Exactly what I have been saying. Case in point. We just got back from the ABA redline cup finals in dayton OH and have some observations. First, Dayton is @ 40 miles from Indiana, I thought that it was supposed to be the East. Most of the East coast riders did not show because of the distance. There were only @100 motos(most of witch the nbl would consider mid-west) so I would call that poor decision making on who gets this race. It would be akin to the NBL having its East coast regional championship there. I dont know how well attended it would be. Second, I dont think a rep from the ABA saw the track. Bill, you would have been right at hone as it was a glorified trail set. In today’s bmx there are a few certainties: one is that there will be berms big enough to pass on and gain speed. My son, who is 12 and is @5 feet tall was taller than two of the three berms. Yes, I said that there were only 3 turns. The first was a lond sweeping left hand turn with a 5 ft. berm. Anyone who went on the berm lost 2-3 bike lengths. The second was another left hand 180 degree turn with a 6-7 ft berm. This should have been the place for tech riders like my son to pass, but there was no place to hi-low, or block pass. The last turn was a right 180 that had a 3 ft berm, wow. I am telling you guys this, not to complain(my son got second both days) but to show you that the ABA has the same lame brains giving out the nationals etc. BTW, my son said that while he loved riding the track, he hated racing the track. The third, if you got an outside gate you were done unless you happened to be justin posey. All weekend in my son’s races, whoever got the inside lane won. One kid had all inside lanes all weekend on sat he fell at the line in the lead for third. On Sun he won the moto but got gate 7 in the main, and finished 3rd. All weekend long there was no really close races, just a long train of riders.
On a good note, the fack that they bring officials to the race makes for a better run race. there are no volounteers on the corners or scoring. The announcer was much better than any of the NBL’s and they made is easier to protest. My son and another rider protested the finish on Saturday.(didnt cost us anything for the video protest) It was right there and the official could look right away and correct the scoring. The ABA also has a better staging system.