Fontana, CA - NORBA Nationals #2

I know, I promised daily updates and I did not come trough - Sorry! But, we had a great weekend at the NORBA National in Fontana, CA. So much to tell and so little time. Here it goes...

Ty, Ian (Red Rock Racing Teammate) and I head out around 7 PM on Thursday night for CA. We had a pretty smooth trip besides for the wind going through Palm Springs area. I had to make sure and keep both hands on the wheel to keep the car on the road. The 3 bikes on the roof did not help much either. I think we averaged about 13 miles per gallon on the way out there. Not good! We hit Fontana around 12:30 AM and decided to find a cheap hotel around the race venue. A few miles from the venue we found a place that did not look too bad called the Circle Inn Motel. We were so tired that we just wanted a bed and to sleep so we paid $69 for the worst hotel room that we could find. The room was "non-smoking", but smelled SOOO BAD. Bad call on my part. Oh well, we got about 5 hours of sleep and hit the race venue the next AM.

The mornings over there we awesome race weather - 65 degrees and over-cast. The "marine cover" would burn off around 1 PM and we would have sunny afternoons. Typical CA weather. This event was Ty's first stab at the Mountain Cross event. He has been working hard with Melissa Buhl for the last 6 weeks and was excited to apply what he had learned. He practiced on the course all Friday morning and at mid-day, they had the qualifying runs. Ty put in a great time and qualified 8th in the 14 and under category. The Mountain Cross finals were scheduled for 5:30 PM later that day. So, Ty decide that he wanted to also try racing Downhill. I singed him up and off he went to the shuttle to the top of the mountain to give it a shot. He fell in love with the Downhill even though he was riding a hardtail with a 80mm fork. He went up and down the mountain all afternoon and then went straight from his last downhill run to the Mountain Cross for his finals.

Ty waited at the start house while they ran all the other classes and when they call his class, his name was not on the list. He was told to go to the officials at the bottom of the hill to protest. It turns out that 2 other racers that were in the 18 and under class wanted to be "re-classed" in the 14 and under after the qualifying runs. This bumped Ty out of the finals. WHAT!!??? No-one told us about this change or that he now did not qualify for finals. Can you switch classes after qualifying because you did not qualify in the class you entered?? Needless to say, he was a bit heartbroken over the whole thing. Team Big Bear did step up and are giving Ty free entry to the next NORBA National. They also are making some rule changes so that something like this does not happen again in the future. Let's hope so!! After a very long day at the races, we were all very tired. We were so happy to be in a nice hotel for the next two nights. We ate, showered and hit the sack.

Saturday AM, we were back at the race venue at 8 AM for more Downhill practice and Ty's final run. Ty had a great run in his final and finished the course in 4 mins. Good enough to take 4th in the 11-12 division. Wahoo!! Next up, Ian raced Cross Country in the Junior Experts. They were starting off with the Pro at this race for some reason. Ian fired out with the pack on there way to a 30 mile race. Ian's goal was to qualify for the National Championship by placing in the top 10 and he did it - 9th place! Congratulations, Ian!!

Ty was not done yet. He still had his Cross Country race at 3:30 PM. He saved his best for last. Ty won the event by over 2 mins over the 2nd place rider. Wahoo!! AZ's own Pro MTB'er, Dara Marks, placed high in the Pro Woman's division on both the Short Track and XC events.

I could go on and on, but I need to recover from the long weekend. I do not have as much energy as Ty!

More pics from the weekend can be found HERE