MS GRS Summer Sizzle Slalom Series Wrap-up

[Ricky Byrd]

Summer Sizzle Slalom Series #3
Jackson, Mississippi
Sunday, September 14, 2003
Post Race Download

The Summer Sizzle Slalom Series is a done deal. I think everyone had a good time racing a series. The racing was closer than we’ve ever seen, that is, at the finish line and also the fact that the two lanes where set up six feet apart to keep us out of the street. Officer Friendly drove by and waved just as we were tearing down. Really cool of him to not even bother asking “What’s going on here?”. We were kicking ourselves all week to come up with the type course for the Finale and we decided to throw a slightly tougher course out there to shake things up a bit and once we tweaked it a bit everybody was getting though it pretty well. Our racers are getting better than they give themselves credit for.

Some notable performances came from racers like Josh, Jeremy H., Joseph. Jeremy improved from his 9th place finish in SSSS #1 to a 7th place in the Finale. Joseph went from a 9th in #2 to a 8th in the Finale and Josh coming back from a 6th place to get 3rd in this race. I think Josh has stepped up his slalom skating to yet another level and he is fully ready for the World Championships in a couple of weeks. This race was littered with upsets also.

Will J and Clifton was going at each other all day. Clifton had Will by .3 going into there second round. Clifton went to hard out of the gate when he really didn’t need to and DQ’ed within the first 6 or 8 cones handing Will the win on a silver platter.

This series was run bare bones just to see if we would have the participation level with out all the fluff of big prizes and we did. As a matter of fact, with this series we were able to give instead of take. Mississippi Grass Roots Slalom, through the entry fees collected, raised around $200 for the local Ronald McDonald house. Thanks guys! Skateboarders ain’t all bad.

The Madison Herald came out to do a story on slalom. Everybody wants a piece of us and for good reason this is a fun, challenging, and spectator friendly facet of skateboarding and I hope our efforts goes to support the whole skateboarding scene in the metro area.

Congratulations to the overall winners of the series Ricky Byrd (first), Nate George (second), and Josh Byrd (third). Thanks again to everyone who participated. We got a great group of racers in Road Kill Racing! Thanks go out to Red Bull for continuing to support Mississippi Grass Roots Slalom.

Check out a few pictures here:
http://www.skatems.com/board/modules.ph ... file=index

Here’s the results of SSSS #3: (I’ll edit this to show times later)

Finish Order & Fastest Qual Time

Ricky Byrd 15.951
Nate George 17.546
Josh Byrd 17.446
Will Jolly 18.526
Clifton Jennings 17.824
Andrew Eure 18.720
Jeremy Hilton 20.198
Joseph Short 20.997

Here’s how the series ended up:

Ricky Byrd 75
Nate George 57
Josh Byrd 45
Clifton Jennings 39
Andrew Eure 37
Will Jolly 35
Shane Causey 20
Jeremy Hilton 18
Joseph Short 17
Rick Murray 15
Jeremy Ward 15
Alan Allred 9
Cory Ward 7
Landon Cook 5

Thanks to all the racers and spectators for coming out.

Get ready…Next…Slalom Cross!

[Andrew Eure]

I seem to be at 5th place in every event we do! Could be worse I guess!