Elite Open Day 1 - West Palm 2010

Monday, 01 March 2010 03:47

eliteopenday1_westpalm2010 Lots of anticipation was in the air as the Elite Open ridiers loaded up in the starting hill. After 3 rounds of qualifying the favorite to win was Madera BMX's Tyler Faoro. Faoro had great first straight speed and was hitting the pro section with ease. CJ McGuire and Jonathan Villa look good in qualifying as well and could be the spoilers. McGuire was heard saying that he was having some leg pump down the third straight. No doubt that the hot laps he was doing on Friday night were catching up with him. Jonathan Villa has always been known as a last straight charger and when we spoke to him before his semi final he was feeling confident. Hot off a 2nd place finish in Brazil Jonathan "The Mosquito: Suarez was also looking good in qualifying with a moto win and top 3 finishes all day. One of the most consistent riders in the class was Harrison Britt, though he isn't know to get many holeshots he's always in the mix. A surprise main event qualifier was Redline "Frenchy" Christophe Cordier who was visiting the USA on a 1 month BMX vacation. The move Cordier made in turn 1 to go from 7th to 4th in the semi showed that he could make possibly sneak in for a top 4 in the main.

Due to some insane rain right after the semi-finals the organizers had to post pone the main event til 6:30pm (3 hours). Many riders were complaining that the hill was a bit slick because of all the rain. We checked the start hill and confirmed that the steel grate which the riders put their tires on was still damp. This grate is usually a great thing for every track to have, what it does is remove dirt from the tires and gives extra grip. However when metal is damp it's basically like a slip and slide.

Main Event: When the gate dropped it was obvious that the damp steel grate caused problems as we saw Ronald Vega, CJ McGuire and Jonathan Villa spin out on their first power crank. Vega got the worst of it and almost fell sideways. From the video you can see Vega's forward momentum turn into donward momentum and his back tire comes off the ground and goes a bit sideways. By the time they recovered Tyler Faoro and Jonathan Suarez were half way down the starting hill and slowing moving in on each other as they fought for position over the step. Suarez had a slight lead (about half a bike) but Faoro made quick work of that down the backside of the step. As they both went up to the double Suarez slammed the front tire as he tried to speed jump to try and stay with Faoro. Unfortuantely for Suarez this was Faoro's home track and there was NO WAY he was going to make a mistake on any jump. Faoro had that jump measured to the centimeter and as he hit the backside of the double he was 2 bikes ahead of Suarez and was looking to pull away from the pack. More bad luck for Suarez in the first corner as his old training buddy Jonathan Villa came on the inside and rode him high which also gave Harrison Britt plenty of romm to sneak under Suarez and follow Villa down the second straight. Faoro checked out leaving Villa and Britt to battle for second and third. Suarez was having more problems as he couldn't keep his momentum out of the second turn and cased the first pro jump and had to pull off the track before the second pro jump. Christophe Cordier was already pulling close to Suarez and has he rode of the track Cordier gained speed by clearing both pro jumps and slipped into 4th. Villa rode as hard as he could to make up ground on Faoro down the last straight and actually made up about 2 bike lengths but it just wasn't enough. Faoro had control of the race and he was cruising to the finishline.

Watch the Main event