It was unseasonable cold in Arkansas tonight, but the Gravity Slashers brought the heat and put on an excellent show for the great fans at the Verizon Arena here in Little Rock. The first man with a plan was Shawn “Redneck” Connors and he took 3 full laps warming up the crowd in hopes of making the finals tonight. He even added two new flip tricks to the effort but unfortunately his score of 82.1 would not be enough. Connors yielded the floor to Rich Kearns and Richy Rich didn’t disappoint going big with a cordova flip and a heel clicker flip for the top qualifying score of 89.9. Keith “Say ya, hey ya” Sayers vaulted to the floor next and put together a solid run and clocked in at 83.5. Next up was first timer Jeff Griffin and even though he admitted after his run he was feeling some nerves he looked solid and put up a respectable 81 even. The last man in the first set was Julian Dusseau. “Big Slick” rode a wave of crowd noise to the final qualifying spot with his 88.6.
After a little chat with Heath Frisby on the double landing ramp we headed into the second set of qualifiers with Drake McElroy kicking things off. DMC ran smooth from start to finish and it looked like he was going to make the main with his 88.4, but he had to wait it out in the back as the last three riders lined up. “Astroboy” Javier Villegas was a late addition to the roster this week but he made it clear why he got the invite with a massive Rock Solid and an indy flip. He logged an 88.8 and was headed to the finals in his first competition of the year. The four stroke specialist Dustin Nowak rolled out to the sweet sounds of AC/DC and lit up the crowd with a splendid run. Unfortunately he came up one tenth short of the finals with his tally of 88.5. Nicky “Six Guns” Dunne knew he had to go big right from the start and did just that by going inverted with the superflip and following that with a nac flip. He landed in the finals with a total of 88.7.
After intermission we set up for the whip contest. Javier Villegas stepped up first and set the bar for the other three riders. Dusseau put it down next and really got a big roar from the crowd on his first whip. The king of the Captain, Nick Dunne showed a little skid plate to the upper deck and looked deep over his shoulder on his whip. DMC fired his two stroke next and practiced a moto start down the back stretch before launching two picturesque whips. It was close with the crowd judging but in the end Nick Dunne edged out DMC.
Heading into the finals we knew we were going to have a first time winner and Julian Dusseau started thing off strong with three different flip combos and sat in the hot seat with a 90.5. “Six Guns” Dunne looked to be on his way to knocking him off the stage until a dead sailor derailed his chances for his first win of the season and he ended his night with an 89.4. Javier Villegas was straight up focused when he came out of the tunnel and took just one warm up lap before putting together a near perfect run that ended with a Kiss of Death back flip after time expired and didn’t count in his run. The crowd loved it anyway and he took over the hot seat with a 91.0. The final rider was top qualifier Rich Kearns. RK hit all three ramps in his run and back flip combo-ed every trick. He was a little short on his final jump and cased the landing, but managed to nose stoppee down the landing ramp and hold it together much to the delight of the crowd. The judges debated a few extra minutes on the score but got it right and gave the win to Richy Rich with a 92.2 for Kearns’ first victory of the season.
X-Games gold medalist Heath Frisby literally landed at the airport and got dropped at the arena tonight due to the crazy weather disrupting flights, but he was ready to go for his showcase at the Verizon Arena. The crowd was fired up as he brought his Red Bull Ski-Doo to the floor and executed a beautiful back flip that got everyone on their feet and ready for the final encore.
It was a great first night in Little Rock and everyone is looking forward to Saturday’s show here at the Verizon Arena. Grab your tickets for the show and get ready for the high flying Gravity Slashers!
David Knisley