Well the Guthrie Sooner Nationals are now all over. It was a good fun weekend. The track was a lot bigger than Reno, with a nice long first straight to open up and a pro section down the second straight - which was really nice!

Alise, Jared, Mark (Alise's dad) and I all made the journey down from Minnesota.

Friday was our first practice on the track and things went pretty well. The track was quite bumpy, but other than that it was all good. It's always fun watching people go for the Pro section for the first time. A lot of people where having trouble with this burly section early on, but most of them got it together by race time on Saturday.

Saturday morning rolled around. I always like the Saturday races because you don't have to be there until 10.30 in the morning; so you can wake up at a reasonable hour and feel awake when you get to the track for warm up. My day started of slow as I just wanted to ease through the motos and still have some petrol in the tank for later in the day (or should I say "GAS" in the tank, for you Americans ... LOL) 

By the time semi's rolled around I was feeling ready to rock. I got a good warm up and was excited for the semi’s. I drew lane 7 in the semi so I knew I had to be right on my game if i was going to make it to the big show. Myself and Christian Bercerine (who was in lane 8) both got good starts and we moved straight across to be in lane 1 by the 2nd jump. I came out of the first turn in first and from there just tried to ride a clean lap to transfer in to the main. 
One thing about these cold winter races is that it’s hard keeping warm . So I did a bit of a Tour de France ride on the Redline wind trainer inside the arena which got a nice little sweat going and had me feeling quite good for the Final. 

I drew lane 2 in the final, right next to ABA’s National #1 pro in lane 1 (Stumpy). So i knew getting out and across to the inside was key to winning the race. I got out good but halfway down the ramp, Randy and I banged handle bars. Unfortunately, I had to follow them into turn 1, where I was quickly pushed back to 5th. Now I knew I had some work to do through the pro section. I managed to set up a sweet high~low on Big C and Arturs Madison in turn 2, which put me back in to 3rd place. I was chasing hard to catch Jared and Randy (who was out front), but couldn't catch them before the line. Randy 1st, Jared 2nd and me and my 2010 Flight bike in 3rd.

I was happy to be on the podium and have another coincident score. 

Saturday night the “U.S. and foreigner crew” got together for dinner. Its always good times when we all get together for dinner. Unfortunately our normal Japanese star of the night was a NO SHOW ... Mr Masahiro Sampei. However we shared many stories between the Derosa’s, Nyhaugs, Posts, Fields and Carnes about the "Great One" from Japan. 

As always when a BMX crew gets together it was loud and good times. I felt sorry for the couple who came to have a romantic dinner for two next to us. Until Big Ant, being the generous man he is, bought them a bottle of wine and apologized for the noise. However, fortunately, they where fun people and were all about having a laugh and chat.

Not to many hours later, the 6am burner wake up call on Sunday rolled around and before we knew it we were at the track to do it all again. 

I felt good Sunday morning for once and won my heats and transferred out the semi. In the main I again drew lane 2, with my main man "Gravy Train" in lane 1. I knew we were both in good position to take a one, two. It was not going to be easy though - because on my right was Stump, lining up in lane 3. Bennett had 4 and Big C was in 5 (that's some MAJOR horsepower with all them guys). I knew my start had to be perfect and being next to Stumpy, I was hoping we could both get out clean this time. The cadence began ... and again, by our second pedal, we were tangled and both lost our clips. Instantly, we were spat to the back of the pack. That sucked. I ended up having to settle for 6th on day two.
Definitely not where I wanted to be after such a good start to the day. 

On a good note though my boy Gravy finally got the inside lane and showed that he is still one of, if not THEE, fastest guy in the World on a BMX and MTB. 

My teammates Alise, Tory and Ant Derosa also had an up and down weekend. Alise was looking really good both days but didn't get much luck with lanes and found herself getting lane 8, in what seemed like every race. She finished up with a 2nd and 3rd for the weekend.
Meanwhile, Tory was on fire in Junior Elite and should have taken the win, but unfortunately got a little excited on the gate and smashed it.
On Sunday, "The Ant" found himself in between two of the biggest 15 year olds I have ever seen. He did a great a job to get in for a 4th. Watch out for little Ant in the future ... if we can get him to stand in some COW MANURE and grow a little, his skills and track smarts will see him on top of the podium for many years to come in the future. 

So now for me - it's BUSY BUSY BUSY. Back to California to try and set up a place to live. Get a car, buy some insurance, etc etc etc. Pretty much get my life set up so I can be settle in and get some wins on the board. 

--Sam