2015 Dixieland Nationals race report

Filed under General on April 24, 2015 | Comment(s)

PRELUDE: For almost as long as I can remember (which, for this story is like back to the early 90's), the Dixieland Nationals have been held in Powder Springs, GA - at the infamous Cobb County BMX track. And for that same length of time, the godmother of Georgia BMX - Margie Hatfield, has been at the helm, making this annual stop an awesome one. 

It's always cool pulling in to Wild Horse Creek park. If you did a google search for it, the interweb will tell you that this place is a "multiuse park featuring fields for sports, a BMX track, a rec center & lighted tennis courts." You can feel the excitement as you round the corner of the middle school and get your first glimpse of the track. The adrenaline rush begins, as you cruise past the red-Georgia clay layout, with it's paved turns and slight downhill straights. Cobb County BMX has changed a bit since the last time I was here (which, if you really want to know - was 1999). The new layout has a little something for everyone - there's some long sections of straightaways that seperates those who have been doing sprints from those who have been sitting around playing video games. And then there's some tricky jumps, where those with enough skills to pay the bills, can make up some ground. Overall, it's a fun track that a whole lot of racers love - including those who arrived this weekend as far away as California or Arizona. 

ACT 1: For the Friday night pre-race, the Pro Open class was packed with some pretty big names in both A and double-A pro. Surprisingly, this year's A-pro dominator - Kenny G, decided to sit it out and save his strength for Saturday. But Dan's Comp rider Tyler Faoro figured it was his one shot at winning some spare bucks. In the end, new rookie pro Cole Tesar - who is no stranger to this track and has probably raced this national since he was knee-high to a grasshopper, wound up scoring the King of Friday Night title, holding off Alan Hudson and Prince O.D..  Not bad for a Rookie!

PRO OPEN 

• 1 COLE TESAR, C-YAA FACTORY, NC
• 2 ALAN HUDSON, AZ
• 3 OLIJUWON DAVIS, DOUBLECROSS BIKES, IL
• 4 TYLER FAORO, DANS COMP, FL
• 5 JONATHAN AUSTIN, LA
• 6 DEREK LIEGL, FACTORY CCH BICYCLES, GA
• 7 FOSTER CHADEK, WI
• 8 WILLIAM GRANT, MY RADAR/J&R, FL

The pre-race had some awesome racing - especially when main-time rolled around. Everybody seemed to step things up a notch, and start their National weekend off right with a win. Of all the winners, two kids who stood out amongst all were the Brillard brothers. Although their moto sheets read Tampa, Florida (their current home turf), the Brillards are actually French imports. Whether in the tonight's motos or mains, they were constantly out front and stlyin'. In the mains, neither brother slowed down much and they each scored wins in their classes - 8x and 13x. We'll have to keep an eye out for these two, as some of the new super siblings for our sport. 

8 EXPERT

• 1HUGO BRILLARD, TAMPA, FL (via FrANCE)
• 2WILL WALKER, SPEED TECH SSQUARED, NC
• 3CHARLIE GOLWYN, PROFILE, GA

13 EXPERT

• 1 THOMAS BRILLARD, TAMPA, FL (via FRANCE)
• 2 JAMES FOXX, FACTORY FREE AGENT/OMDG, VA
• 3 NATHAN CUNNINGHAM, FL

ACT 2: For the entire week leading up to the Dixielands, everybody (including us at USA BMX) were constantly checking out the online forecast for the ATL. Except for Saturday, it was all looking good. But that is what had everybody worried - originally having a 100% chance of rain on Day 1 of the Dixies. 
But as everybody should know - the show must always go on, and the Powder Springs crew did a great job of snugging up the straightaways for the night in preparation of any wet stuff falling from the sky. As our i-Phones had predicted, the sky had opened up by the time hundreds of BMXers were waking up in their homes or hotel rooms. Once at the track, it wasn't looking good - so the call was made to cancel practice ...and pray a lot. Well, the Lord Almighty must've heard us, because by 9:30 or so, Bill "I should've been a Meteorologist" Morris decided that his internal dopplar-radar looked good enough to yank off the tarps. Why - there was even time to give all of the riders some 15 minute practice, after all! 

Races started right on time, with the dinky dudes and their push bikes hitting the half-track, and pushin' their way to the finish. For lil' kids who haven't even started pre-school yet, they schooled eachother on the Powder Springs track. 
...speakin' of schools, next up came Day 1 of the USA Cycling Collegiate Championship - where we had over a half-o-dozen schools competing for the glory of calling themselves College National Champions. Winning this race is HUGE, on the Collegiate scene - as much of a college's bicycle-team funding is probably based on the results from thia weekend.

