Where can you possibly go wrong with Spring Break in full gear at Lake Havasu City, Arizona and the 2010 XDL Freestyle Sport BIke Stunt Competition? Well for those of you who don't know about Lake Havasu having one of what I consider the best spring breaks in the United States, and adding a freestyle sport bike competition in the mix of that, pure bliss. This year's second round of the XDL is being held at the Havasu 95 Speedway on the 9th and 10th of April.
The XDL event which has significantly grown in the last few years from a 3 event series into a 6 event point series. Riders from across the United States, Europe, and Japan will be attending this all around bad ass event in hopes of taking home the thousands of dollars in prize money, bragging rights, and the well needed points in the series.
For those who aren't familiar with the XDL Free Style Stunt Competition I'll give you a little background on the event. It began in 2005 as what their website considered a test event between drifting and stunt riding. As they soon discovered the light at the end of the tunnel shined more towards the athletes of the freestyle riders than it did with drifting. So in 2006 XDL launched a series of 3 events as sorta a test run. 2006 went extremely well and in 2007 another event was added bringing the total to 4 events. As the sport grew with the demand by stunting enthusiasts to see these athletes perform, so did the event. In 2008 XDL added 2 more events totaling 6 events across the country.
The first of these events for the 2010 season began at the Daytona International Speedway the weekend of the 26th-28th of February. Let me begin by saying not only was I excited to be here for Bike Week, but the icing on the cake was this XDL Stunt Competition. I was fortunate enough to hang with my buddy James and his wife Lauren who both stunt on their own bikes, and as a tandem stunter crew called 2viciousfreestyle. You want to see some crazy talent to make your palms sweat, be sure to check them out at clutchitup.com. Oh, I definitely can't forget to mention Adam Wood and his girlfriend Brittany Shaara. I just met these two through James at the "spot". The "spot" is what they refer to as a place where they can practice without being bothered by other riders. James was ripping it up on his Honda F4I, Lauren on her dirt bike, Adam killing it on his Kawasaki 636, and Brittany on her Yamaha R6 showing the bike who was boss. I was surprised how everyone was riding. Not to mention it was dark out and Adam got balled up earlier in the week hurting his ankle and it was still healing. Don't worry Adam I won't mention you weren't caring for your ankle until I started busting your balls to clean it. Haha...Everyone was to focused on the XDL event a couple days away to feel any pain. You'll get a chance to see Adam and Brittany ride at the Lake Havasu XDL in April. You won't be disappointed!
An XDL event you can expect a practice day for the riders to get familiar with roughly the 100 by 300 foot area what they consider the battleground. After a day or two of practice it's time to put up or shut up...Qualifications are quick and to the point. 15 riders qualified and earned the right to the main event. The main event is no joke and it's all about the 3 minutes. These riders have traveled from all over the world and they're not about to hold back. They get just 3 minutes to rock out all the required elements the judges are looking for. XDL also has an opportunity for these riders to earn bonus points with the Aprilia sponsored All Star Challenge. Each rider gets a stock Aprilia SXV to do a series of skilled tricks like the fastest rolling burn out through the cones without touching them. Touching any of the cones adds time to your run. Everyone uses the same stock Aprilia bike. This year the stock bike had only 3 miles on it! I can only imagine those have to be some hard earned miles with these riders.
Winners:
Aprilia All Star Challenge
1st Eric Pettit 27.72 sec.
2nd Dan Jackson 29.06 sec.
3rd Bill Dixon 32.10 sec.
Sartso Women's Cup:
1st Dena Sodano
2nd Kelly Jennings
3rd Brittany Shaara
K & N Circle Challenge:
1st Jesse Toller
2nd Aaron Colton
3rd Hollywood B
Speed & Strength Sickest Trick:
1st Bill Dixon with the Switchback scrape
2nd Nick Hernandez with his 2nd gear Drif
3rd Guruardas Khalsa with the "W"
Team Battles:
1st Death Squad ( LIn Eshlom, Nick Brocha, Shin Kinoshita
2nd Call Alliance ( Rick Hart, Alex Flores, J Beatz, Nick Hernandez, Hollywood B)
3rd Circus Act (Joel HIckman, Jeremy Block, Dave Dalmasso)
Freestyle Burnout:
1st Brian Bubash
2nd Alex Flores
3rd Nick Brocha
FMF Cups winners:
1st Bill Dixon 84.5, 74.5 total 159
2nd Luke Emmons 81, 75.5 total 156.5
3rd Rick Hart 71.5, 77 total 148.5
4th Nick Brocha 72.5, 75.5 total 148
5th Aaron Colton 71, 59 total 130
6th Brian Bubash 64.5, 55.5 total 120
7th Alex Flores 63.5, 56 total 119.5
8th Shinsuke Kinoshita 59, 54.5 total 113.5
9th Lin Eshalom 57, 56.5 total 113.5
10th Kindred Jamal 57.5, 47.5 total 105
11th Eric Pettit 52.5, 48.5 total 101
12th Dan Jackson 49.5, 47.5 total 97
13th Nick Hernandez 43.5, 39.5 total 83
14th Dan Farris 39, 35 total 74
15th Johnny Seals 30, 30 total 60
