Jared Souney © Lat34
Napolitan Comes On Strong In Prelims
Oct 12 2006 / Orlando, FLAnthony Napolitan, Ryan Guettler and Corey Bohan all brought out some of their biggest tricks to quell any question of their dominance in this sport. Napolitan threw down his patented run starting with a no-handed front flip, followed by a double whip, a big turndown, and ended with a 360 double whip on the big 4-jump straight course. His high-energy run was enough to qualify him in 1st place going into Friday’s Finals. Napolitan is currently ranked 2nd in the overall points standings.
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Ryan Guettler let everyone know that while he may be out of the running for 1st place in overall points he is far from out of the race for a podium placement for the season. Guettler launched a 360 right off the bat on the drop-in to the first jump. Then he pulled a front flip, followed by a tail whip, a double whip and 720 on the last set as an exclamation point. He qualified 2nd. Guettler is last year’s Dew Tour champion in both Dirt and Park, and is ranked 5th in the overall points standings for Dirt.
Corey Bohan, Ryan Nyquist, Colin Mackay and Allan Cooke rounded out the top six qualifying positions. Nyquist is ranked 3rd overall in the points race for the Dew Cup and looks ready to end the season with a serious fireworks show.
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Twenty-seven riders competed in Thursday’s Dirt Prelims. Only 12 moved on to Friday’s Finals, which are shaping up to be an amazing showdown among the giants of BMX. The course is made up of four sets in a row with a drop-in start. These are some of the hardest sets we’ve seen on the Dew Tour – literally. These things are like concrete – again, literally. The sets here at the PlayStation Pro are made out of sand mixed with concrete due to the lack of available quality dirt in Florida. This fact weighs heavy on the riders’ minds. Mike Clark said, “Every fall, you’re going to feel it. It’s going to hurt bad.”
James Foster felt the wrath of the concretized Florida sand firsthand while trying to pull his signature truck driver downside tail whip. He face-planted big time and came to a sliding halt underneath his bike. He lay motionless for several minutes, but gestured that he was OK by flashing horns to the crowd as we was pulled away on the stretcher.
But, the best trick of the day goes out to T.J. Ellis for pulling a near-flawless double back flip on the last set of his second run. Luke Parslow, who qualified 7th and is currently ranked 1st in overall points, ran up to Ellis to give him a heart-felt congratulations. And it can’t go without mentioning that Morgan Wade pulled off the second best trick of the day: a super smooth bike flip, after several failed attempts. It was during a practice run, but still drew big applause from the crowd. With performances like that, you know Friday’s Dirt Finals will be insane.