In the finals - as most would come to expect, the Marian University crew was pumped and ready to defend their 2-time title and go for a 3-peat (tm). Defending womens champ - Felicia Stancil owned it from wire-to-wire, and while she extended her lead, the real battle to watch was back in 3rd place, where Linderwood's Madison Pitts was doing her best to hold off Adrian Sanders of Indiana's Lindsey Wilson college. While Lindsay Wilson did hold the advanatge of quanity in the Collegiate Womens final, they just couldn't work their way up to stepping on that podium. Luckily - this year is a 2-day event, and they will regroup and come back strong for Sunday.

COLLEGIATE WOMEN

• 1 FELICIA STANCIL, MARIAN UNIVERSITY
• 2 KRISTEN BOB, MARIAN UNIVERSITY
• 3 MADISON PITTS, LINDENWOOD UNIVERSITY
• 4 ADRIAN SANDERS, LINDSEY WILSON COLLEGE
• 5 SABRINA BICE, LINDSEY WILSON COLLEGE
• 6 HEATHER COLLMAN, LINDSEY WILSON COLLEGE
• 7 JAMIE REED, MARIAN UNIVERSITY
• 8 ASHTON RAUM, LINDSEY WILSON COLLEGE

For the College Boy's finale', AA-pro Justin Posey was the obvious favorite. With half of the main event wearing Marian UNiversity jerseys, they were hoping to dominate - like they do in all USA Cycling collegiate disciplines. Sure enough - soon-to-graduate Bryce Hocking, future Doctor Tyler Whitfield and amateur ripper Luke Roarty hooked right in to the fast draft of Posey on the first straight. It wasn't all over yet - as the Lindsey-Wilson twins of Norton and Ross attempted a move in the first turn and both slid out on the slippery corner. NOW, it was over. Halfway around the track - Luke Roarty snuck a peak behind him and noticed their lead, and all he could see from his 4th place position were Marian uniforms. "We've got top-4!" he yelled, as they breezed thru the rhythm, crossing the line in the dominating 1, 2, 3 and 4 spots. As of right now, it looks like Marian just might hold on to yet another Championship - and make this Kentucky-based school THEE college to go to if you love BMX.

COLLEGIATE MEN

• 1 JUSTIN POSEY, MARIAN UNIVERSITY
• 2 BRYCE HOCKING, MARIAN UNIVERSITY
• 3 TYLER WHITFIELD, MARIAN UNIVERSITY
• 4 LUKE ROARTY, MARIAN UNIVERSITY
• 5 JACOB SHERBNO, LINDENWOOD UNIVERSITY
• 6 ALAN HUDSON, MARS HILL UNIVERSITY
• 7 DAKOTAH NORTON, LINDSEY WILSON COLLEGE
• 8 COREY ROSS, LINDSEY WILSON COLLEGE

 In the Pro ranks, rookies Kenny-G (Doublecross) and Georgia's Chandler Denton (S-squared~Answer) were fighting tooth and nail all day long. Florida's Will Grant had some thrilling moments, after his crazy first-main crash - where he got ran over by about 3 guys) - but he came back strong for the main event and tried to show these Rookies how it's done. Kenny G took the first main, and then Denton nabbed the win in the 2nd main, and while we had hoped for an elbow-to-elbow battle all around the track for the overall win - Denton bailed down the first straight and left it all up to Kenny-G for yet another huge A-pro victory.

A PRO TOTAL

• 1 KENNETH GUSTAFSON, DOUBLECROSS, OK
• 2 WILLIAM GRANT, MY RADAR/J&R, FL
• 3 CHANDLER DENTON, SSQUARED BICYCLES, GA

It was great to see the return of USA BMX's National No.1 Cruiser king - Kiegen Perlberg, this weekend. We'll take a wild guess and suppose that the St.Cloud local has been spending his winter ice-fishing. "Bam Bam" picked right up where he left off last November, when he'd won the big silver Cup for 24's - and that black plate with a bold No.1 was lookin' good! Cruiser went his way, but he and his neon'ish orange 20" had some bad luck in class. The Champ looked a little disapointed when he cruised off the track, and he'd  doubt, he'll be seeking some revenge on Day 2.

