Pastrana has done it again. This guy's on a roll. Jared Souney © 2006 Lat34

Pastrana Steals the Show

PHOTOGALLERY See pictures from the FMX Finals at the Dew Tour Vans Invitational  VIEW GALLERY

Apparently the people of Portland love the smell of MX fuel in the morning… er, afternoon. A couple thousand people showed up to the FMX Finals at the Vans Invitational in Portland Sunday to watch Travis Pastrana, Nate Adams and the rest of the lineup duke it out. And despite the small indoor course the big boys of FMX were still able to set off the fireworks in a high scoring contest.

Travis Pastrana and Nate Adams came to Portland tied in overall championship points, so fans expected a serious showdown. And the dynamic duo didn’t disappoint. But, in the end it was Pastrana who threw down the dominating performance. His final score was a smoking 97.5.

Pastrana came into the Finals with a 2^nd place finish in Saturday’s Prelims behind Nate Adams. And it appeared that was the spark he needed to fuel his winning run that included giant backflip superman airs, huge backflip lazyboys, and numerous one- and no-handed landings. That puts Pastrana in the lead for overall points in the Dew Tour.

Nate Adams put up an amazing fight for top spot, but it wasn’t quite enough to edge out his rival. His final run got him a score of 96.17 after an unbelievable backflip heel clicker off the courses super kicker, a host of backflip cordovas and a backflip nac-nac to heel clicker.

Adam Jones beat out the rest of the field to place 3^rd in the Finals. Jones busted out a couple of perfect backflip cordovas, and a giant cliffhanger that sent shudders through every spectator. His high-energy effort landed him a score of 94.33.

Fourth place was nabbed by Jeremy Lusk, who was in 9^th place overall coming in to Portland . And 5th place was grabbed up by local Oregonian Beau Bamburg. The Portland crowd gave Bamburg a standing ovation for his killer run highlighted by a no-handed backflip, a textbook backflip cordova and a backflip saran wrap.

The 2006 season has been less of a battle between riders and more a survival of the fittest struggle. FMX riders Jeremy “Twitch” Stenberg, Cowboy Kenny Bartram, and Dustin Miller have all been knocked out of the Tour due to injuries. Twitch is here in Portland signing autographs from his wheelchair after his heinous backflip crash in Louisville. He says that he will compete in Orlando . Unfortunately, Bartram looks like he’ll be out for the rest of the season.