Story and Photos by Cole Proctor

The Silver Dollar Nationals have been on the minds of BMXers across the country since the final moto crossed the line at the Grands in November. Riders had 48 days to set their 2012 goals, train up, open Christmas presents, and in many cases, build up a new ride and model their 2012 kit in the mirror a few dozen times.

This installment of the Silver Dollars was an historic event in BMX Racing’s timeline–it was the first time a national was run exclusively under the USA BMX brand name (though the ABA name lives on as a tagline to the USA BMX logo). With the new graphics came a new running order for the day’s racing. Instead of the Novice/Intermediate/Expert order that the ABA had been using since day one, the new running order puts all Novices, then all Intermediates, then all Experts down the starting hill.

The New Year brings new rides, new colors, and new companies. This year some big moves mere made, Sean Gaian and Felicia Stancil both left VSI to peruse opportunities at GT (though Felicia wasn’t in Reno). KJ Romero left J&R for a pro ride from Bill Ryan’s new Anarchy team. National Number One Amateur, Josh Klatman, was picked up by Redline. And both Van Ogles put on Hyper jerseys and said “See-ya” to the Redman Tribe.

The track LAYOUT was sick! The surface had some rough spots, but most of it was at par. “A really fast, fun track!” as one A Pro described it.

This Reno race was missing something, what was it? OH YEAH, the PROS! But A Pro and Vet Pro were still on the schedule, and they came to race. With KJ Romero, Blake Paulson, Jake Peebles, and Pete Pascual, in Saturday’s main, the first USA BMX A Pro main was going to be a white hot lap. “The screamin’ demon” Paulson was out to an early lead with Peebles on his back tire. Rookie, Pascual, came in with a respectable third. As for KJ, he took a soil sample in the first straight and logged a snowman this trip.

As for the amateur mains, the best was the 19-27 experts. The BIG #1 on Klatman’s back could just as well been target to Extreme Team’s Robbie Patterson. Redline’s new heavy hitter, Klatman was out with a big lead down the first and second straights, but Patterson was pulling. Everyone could see it, except Klatman. Patterson was going for the kill in the last turn. And it worked, Josh went up and over the last turn and Patterson was the first one across the line. Saturday was in the books, Sunday was just a few hours away.

Sunday, up and on the track early, for day two. This was the day the Saturday heroes would find out if all the training they had been doing actually paid off, or if day one was just a stroke of good luck. The racing was insane. As we made it through the countless motos and qualifying rounds, Saturdays 16 ex winner Dylan Cooley took a hard crash in the second turn of the semis and was out with a broken Humerus (upper arm).

Main time rolled around, and business hours were in effect–the time to put everything you have into your main event lap. The Pros were locked and loaded in the gate, the cadence starts, the beeps sound and the lights flash, and it’s on.

Elliot McGrath flipped the gate in lane six, jamming up Jeremy Rommel in gate seven–so his race was all but over from the drop.
Over the first Jump Kevin Shankel had a few millimeters on the the rest of the pack, but Blake Paulson was pulling through the middle, and Max Egdorf of the new Answer Rennen team was edging in from a lane eight start. Into the first turn, KJ put some serious body english into his approach, pinching off Shenkel’s line, and coming out with nothing but daylight in the distance. He muscled his new Anarchy ride to a smooth-as-butter lap from that point on, and scored his first A Pro win, with Shenkel in second and Peebles in for the final podium spot. But that wasn’t the end, remember Jeremy? Well, he wasn’t just going roll the lap without frontin a little style for the fans. He threw down a SERIOUS backflip over the finish line jump, and the place went nuts!

On the amateur side, new GT go-getter, Sean Gaian, fished the weekend with a double double in the Jr. Devo and the super-fast 15x class. Crupi’s Justin Anderson was out in a hurry in 16x, and was first at the stripe.

More fun and excitement in the 19-27 expert main. Rematch time, Patterson VS. Klatman. Who’s gonna come out on top? The Redline colors were out to a fast lead, but the orange and black colors of Patterson were right there. Around the first turn and down the second straight, Patterson was catching Klatman, saw his opportunity and took it in the second turn. He once again put the hurt on the champ, and took the overall win.

