Dew Tour Salt Lake: Day One

Rob Darden - cr. Dew Tour

“Yes I did skip school. But you don’t know my name, so ha, ha!”

The kid grinned at his posse and they bellied up to the already crowded fence to watch the BMX Dirt Prelims, where 25 top riders were playing in the air about six feet away. Only the top nine would make Friday’s finals, where the contest will be held at 8:00 pm, when the blazing heat spell melting Salt Lake will have cooled down a little.

The course, built by BMX legend Fuzzy Hall, was short, but beyond gnarly. The start was so steep that “drop in” was a reality. The ten jumps were made up of five gaps, and the first part of each one was sheer vert, acting as a kicker to launch the guys with enough amplitude to whang out tricks like front flips, back flips and corked 720’s, all in the same run. With only five chances to show their stuff, runs were stuffed with mad combos that often ended up with riders upended by the final berm.

Josh Hult showed what keeping your head in the heat can do for an athlete. He fell on his first run and came in 24th out of the 25 riders. For his second run, his flips were smooth and high, his bar spins immaculate, and in the best of two runs format, his fifth place put him back into the finals and in the running.

Scotty Cranmer started at the start, whipping his bike in a 360 at the apex where the stage area turned to the drop in. But Rob Darden, with his smooth and slow circles in the air, took first, followed by Cameron White and TJ Ellis. Fuzzy Hall, given a wild card by the Dew honchos, can still turn a trick or two. His runs were both in the 80’s, and he came in 19th; not bad for a 38-year old who just spent some 80 hours this past week building the course.

Even though it was a school day, the village had a good crowd, while bigger crowds took a break from the heat to watch other prelims inside the vast Energy Solutions Arena. Greg Lutzka took first in Skate Park, Vince Byron topped it for BMX Vert, and Sandro Dias was the best dude in Skate Vert.

For finals start lists and some videos, check out the Dew Tour web site: http://www.allisports.com/

- Wina Sturgeon

Below are the Prelim results and Finals start order.  Worth noting many familiar faces from Dew Tour finals missed the cut — including Cory Nastazio, Luke Parslow, Corey Bohan and Anthony Napolitan.

TOYOTA CHALLENGE
SEASON 2009
BMX DIRT PRELIMS

1. Rob Darden -  90.38
2. Cameron White -  89.75
3. TJ Ellis -  89.63
4. Colton Satterfield -  88.75
5. Josh Hult -  88.13
6. James Foster -  88.00
7. Diogo Canina -  87.88
8. Scotty Cranmer -  87.50
9. Chris Gerber -  87.50
10. Scott Wirch -  87.25
11. Luke Parslow -  86.88
12. Nate Berkheimer -  86.63
13. Cory Nastazio -  86.50
14. Ricky Moseley -  85.63
15. Ryan Guettler -  85.50
16. Zakary Earley -  84.88
17. Anthony Napolitan -  84.88
18. Jaie Toohey -  84.25
19. Tim Hall -  83.75
20. Morgan Wade -  80.25
21. Josh Stead -  80.13
22. Colin Mackay -  78.50
23. Ben Voyles -  76.63
24. Ronnie Napolitan -  75.75
25. Corey Bohan -  70.10

BMX DIRT FINALS START ORDER

1. Chris Gerber
2. Scotty Cranmer
3. Diogo Canina
4. James Foster
5. Josh Hult
6. Colton Satterfield
7. TJ Ellis
8. Cameron White
9. Rob Darden
10. Dennis Enarson
11. Brandon Dosch
12. Ryan Nyquist