Faoro Rules on the Day of the Sun

NOTE: Clicking the links in the story will open a new window…you won’t lose your place, and it helps bring the story a bit more depth.

Big races are awesome because there is a ton of racing action to watch. The top stars are out in force, and you are never more than a few steps from a friend’s pit area, where juicy gossip, and all the cooler fare you desire awaits.

The awesomeness wears off a bit when racing is over at 9PM and maybe, just for a moment, you’d trade it all for a cozy 150 moto dealio…NAH! A quick duck in to Chili’s or Olive Garden, then a decon shower to get the dirt out of all the inconvenient places…now hurry up and sleep, cause 6:30 is comin up quick.

Getting out to the track at oh-dark-thirty is always an exercise in conflict. Your body says you should be sleeping, but the moto sheets say otherwise. Starbucks, Monster Energy, six-Hour Mega Turbo heart-popping formula and a well-chilled apple are all good remedies at times like this.

It’s always an early call on Sunday, so accomplished national chasers of all ages were ready for battle when the clock struck 8–just like school was in session. And it was.

The ams were on the gas…with day one winners in the hunt for a coveted double, and everyone else looking to prevent just that.

Fly’N Felicia was back for another triple (Jr. Devo Girls, 15G and 17-20 Girls Cruiser). Pettigrew was off the Cruiser results for day two, so not sure if he didn’t race it, or didn’t make it (history would indicate the former)– he owned it in open and class. Cruisin’ Chris Blevins was all too happy to upgrade to first in 13C, with the day one number two, Makeiva Hopson repeating.

Taking a day two look at 8x, the deck was shuffled in the final order, with Leo Hile getting the win, Andres Papajohn in the deuce, and Kwik Nick Adams in for third. The Sheriff moseyed down the results to fourth for day two, but topped 7-8 Open. Adams bested Pappajohn for the Day two win in 8-under cruiser.

Bryce Batten topped the 11 year olds in both class and cruiser…a step up the proverbial podium from his Saturday second in cruiser. Crupi’s Justin Anderson stayed hot, and did a Day one redux in 15x. Whereas, on the big bikes, Maliek Byndloss had the carbon copy wins in 15C both days.

Colin Stiles was sure to give a shout out to Stile Industries-mounted Elliot McGrath on Vintage, so we will extend the props for a weekend double in the 35-riders-deep 19-27 Expert class (biggest class of the day).

Shawn DiPrete scored a tasty double-double…and we’re not talking about the In-N-Out burger kind (though maybe he did that, too). Tops in 36-40C and 36-40x. Facebook friend and “gives as good as he gets” talker of trash, Al Roybal was there for second on day two in class. In any time zone, these guys are a riveting race to watch. I can picture them getting into a “Days of Thunder” style rent-a-car rumble. All in good fun, of course.

TP Todd Parry locked in four aces in Phoenix, with double wins in 41-45 Cruiser and 41-over Expert. And while Todd Parry won Expert both days, in the parallel universe of 41-over Inter, it was Todd BERRY who did it up twice.

Pros on the Go

Day one in Junior Women saw aces all the way in the Brooke column, but Dani George poured it on, and put wins on the board in the first and third rounds on Sunday. The main saw some good battling down the first straight, with Brooke a wheel ahead. Dani took the lead, and held it through the rhythm and into the last turn, after which it was a sprint to the finish, with Brooke besting Dani by a half a bike at the line. Brooke hit the top step for the second time in PHX, and goes in to the next stop in Chula Vista on a 6-for-6 win streak.

Jr. Men was also the same as Saturday up top, with Rusty Nesvig copy-pasting 1-1-1-1-1 across the Sunday tote-board. The other podium spots, however saw a change in ownership. Wes Gunn (third on day one) turned a fifth in the first round on Sunday, then got out of shape over the first set off the SX hill (not a good place to get out of shape), and ended up crunched and munched, with a trip to the ER. Broken collarbone, but he was back at the track in time for the mains, chillin with fellow walking wounded, Carly Dyar. Jordan Miranda hooked it up on Sunday, recovering from his sixth-in-the-semi-Saturday to hit the podium in second. Bryce Hocking, zoomin to PHX in the stylish comfort of his new whip, a candy-red Honda Element with some wheels, got the third.

Elite Women was light Amanda Carr and Arielle Martin on Sunday, so down to 11 ladies looking to get into the big lap. Mariana Pajon, as on Saturday, had a set of 1-1-1s in the bank by main time, but Alise Post was also returning to form, with a 1-3-1. Both Aussies were looking strong, and ready to hop in to the lead at any moment. Dom Daniels missed the cut on day one by one point, but here on Sunday, her ticket was punched to the main, leaving Baylie Kortman, Kim Hayashi and Frances Maycroft watching the action from the bottom of the hill.

