Dan’s Competition Grands Recap
The Dan’s Competition Grands Report
The traditional end of the summer race in Louisville KY saw the guys from Dan’s ready to continue the work they had set out to do under their new colors, have fun, represent Dan’s Competition & sponsors, and prove that they get serious when it’s show time on a BMX track.
Matt Polkamp is always a crowd favorite with his big smile and his ability to be in the mix at any race. This year saw a couple of wins along with some podium finishes in a very talented AA class. The Friday night last chance qualifier had many of the top AA’s & Matt was right in the mix finishing 6th. He followed up on Saturday with great riding, but crashed in the main. Matt is often featured on websites & in trade mags sporting his Celly Smelly trademark jersey with his awesome riding style.
The A pro class has had some of the best racing all year between many first year A pros, and Dan’s Weston Pope was always seen in the mix. The A pro main event on Friday demonstrated the depth of the talent in one of the crowd’s favorite classes to watch with Weston battling to get a 5th. Saturday night’s pro spectacular also saw Weston out front, only to get passed by several of his friends & competitors ending up with a 3rd and overall #5 for the year. This was no small feat considering Weston is also a world champion mountain biker & attends college fulltime. Thanks Weston for being a great role model to the teenagers demonstrating that you can “do it all”.
The Vet Pro Class used to be just for guys over 30 that didn’t want to quit riding a kid’s bike. Well if you paid much attention this year to this class, the talent is much deeper than just any 8 main gate. Scott Moreland’s first year in this talented class had Scott learning how to juggle career, family & training for the first time. Scott had a successful Grands with a solid 6th on Saturday and finished overall #8. This was following a great World’s Race where Scott earned W#6. Scott’s leadership to the younger guys on the Dan’s team is why friendship, competition & success can all be had no matter what your age.
Dan’s east coast rider, 15X Justin Posey almost didn’t make the Grands this year. Playing around in the neighborhood 2 weeks before the Grands sent him to the ER with severe ankle & ligament sprain. He spent the next 2 weeks on crutches, ice packs & physical therapy saying he wasn’t going unless he could win. Well,apparently the rest & determination must have worked as Justin won all of his motos & the main in 15X and won the cruiser title in the 15-16 Cruiser class. JP is a text book case of patience to all of the boys out there who are “smaller” than everyone else in their class, sometimes it just takes a couple of years!
Dan’s west coaster Alden Volle had a fantastic year winning main events from coast to coast. The 13X class is very deep in talent, and Alden was riding awesome and was seen out front in motos and semis throughout the weekend. Alden was just coming off a rough trip to Australia because of the flu during the entire trip, and was ready to make a run at the NBL title. Alden had a tough gate in the main, and couldn’t make up enough ground to get to the front, but as always he rode like a champion. Alden was one of the top 13 year olds to make the 13-14 cruiser main. Look for big things to come for Alden.
Many thanks to Dan’s Competition as well as our co sponsors: Staats, Celly Smelly’s, Tangent, Fly, Vapor & Alienation. Next up are the Chula Vista SX & US Open for Weston, Justin & Alden followed by Disney and another Grands for the guys to finish out the year.
