Badger State Nationals Race Report

Filed under General on September 06, 2014 | Comment(s)

Friday Night Follies

Today at Central Wisconsin BMX the feeling of fall was definitely in the air. Low hanging grey clouds littered the sky as families began to file into to the parking areas and set up tents. As race time neared and practice wound down, some fast hombres started to show up. A couple of Redman’s AZ squad Bryce Batten and Dougie Butcher were spotted along with countless riders from the surrounding states. Ones of those riders was 7 Expert “Major” Marshall Gehrke who hails from the Chicago area. He battled with Black Crown’s Devin Gracey like it was the grands main. They were actually racing 8 Experts but that didn’t matter one bit. They crossed the line 1-2 anyhow. We can’t wait to see what the rest of the weekend brings for theses two. Another awesome race was in the 14 Intermediate class between Kyle Dummer and Noah Pabst. These guys were throwing elbows in the final turn like wily old vets and Dummer got the best of the situation for the night. All in all the 49 moto affair was awesome and finished up just before the need of artificial lights came into play. Tomorrow is go time for the masses.

Saturday Afternoon Soiree

The crowds were greeted with crystal blue skies this morning as practice got underway. The soiltaced surface here at Central Wisconsin (CW) BMX became tacky as the sunlight warmed up the dark chocolate colored dirt. As practice was going on we flew the friendly skies for the first time with the USA BMX quadcopter. Expect to see some awesome aerial stills and videos from forthcoming nationals coming from above.

Strider racing always gets the crowd pumped before the pedal based racing kicks off and today was no exception. All 17 of the little guys and gals were grinning from ear to ear as their third and final motos concluded.

As we rolled into pedaled racing, 9-10 mixed open brought the crowd alive once again. 10 year old Jayden Bazemore held off a hard charging Jesse Hauck for the win. We hear that Jayden has been training down in Texas at a private camp owned by former A Pro Travis Postany. Whatever they’re teaching worked today as Jayden went on to win 10 Girls to make it a double.

Another young lady who doubled up on the day was Star products’ Stephani Morin who is only 13 but was moved up and raced 15-16 Girls Cruiser. After winning that class she’d go on to battle with Full Tilt’s Alexis Newark. The Battle Lake, Minnesota native gave Morin all she could handle but it wasn’t enough to get past.

15 Cruiser was dominated by Mr. “I refuse to wear race pants” Nathaniel Cotton. He did the Strange Motion Kicker crew a solid by taking command from the outside and never looking back. This kid is a trail boss so it is pretty hard to get by him once he gets out front.

9 Intermediate Christopher Cannatello came into today with 19 wins and he had his sights set on racing with the big boys tomorrow. As the gate hit the deck, he had some heavy pressure from outside but squeezed through traffic to take the lead out of turn one. As he made his way into the final turn, gold cup #1 plate shinning in the sun, he put the hammer down and powered his way into the Expert class. Congrats on all of your hard work.

Jumping up to the 15 Expert class, all eyes were on the 49 bike of the Australian Hayden Fletcher. He quickly found the front of the pack and looked primed to continue his winning ways from Louisville. Answer Rennen’s Erik Meyer had other plans though. After shadowing Fletcher for nearly the entire lap, Meyer made his move in the tricky last turn. We’re not sure how Fletcher managed to stay on the track after doing a 1 footed balancing act after exiting the turn but the crowd loved what they saw. You’ll definitely want to catch that race next week on our Youtube page.

As day 1 came to an end it all seemed to go by too fast. Riders and their families loaded up to hit local eateries and hotel pools as quickly as possible to enjoy the remainder of the picture perfect day. Tomorrow should be even better.