Launching a new event in close proximity (both date-wise and distance-wise) to a more famous and well-established festival is a risky move, but this is exactly what Todd Colbert did when he put together the inaugural Stuntoberfest at Lakeland, Florida's Lakeland Raceway just one week before Daytona Beach's massive Biketoberfest. Colbert and his Team X-Treem cohorts Adam Chumita and Chris Nichols were uncertain whether the new event would be successful, but looking back on a crowd that numbered nearly 1500 and a rider roster that included names from as far afield as Texas and Kentucky, it's safe to say the new competition might have legs.
Events were mostly old favorites such as individual freestyle, longest endo and team freestyle. Florida homeboy Joe Brown was the day's big winner, taking home first place in both individual freestyle and longest endo. Preston Tyson took second and Kevin Miller third in longest endo, while second and third in individual freestyle went to Justin Holt and Patrick Stephens, respectively. Team Holdin' it Down-comprised of J.C. Figueredo, Rick Payne, Joe Brown and Jacob Brunelle-nailed the winner-takes-all team freestyle competition, putting even more local Florida riders in the money.
For the most part Stuntoberfest was a safe event-only one major injury occurred when Dave Evans with the Out on Parole team from South Carolina cut a deep, four-inch-long opening in his upper thigh after bumping the concrete wall and cutting himself on his crash cage. Evans was taken to the hospital, where he received 40 stitches.
After such a strong turnout, Team X-Treem is already discussing holding Stuntoberfest again next fall as a preseason warm-up for the fifth-annual Stuntwars, which will take place at Lakeland just after this issue hits newsstands, February 11-13. Check out www.Stuntwars.com for any information you need to make last-minute plans to attend this can't-miss event.
The No Love Affair
Our Man Foto Tags Along As Darius Khashabi, Thew Blankstrom And The Starboyz Invade West Coast Choppers For Jesse James' No Love Party
What a cool job I have. One minute I'm kicking around the house polishing my nickel collection and the next minute Scott Caraboolad calls to ask if I can set aside a few days to travel to Long Beach, California, to photodocument the Boyz's visit to chopper/media mogul Jesse James' palatial headquarters, where they have been invited to perform at his infamous No Love Party. Faster than you could say "mercury poisoning" I was on the web booking my flight.
Now in its ninth year, James originally began throwing the No Love Party as a street-level response to the bloated, Jay Leno-endorsed Love Ride put on in Los Angeles the same weekend by Harley-Davidson of Glendale. What began as a small, intimate gathering of James' closest chopper-building buddies has since grown to a buck-wild celebration of hot rods, choppers, rock 'n' roll and general outlaw culture that this year attracted an estimated 7000 people to Long Beach's warehouse district for the one-day event.
We arrived in L.A. Thursday afternoon and immediately headed off to West Coast Choppers. We knew the shop would be closed in preparation for the weekend's event, but Caraboolad and fellow Starboy Kevin Marino wanted to get an idea of where they would be riding. After floating around the shop for a while and making security nervous, it was back to the hotel, where we met up with more of the crew-Thew Blankstrom and others-who had just come in off the road after trailering their bikes all the way from Ohio.