2019 GoPro Pro Championship Finals Recap

Filed under General on December 01, 2019 | Comment(s)

As we began our Grands weekend in Tulsa on Thursday, the points chase for our Pro National No.1 titles were tight. But as the ROC dust settled, or so we thought, we had a clearer picture of what could be for the USA BMX GoPro Championship Finals. 

AA Pro 

With Daylight Cycle’s Corben Sharrah atop the ROC podium after an exciting day of racing on Friday, the stage was set for a major league showdown on Saturday night. Sharrah had narrowed the gap on points leader Connor Fields to 86 points, thanks to his win on Friday. But with 80 points being the difference between finishes, that meant that Corben needed two spots between he and Fields, in order to take his first USA BMX Pro title. But as we'd soon find out, Connor had plenty of fight left in him for three exciting rounds of main event racing. 

Sharrah matched his ROC podium to land atop the GoPro Pro Championship Finals podium going 2-1-1 in the mains, but Fields finishes of 1, 2, 3 were enough to earn the reigning Olympic Gold Medalist a 2nd place overall, and thus - his second USA BMX National No.1 Pro plate.

Fields joins an elite group with his two National No.1 Pro titles, and positions himself well as we head into an Olympic year. With the title, Fields becomes just the 7th pro to earn two illustrious National No.1 AA-Pro crowns. Sharrah would wind up 6 points shy of the No.1 plate, to earn No.2 overall for 2019. Fields' Chase teammate Joris Daudet, although unable to race the Grands due to a recent injury, finished No.3 for the year. 

In a stacked main event final, Fields not only topped Sharrah, but also fought off the likes of French rider Romain Mayet who challenged Fields and Sharrah throughout the three rounds of the main event, to wind up third for the day. 

GoPro Championship Final Results: 

AA-PRO Results:
1 CORBEN SHARRAH, DAYLIGHT CYCLES - TUCSON, AZ
2 CONNOR FIELDS, CHASE BMX / ELEVN / IKON - HENDERSON, NV
3 ROMAIN MAYET, PRIDE/NOLOGO - PARIS
4 JEREMY RENCUREL, PERSAN, FRANCE
5 JEFFERY UPSHAW, DRIVEN ACADEMY - DAYTON, OH
6 ROMAIN MAHIEU, TANGENT-RIFT - LYON, FRANCE
7 ALFREDO CAMPO, HUNTERSVILLE, NC
8 NICHOLAS LONG, HARO - LAKESIDE, CA 

Women Elite 
Heading into Grands week, Supercross’ Felicia Stancil was poised to unseat the reigning 7-time Champ, Alise ‘The Beast’ Willoughby. But after a dominating performance in the ROC final by Willoughby, and an uncharacteristic performance by Stancil, Alise extended her points lead to nab an unprecedented 12th USA BMX National No.1 silver Cup (her eighth as a Pro, plus four as an Amateur) . 

Willoughby’s dominance built upon her undefeated season in 2018 and her UCI World Championship crown earlier this year. Adding to her growing National No.1 Title record as the sports most decorated athlete, male or female, Willoughby now has three more National #1 Titles than Eric Rupe (who scored 9 during his illustrious BMX career). As Alise accepted her 12th National No.1 Pro plate, she remembered her first title as a 9 year old and thanked her dad and brothers who were both with her here in Tulsa tonight.  

Stancil charged hard in the first two rounds of the Elite Women’s main event before falling to third in the Pro Championship finals standings for the night. Factory Full Tilt’s Ashley Verhagen landed on the podium with a 2nd place for the night, with a strong showing throughout the year.
Overall for 2019, the top three Elite Women riders were Willoughby, Stanicl and Verhagen respectively. 

GoPro Championship Final Results: 

Vet Pro 
Looking to repeat as reigning National #1 Vet Pro, and defend his title as the World’s Fastest Track Operator, Tyler Brown looked to be in the driver’s seat to win the USA BMX National #1 Vet Pro title again this year. That was before Brown and Suarez collided in turn three of the last round of the Vet Pro main event. 

With Brown supplanted on the back side of turn three, Venezuela’s Jonathan ‘The Mosquito’ Suarez took the first spot in the third round. Or so he thought. After a brief delay, the announcement was made that Suarez would be disqualified for his actions in the collision. That announcement all but guaranteed Brown the 2019 National #1 Title. 

And as the dust settled, this time for real, the year end points race finished Brown, Suarez, and Smith respectively. 

GoPro Championship Final Results: 

Vet Pro Results:
1 EWERTON CARNEIRO, MURIAER, MG
2 TYLER BROWN, 316 RACING DK, CHULA VISTA, CA
3 JONATHAN SUAREZ, ALPHA, CORAL SPRINGS, FL
4 JOSH SMITH, DK BICYCLES/CORSA, SPRINGBORO, OH
5 MICKAEL LECANN, BC CRANGEURIER/IMPULSE GOODMAN, ARGONAY
6 DYLAN SHANKS, NORTHWEST BMX/CORSA RACEWEAR, BEND, OR
7 JUSTIN (MCSHITALK) MCLINTOCK, HINGE/NIGHT TRIPS, HUNTINGTON BEACH, CA
8 JAMES CARTER, CLAYBORN/ANSWER FACTORY, GREENVILLE, WI

A Pro
While Anthony Bucardo reeled in the Golden Crank Award for Rookie Pro of the Year tonight, he couldn’t reel in Australia’s Jayce Cunning. Cunning, with mom and dad on hand for the first time in the States, dominated the A Pro mains from start to finish during the GoPro Championship Finals. 

