Gold Cup Finals South Central - race report

Filed under General on September 19, 2016 | Comment(s)

America’s fastest amateur athletes compete year-round at Gold Cup races (with 70+ Gold Cup events held around the country). At the end of the series - these next few weekends in fact, they bring their best two scores from the year into the regional Gold Cup Championship Finals, for a shot at becoming a Gold Cup Champion.

For the first of six Gold Cup Finals, we returned to the covered arena outside of Dallas - in the quaint lil' town of DeSoto. Located at Grimes Park, surrounded by large industrial warehouses you can find Metroplex BMX. The track has been famous for developing top pro riders - such as Jason Rogers, Brandon Elmore, Tanner Sebesta and Denzel Stein. Numerous NAG No'1 - past, present and future, have all called Metroplex BMX home. For this weekend, their doors were opened for the BMX world to enjoy and take on the famous Texas track.

QUEST FOR A No.1
Although the Republic of Texas is the size of its own country (by European standards), additional turnout came from many of the surrounding states - Oklahoma, New Mexico, Arkansas and even Mexico. Considering there are now six Gold Cup Finals this year, for the first time, turnout was exactly what USA BMX was expecting. And there was one thing that all of them had came here for - to go home on Sunday with a yellow-background No.1 plate and a cool red Dk Gold Cup Champion's jacket. 

Team-wise, the Hostile~Redline gang was present and accounted for, along with their arch rivals from Team PickleJuice. It seemed that either of these teams led practically every other lap, and in the end - they scored a fair share of Gold Cup No.1's. Fellow Texas teams like the Pedal Pushers, Rival Racing, Team Metroplex, PoppaWheelie, Liberty BMX and the Texas chapter of Kid Dynamite were also frequently found out front. Oh ...and you can never leave out the always present Kaos krew and Oklahoma Brotherhood! 

GO PRO's
In the Pro ranks, Rebel Run co-owner and camp counselor Lee Lewis was tuckin' and truckin' on the way to his Saturday Pro Open win, and on Sunday the spoils of victory went to Redline's Hunter Pelham. Hunter had his work cut out for him after dozing back off when his alarm clock went off Sunday morning - missing his first moto. Luckily, two stellar finishes in the next two rounds put him in the final, where he felt refreshed from that extra hour of sleep and scored the win- dedicating it to his injured RL teammate, Sam Willoughby.

PRO OPEN

• 1 HUNTER PELHAM, REDLINE, WILLIS, TX
• 2 BRANDON ELMORE, FACTORY CCH, ARLINGTON, TX
• 3 GILBERT CONTRERAS, FACTORY BLAZE, ALBUQUERQUE, NM
• 4 DAMIEN LACOMBE, USA MEYBO AND ONYX HUBS, ROCKWALL, TX
• 5 YO THACH, FACTORY YESS, FT WORTH, TX
• 6 BRENT STERRIKER, STRIKER WHEELS, PFLUGERVILLE, TX
• 7 JOE MCCARTY, TULSA, OK
• 8 BILLY ROSS, MJT DESIGNS, SAN ANTONIO, TX

FAST CHICKS
In the girls classes, the Arizona and Texas members of Tuff Gurlz were looking storng, including fine performances by PAYTON SARABIA in 6 girls and KARLEE BROWN in 10g, making team founder (and original No.1 Girl in ABA) Debbi Kalsow proud.