Grand old time at the Grands

Nate after taking a 4th place at the BMX Grands.
A look at the BMX Grands track that the racers raced on.
Nate relaxing before his First moto on Saturday. Moto 383 out of about 500 plus.
Nate leading a gate practice into turn 1.
My parents and us having Thanksgiving at the BMX Grands track.

Well what a day. We got to the track at 10:45 as the program said the semi finals would be starting at about 12:30. This allowed plenty of time for Nate to warm up and be ready for his race. Well the day just kept dragging on and he finally got to race after 1:30pm. He just needed to place in the top 4 to make the main. Man let me tell you all the racers that were left in the semis were fast. Nate played it smart and got a good gate start and pulled it into the first straight and then settled into 3rd and avoided all the traffic bumping that was going on behind and rolled in 3rd to make the main.

In the main he was next to Alan from Elkhorn and Alan pinched him out of the gate into the rider in the next gate and Nate stopped pedaling for a second to not go down. Then he got going again and the others boxed him into 6th or 7th going into turn 1. Going over the the first obstacle after the turn he just hit the manuals and pedalled himself into 4th place. Out of turn 2 he hit the rhythm section and almost pulled the next 2 racers in but just ran out of track. He had to settle for a 4th and that was a great finish and we are proud of him for his racing over the weekend. I have to tell you that there is alot pressure to race at the Grands and you never would have known by the way Nate was racing and acting. He just raced and made it happen and never was down about how he finished in his motos or races, he was just happy to race his bike and enjoy the time at the races. There are over 500 motos and over 3400 racers. so to make the main is tougher then anything. That is the dream of every racer there and for Nate to make it as he only races during the winter and a few in the summer. These kids and their families have been doing this for years and some of these kids have been racing intermediate for years. This is the start of Nate's 3rd year and he will be expert in 3 more wins and then it will be alot harder to make the mains at the races and he will have to really pick it up. It will be the next step but to get better you have to race faster and better racers and I think Nate will be up for the task.

I drove home from Tulsa after Nate got done racing and we got on the road at 6:40pm and I drove straight through and we got home about 6:15am. As like the way there I drove about 10 hours of each way in the rain. On the way home I had to drive through about 30 minutes of sleet and snow but it wasn't that bad. I drank 2 coffees had a mountain dew and chewed 4 pieces of caffeine gum to keep the eyes open but I made it home just as the sun was coming up. We unloaded the truck and called the kids school to tell them that they weren't going in and I called work and took another vacation day and Cece called a sub to handle her class. I then went to bed for a 3 hour nap and then got a few things done around the yard. I'm know going to go down and lift and maybe ride the spin bike for alittle while to loosen the legs up. To much sitting and driving the last couple of days. Later..