Derby Death Update # 4

After riding for a few hours we decided to head to the track.  It was still all wet and crummy out but not raining too hard anymore.  We got to the track to find that the rain had killed some of our cardboard body kit on our car.  Most of it was fixable but the wing was killed.  Oh well.  I didn't care too much about that at that point because I started to get a little nervous.  This was big time shit and I wasn't into getting hurt but DAMN I knew this was going to be more fun that anything EVER!!!  After they did all the interviews for the broadcast, mags, and videos / TV we jumped in our cars.  We had been working on them like mad but had yet to drive them so I didn't know what to expect.  As soon as the car started I was stoked.  It was loud and pissed sounding. We all drove onto the track and got set up for the start.  Once each one of us was introduced to the crowd it was game time.   The horn sounded and we were off.  I'd love to tell you how that felt but there is really no way to explain it.  I think the first car i hit was the Tree car.  As soon as we smashed I bust out laughing and any fear I had had was long gone.  From then on it was a huge video game and I probably sounded like Bevis and Butthead the whole time.  I think I hit pretty much everybody in the derby at least once. I'm pretty sure I smoked a few people good enough to knock them out too.  I'm told that our shitty cardboard ground effects even held on for a few smashes.  The derby was stopped a few times as a few cars started on fire.  I know Allistars car blazed up at least once and I hear the Empire car had some problems big enough for them to stop stuff for a few.  At one point the track was so smokey that I couldn't see ANYTHING and just put the pedal to the floor and hoped for the best.  Once the smoke cleared I'm  told there was about 5 of us left. George D / Red Bull, Tunney / Dig Mag, Sher / Kink, Seth Kimbrough / Hoffman, and Flip / Albe's (me).  I was stoked and was fully ready to win however the my car had other plans.  It stalled and I made a wish and turned the key and she started back up. From what I'm told Seth was now done.  I smashed up Ryan Sher a few more times and my car died again.  This time she was cooked.  I sat in my car as Tunny, Sher, and George battled to the death.  Tunny then got knocked out and it was down to Sher and George.  Sher's car was KILLED but somehow it still moved.  Ryan put up a good fight but George's car was still doing quite well.  When the dust settled we all knew George had it.  Congrats to him. The drivers all climbed from their cars stoked from having so much fun and even more stoked to be alive.  Some of the fans came down on the track to hang out, talk to, and get autographs from their fav rider / driver.  Some of the fans still on the other side of the fence wanted my helmet so I warned everybody it was heavy and threw it in the crowd.  The rest of the Albe's crew came running out to check out how killed our car was.  We wanted to see why it died so we got a little help from the track crew and we cut the hood off. Turns out my passanger side fender was so pushed in it was up against the alternator.  Still stoked on how well we did we took some photos and all shook hands.  After shooting some photos and what not we decided we wanted to keep the hood of the car as a souvenir.  We asked if kink could UPS it back to us but we did the math and found it would cost about $200.  There had to be another way so we picked it up and headed towards our van that was a 1/4 mile away. Man that thing was heavy.  While we were carrying a few guys ran up asking for Albe's T-s.  I told them I'd give them some if THEY carried the hood the 1/4 mile back to the van.  They were all over that deal.  Once our new friends got the hood to the van we still had to figure out how to get it in or on the van.  Remember we have 6 people, 6 bikes and all our shit. We thought about putting it on top of the van but it seemed too shady.  We checked to see if it would fit in the van on top of the bikes.  No dice.  We were stumped but really wanted that hood!  After a few momments Marcum came up with one of the best ideas I ever saw.  Check the photos for details.  We said our goodbyes to all the cool new people we met and were off to go out to dinner with a bunch of the drivers and crews.  After we ate it was 1am and our crew decided that there were NOT going to drive home tonight.  We booked a room in Rochester for the night and plan to head home in the morning.  Hope we don't loose the hood along the way.

Super thanks goes out to Kink and all the others companys invloved with the derby.  It was probably one of the coolest things to happen in BMX ever and it didn't even involve bikes. All the driver / riders and their crews all worked together like one big happy family helping with each others cars and heckling eachother like crazy. I'm super stoked on the state of BMX after this trip.  The Kink guys say they may plan another one in a year or two and all the companys involved this year will be invited.  I'm willing to bet that next time there will be A BUNCH more cars and drivers.   You can bet will be here and next time we WILL win!!! Enjoy the photos untill the magazines come out.

.

--Flip

We wanted that damn hood.  Yes,  that is a bike rack holding it to the back of the van. Can't wait to see how we get it into Canada on the way home.