What happens in Vegas, usually stays in Vegas. However, lucky for you, this last weekend has become an exception to the rule. On Saturday, May 3rd the Monster Energy Supercross finals went down in Sin City. Now you might be wondering why Alliance would be reporting the supercross race. This year Step-Up Productions arranged for a wakeboard rail jam in the pits at a few select races. The finals in Vegas happened to be one of them. With all of the rail jams happening nowadays, the riders can get pretty burnt out and would gladly pass up most of them for a weekend at home. This was definitely not the case. Greg Dick of Hyperlite spent all last week listening to riders call up and ask if they could be sent to this rail jam. By the time Thursday rolled around this party was on!
We didn’t arrive in Vegas until Thursday afternoon. We decided to catch the American Superstars show at the Stratosphere. The show consisted of celebrity impersonations of Elvis, Rod Stewart, Tim McGraw, Michael Jackson, and Christina Aguilera. If you’re ever staying at the Stratosphere, I highly recommend seeing this show. We wrapped up Thursday night by cruising the strip and riding some roller coasters. Friday consisted of pretty much lounging and hanging out by the pool. After the sun set we headed over to the Mini-Supercross finals at The Orleans Hotel. These are pretty much the most modified 50 and 110cc bikes you have ever seen. Lucky for us one of the riders, Brian Hishinuma, happens to be a fan of wakeboarding and was able to score us tickets to the sold out event.
Now, on to the big day. We headed over to Sam Boyd Stadium early Saturday to get ready for all of the madness that was soon to follow. The rail jam consisted of a step-down box and a kicker that was boosting riders about 20ft into the air. The all-star line-up of riders included Shawn Watson, Rusty Malinowski, Daniel Watkins, Jacob Valdez, Jack Blodgett, Kyle Alberts, Trevor “Poodle” Marquette, and Scott Mackey. Danno the Manno was on the mic and Danny Harf and Brian Grubb were also in attendance. Probably the coolest part of having a rail jam at supercross is how many people gather around to watch. There were easily a few hundred people at each show. In between shows, we were all treated to a VIP track walk with supercross rider Heath Voss. Highlights from the rail jam included Daniel Watkins throwing a huge Slim Chance off the kicker, Rusty jumping over Watson’s board (see picture), and Kyle and Scott boosting ridiculous height off of the kicker.
After the rail jam wrapped up, we all headed inside to watch Chad Reed take the win and the 2008 super cross title. Monster threw a huge after party at the Playboy Suite at The Palms where rapper Too Short performed. Let’s just say that Monster definitely isn’t afraid to invest some serious money in their parties. We made it back to our hotel rooms just in time to catch our Sunday morning flights home. Big thanks to Las Vegas Mastercraft, Step-Up Productions, Greg Dick @ Hyperlite, and Aaron Grace @ Monster for making the whole weekend possible.