kicking things off in Elite Open was none other than Mr. Upshaw who, with precision, handle the competition both days as only he could. That's not to say things were easy with the likes of awesome riders such as Charlie Hunt and Morphine Industries newest addition Jason Larev in the mix (congrats on the new deal Jason). Next was Josh Meyers checking out the 2009 lineup of 19-25 Experts before making the jump to the Super-Ex class. Josh simply laid it down all weekend and delivered big wins for the team as was expected.
The team new-blood Kyle McRory had the experience of trying to win a super hard 17-18 Expert class from gate 8 both days. His effort was awesome both days and that's why he's wearing the Excalibur colors. Battling with Standard Army's Andy Wright both days, Kyle finished with two-2nd place finishes for the team. 16 Expert was dominated by a young man with a left-over broken collar bone from Grands. Tommy Zula's domination was not as easy with him having to ease out of the gate and not being able to pull manual as effectively due to the injury. Nonetheless, he picked up wins both days.
14 Expert saw super cool Jacob Hootman representing and showing what a great attitude and great family are all about. In 9 Expert, our newest member Christian Cloutier was not about to let the downhill track get the best of him. Christian holeshotted both days but couldn't stave off one of the toughest kids in the class known as Nick Deters. These two battled with alot of heart and desire but Deters came out on top both days.
On to the girls of Excalibur BMX. What more can we say about the defending NBL National #1 Crystal Kalogris. As always, in true sportsmanship fashion, Crystal perfected Saturday for our awesome team. On Sunday, Crystal was on the wrong end of a take out in moto 1, while running out front, by one of the classes most crash-prone riders. In the main event, Crystal decided that checking out was the best way to go and she did that by a huge margin. Scoring wins both days for Excalibur. 12 Girls had Kelley Cottrill in the mix on Sunday along with Jessica Balay who took 3rd and 4th respectively this weekend. Mom and Dad had a good time watching her overcome some bad gate starts to make some moves and get into the mix. This was one of the most competitive classes of the weekend with girls like the "Flyin T" Teresa Nowdomski battling for supremacy. Kelley edged Nowdomski out on Sunday for the win to conclude a stellar team performance for the weekend with both days score's being 89 points.
To conclude, we want to thank all of our sponsors for their support and helping to build the best team in BMX. To see some race footage of the weekend check out our "team race footage" page on our website at www.excaliburbmx.weebly.com and we encourage everyone to have as much fun racing as we are. Team sponsors for the 2009 race season include Fly, Maxxis, JW Bicycle Products, Point Blank Nutrition, Subway, US Army, Kovachi Wheels, Answer BMX, Time, Vaypor Designs, Rockstar, Profile Racing, Sab Designs, Shimano, Alpine Stars.
Bruce
