AA Main Launches at Midwest National #2 - Rockford, IL

Track Update:
The Milwaukee BMX track at Crystal Ridge lives! All of the obstacles and turns are now roughed in, and a special piece of equipment was brought in Friday night to clear the flat sections of the track from rocks. The main group is having a meeting trackside at 7 p.m. Tuesday night (weather permitting) or, alternatively at Benno's in West Allis (if the weather is crummy) to work on some of the details of scheduleing work nights, etc. There's been a whole lotta outside interest in the track, and we're going to need all of your support at some point down the road, but, this meeting will be primarily for the core group that made the initial Benno's meeting, plus Froh and Dickerson if they can make it. We are still hoping that we'll be ready for riders (with or without a gate) by the end of July or possibly into August. Once again (yea verily) much love to the guys and gals at ABA and to Steve Spencer for helping TO John Mittlestadt drive this thing forward

A (painful) reminder for you volunteers to remember that stretching is just as important before raking and track work as it is before you ride. Wednesday night, I didn't take my own advice ... and major back spasms messed up my weekend plans but good. Actually, I didn't give myself that advice Wednesday night ... but, I've heard it from at least 20 people since Thursday morning. So, take their advice, stay happy, stretch.

Midwest Nationals Report:
There were a bunch of guys who will be tearing up Milwaukee BMX that turned in super solid performances at the Midwest Nationals in Rockford this weekend. It started Friday night, with our own Fred Jahnke, who raced his way into the "B Main" of the BS Stops Open for racers 30 and over. Honest Abe, I would surely have wished Fred the best of luck in the last post, had I known he intended to compete. Friday also saw Todd Zimmerman zip in with a fifth in the super competitive 36-40 cruiser class.

Factory Direct Link riders Curt Zizzo and Bryan Dickerson tore up Saturday and Sunday on their cruisers, Tim Eiring came home with a couple of seconds in the superfast 26-30 cruiser class along with a HUGE WIN in 28-35 expert on Saturday.

Randy Behnke finished 3rd (cruiser) Saturday and maybe somewhere around 5th yesterday, and Mike Froh had fourth (Saturday) and fifth (yesterday) place finishes in the 36 and over expert class.

I shot some video of the Sunday cruiser mains, along with some still shots. One of which, came during the A Pro main snap. The gate got "balky" on the Vet Pro main right before the A's ran. And, at the point of "lights" in the cadence of the A Pro gate, when the air ram drives the gate down, the gate popped, but made the worst death creek I've heard from anything mechanical in a long time. Honestly, I thought that was going to be the end of racing for the day ... but, a couple of little tweaks from the master of TO's, Jake Karau, and the gate held up well for the balance of the day.

These two photos (same photo, actually, just cropped) show the A-Pro rack with five riders about to go on their noses (Kappa Sponsored Illinois rider, George Andrews hit hardest in lane 2 ... it took him a couple minutes to get up, collect himself, and get his bars tweaked back to where they were supposed to be before the re-run ... yeah, re-run. How you get yourself up for that after wrecking right out is beyond me).


Note in the detail shot how the section of gate closest to the ram (at gate center, between lanes 4 & 5) is not keeping up with the riders flexing against the gate ends. The gate looks flexed like some big airplane wing at take-off.


The shot below is the re-rack for the A-pros. After the wreck, Vet Pro re-ran their lap ... and then the A's hopped back up to have another go. Amazingly, despite the hard hit just moments earlier that left him on the ground for several minutes, Andrews gets the holeshot. Big respect, you guys, for getting back up there, and being able to maintain your focus ... you put on a good show.


Speaking of Rocks:
There are sure a lot to pick. Work night schedule is going to be published later this week. Let's get it going, bros. BMX in Milwaukee !!! Hallelujah.

Kevin O'