President’s Cup Runneth Over

November 26, 2011 by BMXNEWS.COM Editors

With an impressive 471 motos on the wall for Day One of 2011 ABA Grands Weekend, everyone had slept off their Thanksgiving food coma, and was ready for a full-day of “ROC Rules” racing. In case you’re joining the program, already in progress, riders qualified to race the President’s Cup/Race of Champions race their age on the day of the state championship. So, there were some matchups we have not seen in a while…some riders who never meet during the regular season, and a few calls of “what’s that MAN doing in low-teen-intermediate class? (can you say ‘mega growth-spurt?’)”

Everyone had psyched themselves up to the necessary extreme–and by that I mean the parents, TMs and others without their name on a moto sheet. We all knew it was going to be a long day…and this was just the warmup to the REALLY long days to come.

In keeping with the President’s Cup tradition, brought over from the NBL program, the day’s racing started with the Parade of States–and the special state jerseys were in effect on the track all day long (which, as usual, made it tough to know who some of the riders were as we were out on the infield shooting photos–just like old times).

Lots of NBL window stickers in the parking lot this weekend, which is a great sign that many who are traditionally in Morristown transitioned trouble-free to the Tulsa tip. That theory is proved out in the ABA Grands moto count–the largest ever, at 603 motos.
Holy Midnight bedtime, Batman!

BMX News will have a more comprehensive report on the President’s cup once we get the results, and can put a coherent sentence together in description of what transpired. Meanwhile, here are some highlights:

President’s Cup was won by California with 24 wins. Texas got the deuce with 21. Arizona was on the proverbial podium, with third place.

A-Pro Class was taken on home by Supercross BMX flyer, Jeremy Rommel wire to wire. Justin Riddell and Logan Collins diced and sliced for the two-three.

Junior Women saw a four-filly main event. Dani George had a great day, and went wire to wire for the main event win…but not without a little late-track challenge from Fly’n Felicia Stancil.

Rusty Nesvig is back, in full, and going double-F-Fast here in Tulsa. Took home Jr. Men, with some back tire pushin by Lain Van Ogle. Maliek Byndloss has a first round wreck, but got back up and shook it off to ultimately power in for a third on the day.

Elite Women wowed the crowd with a “well, you don’t see THAT everyday” surprise. No secret that the 2011 title tussle is between Dom Daniels and Brooke Crain. Dom took the win all three laps in the motos, and the next time they met–in the main event–it looked like it might go that way as well. 3D was ahead, about the same as in previous laps, as the pack railed down the second straight. Into turn two, the video (below) tells the tale pretty well, so we’ll let you make the call on whether it was Dom leaving too much door open, or Brooke’s agility in holding both her line and her momentum coming out of the 180, and into the third straight. Brook led from there, but Dom made a serious last-straight push to almost…ALMOST…get it back. Maybe a half-a-wheel at the stripe. According to the encyclopedic BMX News book of stats, this was the first time Brooke beat Dom in a Main event. Congrats to both ladies for bringing the crowd to life. After the race, we learned that a main event crash after the first turn sent Kim Hayashi to the ER for some attention to her hand. Bill Ryan said, via Twitter, after midnight, that Kim has a broken finger, and torn ligaments. Wishes for a speedy recovery to Lil Kim.

Mere microns separated Willers and Willoughby in the pro points going in to Saturday’s race…and both were looking very strong all day long. Connor Fields was also holding aces out of the motos, and anyone with knowledge of the game had the Con-Man on the podium–but where? Last-turn passes in the semis put Mike Day and Barry Nobles in the main (at the expense of Khalen Young and Bubba Harris, respectively). Fields had the inside gate (which many opined was a serious burden on this track), then Willers, Willoughby, Nic Long, Donny Robinson, Denzel Stein, Barry Nobles and Mike Day fanning out to lane eight. After the requisite rollouts and setup, the gate was down. Over the crest of the first jump, Long and Stein seemed to have the best gate, but Willers was millimeters back, and by the time they entered turn one, Marc was at mach (or however you say that with a Kiwi accent).

Wedged into the inside, and pointed toward a great move was fields, with long on Marc’s left and Denzel off Nic’s port side. Less than a second later, the race was basically decided, as Willers powered through the turn, and on to an unchallenged win. Connor made the tight inside pivot, which put him well under Nic and Denzel and in the deuce, evermore. Some intrigue for the tre, as Denzen stayed outside Nic, and was ridden higher on the turn than gravity and momentum could tolerate. Denzel stalled in the soft stuff, and pulled it up at that point. Down the second straight, the final podium spot was challenged by dR and Sam, but Nic’s hold on it held up. Into the last straight decisionmaker, Marc and Connor, Sam and Barry went inside, and Nic, Donny and Mike wend outside. From the GO211 finishline camera point of view, it was interesting to see a wall of riders coming to the finish–wondering how it might net out. Well, in the end, it was as it was in the first turn: Willers, Fields, Long on the podium, in that order.

Both titles are still going to come down to Saturday, three main events deep, so be sure to check back in with “News” later tonight for the re-cap of how it all turned out.

We shot over 300 photos on Friday, with an equal number likely coming each of the next two days. We will do our best to catch up with posting photo galleries before the weekend is over, but chances are we’ll post Saturday photos tonight, and come back to Friday photos on Sunday after the race.

Elite Women Main Event