ABA/ USA Grands thread.

[sixstringsteve]

way to represent Utah! I wish I was able to watch all the races on go211, but I only caught an hour or two on saturday night.. I did see quite a few team extreme jerseys, that was nice to see! I saw Robby Patterson crash and not make the qualifier. Such a shame. We were rooting for you Robby.

I wish I knew more people in our local scene so I could root for them too. I'm sure by next year I'll know more people. Sounds like an exciting time.

I'm such a noob that I don't even know what NAG means.

Is there a way to go back and watch the races that I missed? Are they categorized by class to where I can just go watch 26-30 cruiser if I wanted to?

[joker75]

Steve, Usually GO211 will post them in the next few days so you can go in and watch them. Most of the time they only put up mains, but occasionally put up semi-finals also.

NAG= National Age Group Similar to the way they run State points. Everyone in your age group regardless of skill level competes for their NAG plate. Luckily the NAG point system is a little bit more realistic than the State point system. I have had a hard time understanding how a a Novice gets the same points for a win at a State Championship Qualifier as an Expert gets for taking 3rd. I know when I was taking first place in Novice, I would have been lucky to be on the same straight as most of the 28-35 Experts when they crossed the finish line.

[sixstringsteve]

I still don't understand how the State points are run.

Question:

Do they award a 7n NAG #1 plate, a 7i NAG #1 plate, and a 7x NAG #1 plate?

or is there only 1 NAG plate for all 7 year-olds?

[b2]

I still don't understand how the State points are run.

Correct me if I'm wrong:
Do they award a 7n NAG #1 plate, a 7i NAG #1 plate, and a 7x NAG #1 plate?

or is there only 1 NAG plate for 7 year-olds?

Just one per age group for each age group--not by proficiency.

[joker75]

Yep, what Brent said. One plate/or set of plates 1-10 for each age group. Novice, Intermediate and Expert all compete for the same NAG plates.

The State Championship points system is kinda skewed in my opinion though. Each age group competes together just like the NAG plates. All 28-35 Novice, Intermediate, and Expert racers compete for the same State plate. You take the points from your best 3 places from State Championship Qualifiers, plus your points from the actual State Championship race for a total.

Place Expert Inter. Novice
1 20 19 18
2 19 18 17
3 18 17 16
4 17 16 15
5 16 15 14
6 15 14 13
7 14 13 12
8 13 12 11
Did Not make main = 10 points regardless of class.

So, as you can see the first place Novice gets the same points towards the State championship as the third place Expert. So if a Novice racer takes 1st place at three qualifiers and the finals they could beat out an Expert that took third in 3 races and slipped to fourth in the finals. Not fair to the Expert that could probably hand the Novice his butt if they were placed in the same gate.

Oh, well. I guess we all play with the same rules and know this going in. I am just there to play anyways, so plates and trophies are just icing on the cake.

[sixstringsteve]

It's starting to make sense now. Are the plates determined by total points from your best state qualifier + the state championship?

So, I'm a novice. When I go to a state championship qualifier, will my motos consist of only Novice riders, or will I have inters and experts in my motos as well? What about at the state championship race? Will there be experts in my moto?

Now I understand why people sandbag, when a novice win = a 3rd in expert. I think it's selfish and unsportsmanlike to sandbag for any reason, especially when half the people in your age group can beat you on the track any day of the week. But that's a different discussion for a different day.

A NAG or state plate would be awesome, no doubt. But now that I understand how they're awarded, I'll focus more on being fast than winning a plate.

It'd be fun to do a championship race similar to a pro-am style, where the fastest person of the day gets the plate, regardless of proficiency class. So get a moto with novice, inter, and experts in it, and the fastest rider wins the #1 plate. I'm still new to the sport, so I'm sure it's not as simple as that, but it seems like a more representative way to do it.

Thanks for explaining it everyone. I don't mean to complain, I'm so glad we have what we have: great teams, great races, great tracks, great people, and plates and trophies are just an added bonus.

[joker75]

The State points are figured using your three best finishes at Qualifiers plus your finish at the State Finals, so a total of four races. No you don't have to worry about racing Inter. or Expert unless there are not enough racers in the Novice class so the motos have to be combined. It would definitely make more sense to have everyone that is racing for the same plate, race in the same moto, but that is not the way it works.

The NAG plate points are awarded differently, so you have a definite advantage to racing in the Expert class as long as you can make mains. If not you will get more points by sandbagging in the Inter class, but it is very difficult to get a Nag plate if you are not in the Expert class because they only award plates to the top 10 in each age group.

[JAlvey]

Also, for State plates, if there is a tie, the tie-breaker goes to the rider with the higher class (exp>inter>novice). It does still end up that you will see some inters ranked higher than some experts in the state series by the end of the year, which is ironic since your average inter wouldn't be making it out of motos in your average exp class.

I'm not sure that I've seen an Inter get a NAG plate, those are pretty tough to come by.

To get a state plate, show up to the qualifiers and the championship and you will get one.

To get a NAG plate, WIN 6 nationals in an expert class, then make your main in an expert class at the Grands, and with some luck and rider counts, you wil PROBABLY get one. With the exception of the older women's cruiser classes, NAG plates are really hard to get.

[bjharmon]

LOVE THIS THREAD.. Congratulations to everyone that rode at the Grands. Super proud of my Utah peeps. Everyone rode very well. The ones that stick out the most are definitely Jonas, TP, Mike Kelley, and Oakley Busk. Gotta give huge props to the Jobber Gromm Cody Kelley. He has not been on his BMX much at all this year and went out there in one of the fastest classes on the track and made some main events. Thank you utahbmx.com for all your support and giving us a place to chat and find out about local BMX happenings. Oh yeah, yes you did see me in my main on Sunday.

BJ