12 CRUISER 

• 1 KIEGEN PERLBERG, FULL TILT / ONYX , MN
• 2 TRAVIS GASNER, MN
• 3 VAUGHN PHILIPPUS, FL

In keeping up with the Full Tilt crew out of Minnesota - they've really assembled an incredible team this year - reaching outside of Minnesota to form a Bike Shop team winning roster! Along with Raul Gomez and CannonBall Jack (who was missing this weekend), they've also brought on west-coaster Peter Choat (pictured above).  So far, Choat has owned the pink-slip on 10x - and held off Colorado's Jack Bakken for today's win in both class and X-open. 

10 EXPERT

• 1 PETER CHOAT, FULL TILT BIKE, CA
• 2 JACK BAKKEN, CRUPI, CO
• 3 BLAISE PEREIRA, KAOS, LA

We were a little bit surprised to see Arizona racer George Goodall (aka "The Gorgeous One") show up in Georgia, bt he told us this has always been one of his favorite races. "I love this track," he said. And judging by his results (a double for Day 1), that statement became all the more obvious.

46-50 CRUISER

• 1 GEORGE GOODALL, FACTORY REDLINE, AZ
• 2 VINCENT DECASTRO, GA
• 3 ANTHONY JEFFERSON, GT / RACERS EDGE, PA

46 & OVER EXPERT

• 1 GEORGE GOODALL, FACTORY REDLINE, AZ
• 2 JOHN PRINGLE, PROFILE,, FL
• 3 BRYAN DICKERSON, STAR BMX, WI 

Of all the Intermediate mains, one of the most exciting would have to be 17-18i. These guys were stuck to eachother like glue, with Cody VanLandingham holding the lead all the way to turn 2. Suddenly, while Ohio's Ryan Speck was trying to rub some elbows with the leader, South Carolina's Corey Thompson came blasting in and made a sweet divebomb from 3rd to 1st. These three fought it out the next two straightaways and raced it to the stripe. 

17-18 INTERMEDIATE

• 1 COREY THOMPSON, SC
• 2 RYAN SPECK, WHITMANS, OH
• 3 CODY VANLANDINGHAM, FL
• 4 JACK MARTIN, SPEED TECH DEVO, NC

As if that oine wasn't exciting enough, in 41-45 Inter - we once again got to witness a sweet race with the old farts. But what made it even cooler, is was announcer Dave's explanation of the "Fireman," who took 2nd place. So we dwelved in to the story more to get the full scoop. Florida's Bill Henry is a fireman and BMX dad, who got back in to racing a few years ago when his kids started racing. What makes Bill's 2nd place finishes both days even more noteworthy is that Bill is racing with titanium leg. He was not only the first amputee career fireman in the country - but in the World, back in 2001 - when his leg got mangled in a car/motorcycle accident. Thanks to clipless pedals, Bill can take on any BMX track he hits - and is highly competitive in the 41-45 Inter class. So far this year, he's podiumed at three natioanls (Sunshine, Carolina's and the Dixie's).

How's that for a story of triumph and will power?!

WHOA! Was 19-27x the biggest upset of the day?!  It could very well be. Virginian powerhouse Menardo Simon took on all of the heavy-hitters in 19-27x and was droppin' names and on his game. 

Andrew Townsend told us "That's my boyee." They've raced eachother for years, and no doubt taking on Townsend has made Menardo faster. 

So far this year, it has seemed that Derek Bergh (Answer-Rennen) has owned this class, taking the title away from last year's dominator - Andrew Townsend (Haro-Promax). Then, all of a sudden - almost from out of nowhere, comes Menardo, and his super-hero like powers. With a long first straight, where you REALLY have to get on the cranks more than your pump, Simon was a big red, white and blue streak to the first turn, and powered straight to the lead, and never looked back! 

19-27 EXPERT

• 1 MENARDO SIMON, STARS N STRIPES BMX, PA
• 2 DERIK BERGH, ANSWER/RENNEN, MN
• 3 RYAN DEROCHE, DOUBLECROSS, GA

Faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive ... keep an eye out on Simon. He could be the unexpected sleeper of 2015!

While we may have gotten lucky and dodged the rain on Saturday, Sunday was a typical sunny Georghia day - and by the time the last main dropped on Sunday afternoon, it capped off another incredible weekend of racing in Powder Springs, GA.  You've gotta love Cobb County BMX and the awesome job that Margie Hatfield and her crew did to pull this one off.