With 300-motos-plus both days, the weekend was long…but the action made it blaze by quick. Props to the newly turbo-charged Hyper Team, who took home Factory Team honors on Saturday (Intense took home the Sunday factory team win). There is no doubt that the 2012 USA BMX National Series is going to be one for the history books, with big races, and the fastest riders from all parts of the country coming together to mix it up on some amazing tracks. Next stop: Guthrie, OK for the Sooner Nationals…then, on to the first Pro race of the year on the newly-rebuilt Oldsmar track. Stay with BMXNEWS.COM for gate-to-stripe action from all of ‘em!

Check out the Photo Gallery

Mike Carruth contributed to this story

Edit 1/21/12 10:36AM, CST>>> We mistakenly wrote that Hyper won Factory Team both days, when, in fact, Intense won on Sunday.

The third and final Photo Gallery for the 2010 ABA Disney Cup brings some great action, as well as some candid shots from the pits and podiums for the Elite and Jr. Devo Classes and Disney Cup awards.

The Jr. Women’s main on Sunday was a fence grabber for sure. Brooke Crain pretty much owned the weekend, with firsts in every lap to that point (except the third round on day two, which was a fifth, so must have been a crash). As the five-rider main approached the first turn, it looked like Brooke would sweep the weekend. A second after the above photo was snapped, Taylor Wolcott (middle, in blue) got her swoop on, and cemented her place on the Sunday top-step, overtaking Brooke going into the second straight, holding the lead to the stripe. This would be Taylor’s first Jr. Elite win in the ABA (She got her first NBL win in Fresno earlier this year, which, if we remember correctly, was also her first NBL race of all time). The analysis from the guys hanging out in turn one on what Brooke did wrong and Taylor did right in that main would have made for a nice sound byte here but, alas, we were not as quick on the draw with the audio as we were with the visual. Congrats to Taylor on the win of the day, and to Brooke for the overall win for the weekend.

Check out the Sunday Photo Gallery

The day two gallery brings you 133 images from various classes (Pros, Cruisers, Girls, Novice Inter and Expert). As always, we are not out there shooting for “volume–” if it looks good, we shoot it, if it doesn’t, we leave it be.

A few syllables on the above shot. Tyler Whitfield, rockin a true “handlebar” mustache, thanks to the BMX News Q-flash. Tyler, fresh off the heels of the viral video that hit the net in the days leading up to the race, scored a Triple-Double in Orlando, winning 15 Ex and 15 Cruiser all three days and, of course the two Disney Cups as the cherries on a big Sunday sundae. 15x was about as stacked as can be in Orlando, so we are anxious to see how the Grands go for him.

Check out the Saturday Photo Gallery Now

News was operating in “primitive” mode this weekend, with no solid Internet access available…hence the reason Friday’s photos are just showing up on the site on Monday evening.

But, we think the wait will have been worth it when you check out the Friday Photo Gallery. Some great action shots in there, that will put you right in the mix.

We are going to get all three galleries posted first, then will whip up an all-inclusive re-cap of the full-weekend’s happenings. Look for the Day Two and Day Three galleries on Tuesday, along with the recap.

View Day One Gallery Now

Above: Redline’s Denzel Stein muscles up a win in Elite Men on Day One.

With all the megawattage being thrown off by the Chula Vista SX, the racing needed to be especially strong on the “National” track, where the ABA US Open National was underway. And it did not disappoint. With 200 motos on Saturday, and a few less on Sunday, the competition in the age classes was as thick as its going to get until we all hit Tulsa town on turkey day. News ended up at the track both days, but only shooting first round on Sunday. A confluence of SX prep on Saturday and the beckoning of Airport security lines at SAN on S-U-N made full coverage a tough do.

So, delight in 99 frames which tell the story quite well. And if you feel compelled to piece together a story, feel free to send it in and we’ll post it.

US Open National Photo Gallery

Additional Resources

GO211 Videos of the US Open Nationals

US Open Nationals Results, via ABABMX.COM

A crowd of 300 packed the San Diego Hall Of Champions for an evening of food, fun and friends. If you have not been to one of the San Diego HOF bashes, you need to get that on the schedule for next year, when it’s announced, as it is quite an amazing site–seeing, for example, Dennis Dain, Stu Thomsen, John Crews, Jason Carne$, Sam WIlloughby and Alise Post all in the same room, united in their Redline-ness.

