Patrick NugentThe Elite Men's main on Sunday. Launch gallery »Located in the suburbs of Pittsburgh, Pa., South Park is a destination known worldwide to the BMX racing community. With a legendary second straight rhythm and third straight decision maker (which in the past has taken out countless victims), it has become a tradition for people to swarm to South Park during the weekend leading up to the fourth of July for the NBL Stars and Stripes Nationals. This year was no different than the past. BMXers near and far came to ride in the heat, humidity and everlasting threat of rain. To say the competition was hot would be an understatement; it was melting.
Elite Men
Last year's Super Ex champion Josh Meyers (Ssquared/Troy Lee Designs) has become accustomed to showing people around the track. Riding solid throughout the day Saturday, I personally marked Meyers as my horse for the main event. Unfortunately, Meyers came out of the gate with a little too much power and got lost in a bit of traffic down the first straight. Red Bull's Sifiso Nhlapo (hailing from South Africa) would take the holeshot and lead Clayborn's Barry Nobles into the first turn, where Nobles would make the pass and take the race and the check back to Alabama with him with Ramiro Marino in tow. Nhlapo bumped back to fourth where he finished out the lap. When day two rolled around, Josh Meyers was relentless, leaving the rest of the class senseless. By the last turn, there was a solid 20-feet between Meyers and the second place of Ramiro Marino.
Elite Women
Dominique Daniels dominated once again, though not without competition. MCS's Amanda Geving and GT's Alaina Henderson pushed hard all weekend. The only lap Daniels lost was when her and Alaina got tangled fighting for the lead. Otherwise it was a virtually flawless weekend for Daniels. Geving and Henderson however did put on a show, riding the second straight rhythm better than some of the guys out there. Girls are stepping their game up hard.
Super Ex
Day one of Super Ex was a mess. By the end of the main event, half of the class was on the ground. Jared Becker took himself out on the first straight while www.johnnyculbreth.com took the holeshot. Culbreth (Addison Bikes) bumped a landing on the second straight just enough for Scott McMahon (Standard) and Michael Henderson to catch him. Culbreth was sitting comfortably in third before Henderson sent it over the "pro jump" on the third straight and racked it about as hard as he possibly could, taking out Culbreth as well as Jason LaRev in the process. Henderson and Culbreth both got their redemption on Sunday, with Henderson taking the win Culbreth in third, and the local kid who turned Super Ex this weekend, Kyle McRory sandwiched inbetween.
Masters
The masters class was looking surprisingly thin this weekend. There were still a couple of the heavy hitters in hand. Tome Opincar and Joey Albright would swap the firsts and seconds all weekend and keep things pretty simple.






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