When the gate dropped on the main, Rachel Bracken, Lauren Reynolds, Alise and Mariana all hit the crest of the first jump at virtually the same time. By the second set, Reynolds and Pajon had chunked out a little lead and were basically neck and neck, with Lauren on the outside. The riding at this level is so dialed that a tire touching down a split second sooner off a double, or an extra half-revolution of a crank can give a rider just what they need to run the table. Lauren Reynolds had that mojo working as the pack headed for the first turn. Even though she was on the outside, and had one of the most skilled riders in the world on her inside, this Aussie put some serious English into her pump into the turn, and came out with a bike length on Mariana. Meanwhile, in the back of the pack, Ashley Verhagen was recovering from a hellish first straight, and artfully-scooped the inside of turn one like Baskin Robbins, going from fifth to third. Pajon still had the two slot by a stitch, and Alise was in the traffic right behind the top three, with any daylight serving as a top-step opportunity. Down the second straight, Reynolds kept the lead by at least a bike length. But then…turn two happened. It was a Bermuda Triangle situation, because Lauren seemed to slow down like someone put mashed potatoes in her tires, and Mariana made up all the deficit, and pulled a two bike length lead on her by the end of the rhythm. Verhagen, meanwhile, held her well-executed first turn charge into third, and was creepin on Lauren’s chainstay as the dash was on to the stripe. At the line Pajon had it by two and a half bikes, then Reynolds and Verhagen, with Alise mounting a final-feet attack that came up a tad short of podium territory.

Sunday kicked off way better than Saturday for Brian Kirkham. He’d had a decent day one, with a 2-4-1, then a third in the quarter…but a sixth in the semi kept him out of the main. He ripped through day two qualifying like someone upgraded him to mega-lithium batteries, with a 1-1-1 in the motos, and the same in the quarters and semis. Gate 4 would definitely be one to watch in Sunday’s main.

In fact, five of the eight riders in the main (Willoughby, Willers, Nyhaug, Kirkham and Sharrah) all had straight 1′s in the motos, with Sharrah matching Kirkham’s “full house” of firsts.

Still, it was hard to bet against Sam Willoughby this weekend. Standing at the bottom of the massive Supercross starting hill (bottom left in the photo), Sam looked like a giant in his own right, showing some serious bigness from all the training he has been doing–and he is probably pumped up a bit with the confidence that only comes with that ABA National #1 Pro Plate strapped to his Redline.

And, of course, Marc Willers. In 2011, he has to be in any podium straw poll taken. Without a spot of bad vectoring the day before, he would have been on the box for sure.

Tyler Faoro had the highest points of the lot going in to the main, with a 3-4-3 in the motos, then a 2-4 in the quarter and semi. But he was on the hunt for his first ABA Elite win, and that kind of hunger is always a threat. Also on the gate: Khalen Young, Carlos Oquendo.

The start of the main got off clean, and watching them hit the first jump was a very interesting freeze frame in the video. Sharrah, Willers and Kirkham are skying the gap, probably four feet off the lip. Meanwhile, Sam stays remarkably low, with his back wheel maybe two feet up. He lands it a wheel ahead of the pack, and gets in a few fierce cranks in, while the guys on the inside are bunched up, and still recovering from the landing. It seemed like Marc over-jumped the second set a bit, and Corben was spot-welded to his left flank since the bottom of the hill. At this point, it’s Sam by a half a bike, with Kirkham in chase. This is when Faoro started to emerge as a factor. He had the inside on Oquendo, and both were battling for third…but the inside proved to be the lightning line, and Tyler shot into a solid third, behind Kirkham. Down the second straight, Kirkham catches up to Sam…pulls even, then ahead into the second turn (you can see Faoro’s front wheel in the photo). Sam hits the turn at warp nine and dives down to the inside, coming up under, and ahead of Brian. You would need one of those super-slow-mo cameras like the guys on Mythbusters have in order to figure out what happens next…but it appeared Sam was pointed to the right (possibly to set up an inside line into the next turn), and Brian (who was a wheel or so behind) was pointed slightly to the left. From the angle of the vid we watched, it looked like Kirkham’s front wheel slammed into Sam’s right crank/pedal/foot, causing Sam to lose momentum and get a case of the wobblies, thus sliding into the infield like it was homeplate (the photo above looks a little hazy as a result of the cloud generated). Kirkham was in the tangle too, and both were done. Meanwhile, nothing but daylight for Tyler Faoro from that point on. He had a solid grasp on third from turn one, and held it well into turn two…whereupon he avoided the Willoughby/Kirkham carnage unfolding in front of him, and made it on home, with Nyhaug and Willers joining him.

Next stop? We may be bringing you some coverage from the Dixieland Nationals on April 1 (no foolin), but we will certainly be seeing you in Chula Vista on Tax Day for the ABA So Cal Nationals (Fri/Sun) and the USAC National Chmpionships on Saturday (Elites on the SX track!).

Take a look at the Sunday Photo Gallery by BMX News Contributor Johnny Little

Elite Results

Elite Men
Tyler Faoro – Profile Racing
Tory Nyhaug – Factory Redline
Marc Willers – Speed Bicycles
Corben Sharrah – GT Bicycles
Carlos Oquendo
Brian Kirkham
Sam WIlloughby – Factory Redline

Elite Women
Mariana Pajon
Lauren Reynolds
Ashley Verhagen – Crupi/ProGate
Alise Post – Factory Redline
Rachel Bracken
Alaina Henderson – Felt BMX
Samantha Cools – Ssquared
Dominique Daniels – DFR/Grand Canyon University

Jr. Men
Rusty Nesvig – Factory Intense
Jordan Miranda – Clayborn Factory
Bryce Hocking – Factory Intense
Austin Hiatt – SE Racing
Tanner Sebesta – Redman/Rockstar
Connor McCormack
Blake Paulson – Crupi/ProGate
Justin Posey- Dan’s Comp

Jr. Women
Brooke Crain- Haro/Rockstar
Dani George – Factory Supercross
Audrey Zuloaga
Taylor Wolcott – Tangent
Shelby Stacy – Speed Bicycles
Sabrina Millman

Check ABABMX.COM for complete amateur results from the 2011 ABA Winter Nationals