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TITLE CHASES COME DOWN TO THE WIRE AT THE 30th ANNUAL NBL GRAND NATIONAL Hilliard, Ohio September 10, 2007 - The National Bicycle League (NBL) would like to thank our sponsors, volunteers, the Derby City track, and everyone who spent their Labor Day weekend at the 30th Annual NBL Grand National with us. This year's gathering served up more entertainment, more excitement and culminated with the crowning of the NBL National Championship titles. Each of the 2007 National Champions were presented with a commemorative 30th NBL Grand National award and the race is officially in the history books as a stunning day of triumph, glory, and surprise. From a rider's perspective, the weekend was what BMX Racing is all about, having a good time. To start things off, each rider received a commemorative 30th Annual Grand National pennant. Spectators and riders were provided with extra copies of September's BMX Today magazine that included a full-color of Grands Program that gave everyone the inside scoop on the major showdowns for the weekend and exciting activities that would take over E.P. Tom Sawyer State Park. NBL included a number of crowd-friendly activities such as the Intense Build-a-Bike Contest which proved to be a huge hit this year. Four lucky contestants were paired up with some of the Industry's big wigs in hopes of building their team's bike the fastest. Johnny Vargas along with MCS's marketing man, Brian Fell, were the winners of the event; sending Johnny home with a brand new Intense bike and Brian with bragging rights. On Saturday afternoon prior to the Elite Spectacular, fans were treated to a Pro Autograph session. The NBL booth was crowded with tons of fans who were excited to meet the stars and get signatures on their NBL Elite Series posters, T-shirts, hats and even their bikes. A good time was had by all. With only half of the season to work with, Free Agent's Kyle Bennett showed that he is at the top of his game by winning the main and his 3rd NBL Elite Men's title. He edged out points leader and team mate Cristian Becerine for the thrilling win. Becerine, the season's most consistent rider, and Formula's Donny Robinson earned the 2nd and 3rd place titles respectively. Supercross's Samantha Cools won the Elite Women's main but Redline's Kim Hayashi had already earned enough points to win her record-setting 5th consecutive NBL Elite Women's title. Congratulations Kim! Intense/Unbound's Stephanie Barragan enjoyed her most successful weekend of racing placing 2nd in the main which earned her enough points to finish 3rd overall in the season behind Cools and Hayashi. In Masters, Redline's Jason Carnes had the title all wrapped up coming to the Grands, but a few guys weren't going to let that get in the way of their race. Formula's Tim Dinger lead the pack to the finish line with Bob O'Gorman and Carnes close on his heels. Dinger and GT's Eric Rupe earned the 2nd and 3rd titles respectively. The weekend was full of amazing races, upsets, and come-from-behind wins and we would also like to congratulate J&R/Profiles Mike Kapes who won the overall title in the stacked Super-Ex class. Kapes beat out some heavy hitters like Felt's Jason Morris and MCS's Jonathan Villa for the top spot in points. The main event would go to MCS's Phil Delizia with teammate Villa close behind and rounding out the top three would be none other that Money Mike Kapes. GT's Joey Bradford and TLD's Amanda Geving won the titles in their respective Junior classes. The battle for teams came to an end with some repeats and upsets. Once again Dans Comp walked away with the National Team title and win for the weekend, while VBS-Kenda surprised everyone winning the crown in the Team NBL standings. Upsetting the standings and making their way to the top of the list was all in a days work for VBS who was closely followed by the 2006 Champions HBR/GHP/Prudential. To mark the end of an excellent season and Grands, the NBL revealed a brand new National #1 Award which was awarded to all NBL National Champions along with a special NBL #1 plate. Check out October's issue of BMX Today to read the full story and photos of the 30th NBL Grands and click here to visit the results page. The NBL Grand National was brought to you by BAWLS Guarana (www.bawls.com), Camp Woodward (www.campwoodward.com), Intense BMX (www.intensebmx.com), Sinz (www.sinz-racing.com), and Vigor (www.vigorhelmets.com). | |||||||||||
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