Once again, the inductees for 2010 were:

Pioneer BMX Racer: Timmy Judge
BMX Racer: Steve Veltman
BMX Freestyle: Woody Itson
BMX Industry: gOrk Barrette
Special Recognition: Al Fritz (inventor of the Schwinn Stingray)
Special Recognition: Linda Dorsey (posthumous)

BMXNEWS was there to get photos of all the VIPs on the red carpet, and some photos of the presenters and inductees.

Check Out The Gallery

Big props to all those who stepped up to introduce these five special people into this lofty club.

Don’t forget: the nominations for the class of 2011 will open after the first of the year. If you find yourself saying “so-and-so should have been in LONG before now!” help make it happen by getting a nomination packet together for them. Watch BMXNEWS.COm for more info on this…but you can start now by gathering biographical information, photos, and maybe a recommendation letter or two from current members of the HOF.

Eternal thanks to Bernie and BA Anderson at the ABA for their leadership and funding of the HOF year after year. It is critical that our sport has a long-view on its history, and their commitment to this project since 1985 has ensured that today’s five novice class will know people like Timmy Judge, Linda Dorsey and those yet-to-make headlines in the sport. Also, at the tippie-top of the kudos list are Shannon and Jennifer Gillette for their tireless work in organizing all the moving parts and granular details of the event. A magical evening doesn’t just happen by accident…it takes countless hours of passion and effort to get the job done, and the result of their labor was all over the room in the embraces among old friends, smiles and all who just didn’t want the evening to end.

—Mike Carruth

BMXNEWS Contributor Carl Lein filed a gallery of images from last week’s Madrid SX.

View the gallery now

As we noted earlier, all major ABA titles were up for grabs as of the start of the mains on Sunday. ABA does this awesome “rolling” format where they announce the person in each main who is in contention for a National title (National Number one Amateur, Girl, Cruiser, Girl Cruiser, Pro, Girl Pro and Pro Cruiser). It really makes a great show of it, with people rooting for (or against) the person on the gate now, who has the chance, with a win, to snatch the title out of the hands of the person who just took over the points lead in the previous race.

This was huge in the National Number One Girl title, as BA announced that Kristin Hokit had the title locked up with a win in 17-27 Girls. Kristin lead the race to the last turn, where Samantha Bretheim slipped into the inside, and made the pass to take the trophy of the day, and hand the National Number One Girl title back to Jordan Nopens for another year.

Major Title Recap:

2009 ABA National Number One Pro: Randy Stumpfhauser (GHP BMX)
2009 ABA National Number One Gril Pro: Dominique Daniels (Avent Bombshell)
2009 ABA National Number One Vet Pro: Kenth Fallen (Supercross BMX)
2009 ABA National Number One Pro Cruiser: Danny Caluag (Intense/Bawls)
2009 ABA National Number One Amateur: Corben Sharrah (Redman/Rockstar)
2009 ABA National Number One Girl: Jordan Nopens (VRP/Bike Alley)
2009 ABA National Number One Cruiser: George Goodall (Redline Factory)
2009 ABA National Number One Girl Cruiser: Carly Dyar (Team Inseino Racing)
2009 ABA National Number One Trophy Team: Holeshot/Elite
2009 ABA National Number One Bike Shop Team: VRP Bike Alley
2009 ABA National Number One Factory Team: Intense/Phantom/OnTrac

Check out the Awards Ceremony Photo Gallery on PhotosArePosted.com

Sunday brought the third round of motos, the qualifying rounds and the main events. All ABA titles were on the line going in, with not one “lock” in the house. BMXNOW was on duty at the stroke of eight Sunday morning to get the third round of pros, and a few select am classes. The competition was so thick that even some that you’d never see after the first round were waking up early to get their transfer slot.

Check out the Sunday Photo Gallery on PhotosArePosted.com

As always, Saturday at the 2009 ABA Grand National contained the first two rounds of motos. With 461 motos, this ABA Grands was 31 motos shy of 2008, but the action just seemed to hit a higher amperage this year.

Check out the Saturday Photo Gallery on PhotosArePosted.com