2018 Las Vegas Nationals Race Report

Filed under General on July 16, 2018 | Comment(s)

The South Point Arena once again played host to LV2, a.k.a the Las Vegas Nationals. Billy Allen and his team crafted a beautiful U-in-a-U designed course that was a favorite amongst those in attendance. Despite being 30ft shorter than the January M-shaped track, this weekend's course provided a lot more room to pedal and challenge for the lead. We saw many laps with 3 or 4 racers side by side down the second straight away.

For the past several years this race has had the best attendance outside of the grands weekend and its probably because there is truly something for everyone in the family to enjoy. It also produces some huge scores and the biggest winner of them all was Alpha's Anthony Bucardo who amassed 898 points by winning all three days of 17-20 Expert. While we won't claim to be able to predict the future, the past several National #1 Amateurs and Girls have relied on scores from this race in their quest for the black #1 plate. Bucardo is definitely in the hunt for the title.

17-20 EXPERT TOTAL RIDERS = 59 GROUPS = 10

• 1ANTHONY BUCARDO, ALPHA, CANYON COUNTRY, CA
• 2KYE AFFOO, FULL TILT, WARNER, QLD
• 3RACE LEE, FULL TILT, DERBY, KS
• 4BRYANT WHITE, RIFT/TANGENT, LAKESIDE, CA
• 5RILEY HOUSE, SUPERCROSS BMX, GILBERT, AZ
• 6MARKWANE BILLINGSLEY, ANSWER RENNEN, ROCKFORD, MI
• 7DUSTIN HAMMOND, ANSWER RENNEN, COLUMBIA, KY
• 8JESSE WELCH, THRODWN, PERRIS, CA

17-20 EXPERT TOTAL RIDERS = 60 GROUPS = 10

• 1ANTHONY BUCARDO, ALPHA, CANYON COUNTRY, CA
• 2KYE AFFOO, FULL TILT, WARNER, QLD
• 3JUSTIN RICHMOND, POWERLITE DANS COMP DFR, ROCHELLE, IL
• 4RILEY HOUSE, SUPERCROSS BMX, GILBERT, AZ
• 5RACE LEE, FULL TILT, DERBY, KS
• 6SULLIVAN FINCH, FACTORY WIAWIS/LSG, FORT COLLINS, CO
• 7DEREK PHIPPS, FACTORY SPEEDLINE, SIMI VALLEY, CA
• 8NICKOLAS (NICK THE BRICK) ELLIOTT, NORCAL NEXT GENERATION, GRANITE BAY, CA

17-20 EXPERT TOTAL RIDERS = 59 GROUPS = 10

• 1ANTHONY BUCARDO, ALPHA, CANYON COUNTRY, CA
• 2RACE LEE, FULL TILT, DERBY, KS
• 3JUSTIN RICHMOND, POWERLITE DANS COMP DFR, ROCHELLE, IL
• 4DEREK PHIPPS, FACTORY SPEEDLINE, SIMI VALLEY, CA
• 5DYLAN RAMOS, 505 RACING, ALBUQUERQUE, NM
• 6ALEX CLIFT, EXTREME TEAM, SANDY, UT
• 7KYE AFFOO, FULL TILT, WARNER, QLD
• 8RILEY HOUSE, SUPERCROSS BMX, GILBERT, AZ

In the 10 Expert ranks, we saw an incredible showdown between World Champion Cole Frederick and Nag Champ Karter Montellano. On Friday Karter shadowed the powerful Frederick all the way until the last turn where he pulled of a sweet low swoop on the unsuspecting Frederick. Karter would be in a position to make the same move over the next couple of days but Frederick went just low enough to shut down the attempts without losing any speed.


11 year old Danica Anderson went 6 for 6 this weekend in her usual dominant fashion but we did see "AA" Alexis Alden inch just a bit closer to the unbeatable one from Lancaster. With Danica taking to the air these days, we're not sure if anyone will be able to stop her reign. If she can get a few more rider points over the rest of the season she will be in contention to fight for the National #1 title.

Did someone say Ronnie Kim tripled each day? That he did, for the first time in his career. It was a treat getting to watch him battle Marshall Gehrke in 11-12 Open.

56-60 Cruiser was a throwback to the late 70's with Turnell Henry and Harry Leary battling it out every time they hit the track. Elbows and dirt were flying, but if anyone knows Tuni, he's a pretty solid dude.  Despite Harry's best efforts, Tuni would take the wins on Saturday and Sunday.

It was another fabulous weekend at the South Point Arena and the track provided action packed racing all weekend long. We hope that you enjoyed it as much as we did!