US Open Las Vegas Oct 09

Okay so Cole raced Arena Cross for his

1st time ever this year in Feb he raced in Fresno

& in March in Sac and Reno and for the

West Coast he finished in the top 5--so

he was 1 of the top 20 invited riders from the

4 regions in the US to race at the

US OPEN in Vegas in October

so after a week at Dodge we got all our stuff

together and headed for Vegas on Friday drove

all day and got there pretty late--Cole forgot his

inverter--so he couldn't watch movies on my

laptop--so it was a long ride for him--he does

not like to ride in the car and we were pulling the

trailer so it takes longer--and it seems like it was

all uphill from barstow--it took us forever to park the

trailer where we felt it was safe--we were staying at

a time share which was really nice--but the parking

was far from our room--I have a hard time sleeping

when i am worried about the bikes--and we had heard

stories about people having their bikes stolen in Vegas

the time share security guy finally let us back up

in a corner spot where the back of the trailer couldn't

be broke into and we got to bed about 2:00am

the race was held at the MGM grand

Making our way there to watch the pros
Cole and Ron had no interest in sightseeing
and I have been to Vegas way too many times
and do not enjoy all the fakeness of it so this is the
extent of what they saw!!

We did see the lion
inside the MGM

we left Cole with our friend who is a pro Jesse

and Gerry Durnall and his Dad who were there

while we went back to get the trailer and get it

parked in a good spot for the next day races

it was a joy to drive the trailer down the strip
but fun to see others with bikes too
we were in the pits for the pro races
here is James Stewart

who of course won everything
he was signing autographs with his gloves on

very smart i am thinking with this whole swine flu thing

Jesse--he just returned from a mission to

Australia--which is where Ron served

James Stewart

Cole during practice

his new number is 997 he was assigned

a new number to race Ponca this summer

and has kept it as his number was 99 and

Ron's race car number was 7 so 997 is nice!!
I am finally getting used to his new number

at Ponca I was way confused many times

looking for him

lots of whoops in arena cross

they actually had part of the track outside

this is him coming back in jumping

over the rockstar sign

Gerad was there too

every time i thought he was gonna hit the

wall there--that is why the yellow foam is there

lots of jumps and tight corners in arena cross

this is where we pitted--our trailer was in a open parking
lot that opens to the strip just a short walk

away we had just what we needed under here

it was so nice to be in the shade all day long as

it did get hot here--but there was a lot of

downtime as the only other races we watched

were Gerads

But i love arenacross--flush toilets, air conditioning,

running water, no dust, clean feet, no sun in my eyes,

the bikes don't need to be washed between races

and Cole's gear doesn't get dirty either---
it was an outside start

see Ron in the background this was during practice

very tight space to get into the building

after the start--in Cole's last race almost all the

guys went down here as several crashed and

everyone else ran into them but Cole rode
like crazy and still finished 7th

sideways at the finish line i wish this

was more clear it is a great pic

this was during a race I took a picture of the

huge overhead TV screens they have and this

is showing Cole outside and coming back in
to the building

then once inside a long straight away

outside again everyone kept hitting those 2

hay bale's they finally took them out

good pic huh!!

waiting

good looking guys

I think they are talking about how when it

is over we need to load everything up and

leave fast cuz again Ron had to work Monday morn
so we had to drive all night to get home

sometimes Cole lets me take pictures

and that makes me happy

i think this is the 1st time he has raced

this bike as a white Yamaha he usually

changes the plastics and makes it blue
but it actually is a white Yamaha

either saying seriously no more pictures or

how much longer till my races???

he said both things a lot

it is fun to hang out with Cole we feel very

lucky as parents to get to travel with him
all these fun places--in one of his races the

boys were from 11 different states

ready to go

that is Cole bottom left--i think he is

giving Gerad a thumbs up

Gerads race had a restart as a rider went down

1st lap and didnt get up he was the only person

I saw hurt all day well except the camera

man who had someone land top of him

Cole and his trophy ready to go before it

gets too late we got home at 6:30 amCole took 3rd place overall in the 250
division out of 20 riders from

11 different states pretty cool huh!!!

he podiumed so he had to give a interview

and everything it was so fun he did really

weel that is the first time he had to speak live on

camera answering the guys questions etc and of

course "when in vegas" the riders had their

pictures taken with the show girl in the background

and 7th in the 450 division even after the crash