True Story-Wichita National Spring of 1999

This was probably my first out of state national I competed in upon my return to BMX from an 8 year break due to high school and the Army. So, after getting back into racing in 1998 I began to develop my skills and even got a cool nickname. Chocolate Thunder was born three months early when Cody Nolta was goofing on me about yelling when I come out of the gate. He was like “Man, you are always making a bunch of noise when you come THUNDERING out of the gate…I am going to call you CHOCOLATE THUNDER…(AND IT STUCK)…

So, a few weeks later Ms. Brown (“AA PRO” Tyler Brown’s Mom) announced that she was taking the RV to a national in Wichita, Kansas. I jumped at the chance for a little road trip racing. So, everyone met up on Friday morning and headed out to Kansas. The drive out was a blast…in the RV we have Tyler Brown, Dennis Miller, Cody Nolta, Jerry Thomas, Deak Brown, and the Chocolate One. All I remember is someone pulled out a video camera and I started telling crazy stories about midgets, streaking, and April Fools Jokes…We made it to the track just in time for practice and it was out of control. (Keep in mind this was my first ABA race since at the time Colorado was all NBL) The race was indoors and the track layout was awesome. I was having a blast jumping the last straight which ended up being the HIGHLIGHT of the whole weekend.

Friday night was hell…OK, so when Cody was setting up everything with Ms. Brown to get us out to Wichita, I guess we needed to find our own place to stay for the evening. I was new to the sport so, I didn’t really know anyone yet. The solution was: Sleeping in a two man tent for the evening. Well it started fine and dandy but at around 10 pm the wind got out of control. At one point, I thought the wind was going to take us away.

Saturday racing suuuuucked….I could not get a gate to save my life, got pimped in the last turn while on the bubble in my semi. And I was told I had to sleep in the tent again. Saturday night was even worse, the temp dropped 20 degrees and the wind was at it again. Horrible night…we had a little space heater this time but it really didn’t help. Sunday racing was pretty much the same…bad gates, made it to semi’s, sat out during the main.

The ride back was cool…stopped at an outlet store in like Hayes, Kansas and video taped some random stories. The trip overall was a learning experience and it was fun hanging out with all of the future hotshots in the sport.