"The NBL stinks!" by Jason Stout

[JasonStout]

Not really- but now I have your attention...

...but they did put the port o' potties right by rider staging, so I had to smell the funk of chemicals and human waste before each race. It was horrible when the pumper truck came to clean them out...right before my 3rd round of qualification... So- my experience is- nbl racing stinks- literally- not figuratively!

The NBL is a fantastic organization of BMX racing...

So here it is- a condensed, objective race report of the Boulder City NBL national #1 (The Saturday one...)

The NBL has a different gate cadence
The NBL does not have set age group practice times
The NBL does not start the racing on time

The NBL has a three moto transfer system where you race all three rounds and get total points then the top riders in each group transfer to the main where you get 20 national points for your main wins, but you get 60 national points for your moto wins which makes every lap really intense cuz you get points for winning the lap and the top riders from each group go on to the main-got it?

The NBL honors your ABA membership so you don't have to sign up the first year with membership fees!

The NBL has a UCI series that wears out the pros and prolongs racing and makes for more fun pro racing to watch.

The NBL has announcers that don't know who hardly know the riders.

The NBL tracks are "built for technical bmx racing" rather than power stuff. (this may just be this track...what this transfers into is people wrecking every other moto- major crashes and blow outs! The track speed is slower on average too- different)

The NBL hands out trophies that are all the same size!

The NBL has different age groups classifications.

The NBL took longer to run 106 motos than the ABA takes to run 265.

objectivity done...

I'm glad I was able to figure out some differences cuz, guess what?


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I won!

First in 30-34 cruiser
Third in 30-34 expert



JS

It was just beginners luck- cuz I won my first ABA national too! These are the only two national wins I have...unless you cound the redline cup west coast finals pre-race...?




Laters!

[Curtis Newkirk]

Yes - I agree with everything Stout said!

I certainly do not mean to bash the NBL, but it is clear that it aint no ABA race. The all-volunteer army does what they can, but paying people for thier efforts makes things run much smoother.

I would also add this: The NBL took longer to run 119 motos on Saturday (including UCI) than it took the ABA to run 360+ motos at the ROC or 312 at Del Mar on a muddy track in '04. That was a very long race.

The track looked fun, but like Jason said it was really choppy. They paved the turns two weeks before and they were rough. The rest of the track was STEEP AND DEEP! The rhythm section was super-deep with not much space in the gap. The triple before the second turn threw lots of riders.

There was no pre-staging help at all. None. You more or less had to guess when to go in the chute. This would lead to all kinds of problems in the younger groups as ten year olds mixed with five year olds and vice-versa. They did have two guys on deck to help sort things out just bfore they went into the gate, but it would have been much better if they would have been pre-staging into the chutes.

With all of the complaints though, we had a blast. I don't know how much more NBL racing we will do, but it was a good experience that will help Bennett going into Kearney and Pasco. He finished 3rd, 4th, 6th, & 6th. He coulda done better, but I think I had him geared to tall for this technical track.

[mackdaddy]

If anyone is thinking about doing the NBL races the next races is in Vegas at the Nellis BMX track! Absolutely ONE OF THE NICEST TRACKS AROUND!

FAST AND TECHNICAL!!!!

If you wanna see a nice track that is fun to watch then this is the one to be at!!!!

[Mitch]

Yea, that Boulder track was pretty fun, because you could get some big air. I had so much fun, the corners looked rough but they rode way smooth I just had a blast!

That's what we need here in Utah to get us use to those kinds of tracks.

[Curtis Newkirk]

Mitch - I think that track was made just for you You RAILED that thing!

I agree that we need some harder stuff here in Utah. Maybe someone could build up a tough track in a barn somwhere that we could ride year round. Nothing sanctioned. Just a place to prep for nationals.

[Guest]

Nellis... Jason is right. You all need to race Nellis. It would give you an idea of what is possible

LM