The loosely affiliated Adrenalin Crew is spearheaded by former Las Vegas Extremes cohort Kenny Kelley, who received his education in big-league entertainment in Hollywood, where he has worked as a stunt actor in the film industry since 2001. After a bike-related injury made him miss a huge opportunity to do stunts for Biker Boyz, Kelly cut the first Adrenalin Crew video and got to work marketing it. Wanting to be more than just another video on the shelf, he set out to exploit untapped markets and immediately found success with the pay-per-view deal. Next Kelly attacked the European market with a DVD sampler distributed via UK's Superbike magazine, which lead to an appearance on that country's "Men and Motors" television show. Recently, in addition to FHM and The Washington Post, Adrenalin Crew has been featured in Loaded and Tattoo magazines and has their program "Urban Stunt Bikers" currently airing on Video On Demand.
Such success is the result of creative thinking and lots of hard work, Kelly tells us. "I spend way, way more time in front of a computer then I do on a bike," Kelley says. And Kelly doesn't expect things to slow down in 2006. Adrenalin Crew is scheduled to perform at all the stops of the Vans Warped Tour and a few dates at Oz Fest (a full schedule is posted on www.adrenalincrew.com). Plans are also underway for a tour of American Army bases. "We just want to entertain people," says Kelley. Adrenalin Crew proves that real success in this sport come from perseverance and original thinking, not necessarily how many circle combos you can do.
Mardi Grudge
Deep South grudge racers converge in Louisiana for Hub City's Fat Tuesday Grudge Races and celebrate Mardi Gras with a little horsepower twist.
This year's Mardi Gras celebration brought some much-needed joy back to post-Katrina New Orleans, while 100 miles up the I-59, the motorcycle drag racing community was doing the same thing at Hattiesburg, Mississippi's Hub City Dragway at the Fat Tuesday Grudge races-the track's first post-hurricane event. This event was also the first opportunity in '06 for the nation's top grudge racers to meet en mass, and plenty of Internet gangsters were on hand to shake down their mounts (and warm up their mouths) for a fresh season of grudge racing.
Cleaning house this year at 'Da Hub was a local rider named "Squeak" on the MSP-built Suzuki Hayabusa made famous in the "Crate to Eights" article in the November '05 issue of Super Streetbike. Squeak has renamed the bike (now stretched out to 66 inches) "T8kover," and it took over plenty of stacks that weekend. The pair was two for three on Saturday, including a reported five-stack match against Memphis Twin. "We beat ourselves," Twin said afterward. "I slept bad at the light."
Baton Rouge-based NHRA competitor Michael Phillips was one of the most active racers that weekend. Laughing in the face of death typifies the Mardi Gras sense of humor, and it was no different at Hub City, where Phillips showed up with bikes named "Katrina" and "Rita," along with a third he calls "Fear Factor." Post-Katrina humor was all over the paddock: "This is FEMA," Full-Grillz Reggie from New Orleans East told us, pointing at his buddy E.J. from the 9th Ward, who had just lost a friendly wager against Reggie. "I call him FEMA 'cause he's payin' me up!"