McElhinney Lands First-Ever Front Flair In Prelims

Jul 15 2006 / Denver I don’t know what’s going on here at the Right Guard Open leg of the Dew Tour in Denver, but we’re seeing some absolutely stellar moments in the history of BMX. First, on Thursday at the BMX Dirt Open Qualifier Mike Clark landed a double backflip – the first successful attempt at this year's Dew Tour. And at Saturday’s BMX Vert Prelims Keith McElhinney landed the first-ever front flair at a competition.

There have been rumors that Keith would go for the front flair in Saturday’s Prelims, but no one thought it would actually happen. Unfortunately, it was after his two qualifying runs and didn’t result in any points for him. Regardless, the crowd and every rider on the ramp exploded into applause for the historic moment. Keith said he’s officially calling the trick the Lawn Dart.

But, back to the Prelims: they got off to a slow start with the announcement that Dave Mirra had pulled out of the vert competition. He said that he was originally going to do vert just for the fans’ sake, but decided to concentrate on park only to be more competitive.

The riders in Saturday’s Prelims had two 45-second runs to make it into the Finals, which will be held later today. Jamie Bestwick threw down a dominating performance to secure the first place spot in the Prelims. Chad Kagy, the first rider to break 90 points at the Prelims, came in second. And Kevin Robinson took third with a solid couple of runs.

The rest of the riders to make it into Saturday's Finals were Jay Eggleston, Dennis McCoy, Tom Hauger, Jimmy Walker, Josh Harrington, Francisco Zurita, Danny Williams, Jeremy Fanberg and Dave Brumlow.