The freestyle community's annual Super Bowl of stunt riding saw a finish that was as surprising as it was spectacular.
Stunt Wars was one of the first competitions to showcase and reward talented riders who had previously performed only for friends. The early and somewhat experimental shows left a lot to be desired, though. Judging consisted of a few guys with pen and paper in hand rating their peers. The raw and dirty tone of the competition was reflected in the venue and felt more like Grudge Races than Formula One.
Last year's event was a bit more promising, and the best riders from Europe crashed the party and dominated the American riders-taking three of the four spots in Individual Freestyle. The expectation that the European riders would dominate again this year was widespread going into the competition, but the outcome was far from predictable.
Stunt Wars has always prided itself on the fact that any rider with serious skills could show up and walk away with a name and a pocket full of cash. This time around over 100 riders were signed up to compete in the Individual Freestyle event alone. The Saturday qualifiers narrowed the field down, though, and the European riders did as expected by dominating the qualifying spots. Euro boys Chris Pfeiffer and AC Farias arrived with a deep bag of signature tricks, but American "Crazy" Dan Jackson wasn't going to allow another European podium.Sunday's competition started out with the Tandem competition-a "two-up" exhibition that typically sees one male rider with a female passenger. Steve Spong had riding partner Valeska climbing around the bike during wheelie mbos that had the 13,000-strong crowd standing. "Who do you think has the bigger cojones?" chimed in host and MC Thomas Evans, as the crowd cheered for Valeska. But in the end it was Bill Dixon and Destiny Peace who took home the Tandem crown.
The exciting Longest Endo competition was amongst four riders that clearly separated themselves from the rest of the field. Even with the track's mildly sloped banking, Mitch Adams was able to roll 664 feet on his front wheel-taking the title as Longest Endo over Bill Dixon's 651 feet.
The Individual Freestyle main event packed the grandstands, and the crowd was anxious to see who would take home bragging rights and $8,000 in cash. Aaron Colton came off the line to sit in the hot seat after knocking off Josh Clem, but Spaniard AC Farias was coming up next. He needed only to duplicate his qualifying run to ensure the first place award, but halfway through his run mechanical problems brought him to a screeching halt. A broken shift linkage meant that Farias was limited, and suddenly the door was open for other competitors.
Europe Falls
The stunt community recognizes European riders AC Farias and Christian Pfeiffer as two of the best in the game, yet they had a nasty spill that eliminated them from the podium. Pfeiffer washed out his front wheel during an attempted stoppie, and wedged his BMW beneath Farias' ZX-6. The maneuver obviously didn't score well.