The A Pro class certainly has its lot of exciting racers in Bucardo, Dos Reis, Klumper and Pump Track World Champion Tommy Zula, Cunning’s dominance added his leading the overall points race to finish ahead of Bucardo and Dos Reis to finish 2019. 

GoPro Championship Final Results: 

A-Pro Results:
1 JAYCE CUNNING, SPEEDCO/AVIAN, BARINGA, QLD
2 ANTHONY BUCARDO, ALPHA, CANYON COUNTRY, CA
3 TYLER KLUMPER, JR BICYCLES.COM/SPEEDCO/AVIAN, TARPON SPRINGS, FL
4 ROGERIO (REIS) DOS REIS, CYPRESS FLOORING, ORLANDO, FL
5 THOMAS ZULA, DK BICYCLES, DAYTON, OH
6 MATEO MARASAS, LINDSEY WILSON COLLEGE, COLUMBIA, KY
7 FLORIAN LEFEBVRE, NOLOGO/SPAD BMX, PARIS
8 JUSTIN KNAPPER, FACTORY ANSWER, POTTSTOWN, PA

Jr. Men
The superior performance of Jr. Men’s champion, Cam Wood, helped soften the blow for Alpha after the controversy in the Vet Pro class. Wood led from start to finish in each of the Jr. Men main event rounds and was his dominant self again tonight in Tulsa. 

GoPro Championship Final Results: 

Jr. Men Results:
1 CAMERON WOOD, ALPHA, PEORIA, AZ
2 GONZALO RENGEL, JR BICYCLES.COM/SPEEDCO/AVIAN, QUEVEDO
3 BRAYDEN (THE BULLET) KEMPEL, ALPHA, RAMSEY, MN
4 TOMAS CORREA , ORLANDO, FL
5 SPENCER COLE, DK BICYCLES, PALM HARBOR, FL
6 VINCENTE CESAR GARCIA PINTO, FLORIDA ANSWER SSQUARED, SAU PAULO, SP
7 IAGO MACHADO, SAO LEOPOLDO, RS
8 PATRICK COO, RACEFAST, BELLFLOWER, CA

Jr. Women 
In what turned out to be a hotly contested round of main event finals with three different riders (Vaughn, Ridenour, Simpson) taking turns on the top spot, reigning USA BMX National #1 Girl and UCI Pumptrack World Champion Payton Ridenour came out on top. 

GoPro Championship Final Results: 

Jr. Women Results:
1 PAYTON RIDENOUR, HARO, POTTSTOWN, PA
2 ASHLEY HAYES, RIDE CO/V3 GATE/SUPERCROSS, COLORADO SPRINGS, CO
3 MOLLY SIMPSON, DAYLIGHT CYCLES, RED DEER, AB
4 CARLY KANE, DK BICYCLES, GUILFORD, IN
5 DALENY VAUGHN, REDMAN / FLY, TUCSON, AZ
6 NATALEE DAUGHERTY, FREE AGENT, MELISSA, TX
7 VIOLET CEJALVO, SURREY, BC
8 AKI SAKAI, DEUXROUES ELITE TEAM, OSAKA

NAG 5 Challenge
The state of Arizona dominated the NAG 5 Challenge Saturday night, with Tucson's Daleny Vaughn and Chandler's Riley House both taking home the top spots. Playing double duty on the women’s side was Redman-sponsored Daleny Vaughn who competed in the Jr. Women finals before edging out Full Tilt’s Olivia Armstrong and Canadian National No.1, Teigan Pascual (Rift-Tangent) in the women’s NAG 5 Challenge.

Gilbert, AZ native, Riley House and his carbon Supercross bike earned their way to the final and led a stacked field from lane one, of riders including Full Tilt’s Kye Afoo and Rift/Rock Star rider ‘Quick’ Nick Adams as he captured the boys championship in the NAG 5 Challenge.

PULL Magazine Golden Crank Awards Presented by Profile Racing
Thanks to the thousands of PULL Magazine readers who cast their ballots for their favorites for the 2019 Golden Crank awards, this year's popularity awards nearly wound up a full sweep by everyone's favorite brand. The beautiful and much coveted Golden Cranks were again created by Profile Racing, and are one of the most-wanted award in the BMX Industry.

Bill Ryan's Supercross brand dominated this year's popularity vote, taking home three Golden Cranks -for Team and Bike, as well as Pro of the Year, to SX's Felicia Stancil. This was the 5th time in 10 years Supercross has earned the Bike of the Year award, and Felicia's very first Golden Crank. Stancil's nod from the fans through voting, makes her only the second woman to ever win Pro of the Year. 

A-Pro Anthony Bucardo unanimously won Rookie Pro of the Year, with the readers of PULL magazine over-whelmingly voting for the exuberant, mult-colored hair A-Pro. 

Team of the Year - Supercross 

Rookie Pro of the Year - Anthony Bucardo 

Pro of the Year - Felicia Stancil, Supercross

Bike of the Year - Supercross