Sunday started with a riders' meeting where the rundown for the day was revealed. McNeil, who qualified first, would be the last to ride that day. Considering what he had been through in the past 12 hours, though, he was lucky to ride at all. His Honda CBR600RR motor was knocking like crazy and barely lasted through qualifying on Saturday. In a stroke of luck, the crew from Warped Toys happened to bring a spare CBR600RR along to the event and graciously offered McNeil the opportunity to borrow it. "It just goes to show you how much camaraderie there is in the sport when another shop, that sponsors riders who are competing against me, will loan me their bike," McNeil said. Fellow riders Damien Hunt, Mike Zann, Jacob Brunelle, Chris Theis and Bill Dixon all jumped in to help get the bike ready for McNeil to compete in the finals. "Bill and I were battling all weekend for first place," McNeil noted. "Most people in his position would hope I couldn't get the bike ready in time for the finals, but he was one of the first to jump in and help me out."
Even under the cold and rainy skies, the crowd lined pit row shoulder to shoulder. First out to ride was Aaron Twite, who showed off his extensive acrobatic skills by back and front flipping off his bike during his three minutes. Joshua Clem used a unique series of burnouts and coaster variations to separate himself from the rest of the field. Jacob Brunelle got the fans screaming with his hyperactive and always-entertaining style. A relative newcomer to the scene, Josh Borne, earned his way into the Hot Seat (a throne where the current leader sat until he was outcompeted) by putting together a strong run consisting of technical combinations with enough variations to rack up the points. Warped Toys rider Mark "T-Neck" Martinek's technical wheelie combos included well-extended flamingo circles that had his fellow competitors digging deep into their bag of tricks to one-up. John "Legion" Risconsin took full advantage of all the space available in the competition area to bust out some wide, fast circle wheelies. Ryan Lanier finished his well-executed run by doing circles with his helmet bag over his head, a stunt that earned him some time in the Hot Seat too.
Rick Payne earned a name for himself from the early days of the sport with Pure Bred Riders, but recently fell off the stunt radar. "I decided to leave the scene for a while and go back to school to pursue a degree in computer engineering," Payne told us. "Now that I am almost done with school, I can start riding more. So I decided to reintroduce myself here at the XDL show." Despite an impressive run, he was unable to dethrone Lanier, who remained on top. Stoppie king Bill Dixon went next on his Yamaha R6. The slick conditions failed to keep him from rolling the longest stoppies of the weekend, finishing each with a 180 turn in either direction. The final competitor, Chris McNeil, rode with his usual mix of technical trickery matched with spirit and energy. Action-packed from start to finish, his run flowed and linked together all the required tricks to maximize the points.
After moving the activities over to the winner's circle, it was time to announce who would be the recipients of one of the five sprocket trophies provided by Geared Steel Products. Coming in fifth place was Josh Borne, followed by Rick Payne in fourth. Ryan Lanier was able to secure third, while Bill Dixon took home second. Continuing his competition-winning streak, McNeil was crowned the East Coast U.S. Stunt Riding Champion. "I can't wait to go to Las Vegas and compete against the West Coast riders," McNeil said afterward. "I plan on winning there too."
McNeil will have his chance in early 2007, when the best from the East will take on the best from the West in a showdown the likes of which has never been seen before in stunt riding. We plan on being there to watch XDL finally put to rest the argument over which coast has the best riders-or perhaps just start a new one...