Tuesday, July 30

The Etnies Backyard Jam

Press Release

The UK's oldest BMX contest returned to its hometown last weekend after a five year absence. Hastings based Seventies Distribution re-launched the Backyard Jams this year with Etnies, Activision and Primo on board as sponsors. Three Jams were scheduled for 2002, but the Hastings Jam was always the main focus of the series and was by far the most anticipated event in the UK calendar.

After two weeks of poor weather, the sun came out in time for the weekend and Hastings was duly invaded by 5000 plus people. A big contingent of overseas riders had combined a trip to the Worlds with the Jam so there was close to 200 pro and amateur entries for the Hastings street, dirt, vert and flatland contests.

Title sponsor Etnies had a big rider presence at the Jam with virtually the whole of their pro team in town and at the UK preview of the Etnies BMX video, Forward, which was also held on the Saturday night at the packed-out Beach Bar on the seafront. Ruben Alcantara, Nate Wessel, Joe Rich, Taj Mihelich, Garret Byrnes, Edwin Delarosa, Sandy Carson, Josh Stricker, Marvin Loetterle, Mike Tag, Brian Terada and Sean Emery all flew over, but it was one of the UK Etnies team that took honors in pro-street. Hoffman's Bas Keep just edged Dave Osato for first place and the $2000 winner's check. Local boy Bas had a big cheering section and he responded with a pretty much error free final run. He went opposite over almost everything and even though Osato nailed a massive tailwhip to fufanu after the final run ended, the judges gave first place to Bas by 0.2 of a point with Garret Byrnes in third.

Pro dirt was pushed back to Sunday to allow the jumps to dry out. Dean Hearne and James Brooks had battled the elements to build something out of the ordinary for the Jam and they cooked up a pretty wild set up including a series of S-bends around a big six pack. Stephen Murray was riding in the UK for the first time since taking golds at the major 2001 contests so a big crowd showed to watch. He took first from Kye Forte and Ryan Barrett.

On Vert, Simon Tabron's ankles had recovered enough to grab first place from Zach Shaw with Bas Keep getting the third spot. The flatland contest on Sunday saw Effraim Catlow repeating the first place he got at the Telford Backyard Jam in March. Travis Collier and Christophe Dassie took second and third in a strong line up.

The final Jam of the year is in Derby on 26/27 October - rider entries are available now by emailing Seventies on events@seventies.co.uk or calling on 01424 429271.

www.backyardjam.com

PRO STREET
1 Sebastian Keep (Etnies UK) 95.20
2 Dave Osata 95.00
3 Garret Byrnes (Etnies) 89.80
4 Kye Forte 89.20
5 Ashley Charles 88.40
6 Stephen Murray 88.00
7 Chris Mahoney 87.80
8 Ron Kimler 86.20
9 Sergio Lagos (Etnies Spain) 84.20
10 Edwin Delarosa (Etnies) 83.20
11 Paul Russell 82.80
12 Ty Stuvesant 81.60
13 Taj Mihelich (Etnies) 81.20
14 Tomotaka Yoshitni 81.00
15 John Jennings 80.20

PRO DIRT
1 Stephen Murray 88.25
2 Kye Forte 87.83
3 Ryan Barrett 86.75
4 Julien Rocchisani 84.00
5 Vinnie Hunter 82.50
5 Alex Dropsy 82.50
7 Gary Burns 82.42
8 Josh Stricker (Etnies) 82.08
9 Romuald Noirit 80.83
10 Tony Pereira 80.75
11 Yoshi Tomotaka 80.50
12 Chris Mahoney 80.17
13 Julien Dupre 79.00
14 Marvin Loetterle (Etnies) 78.92
15 Mike Hill 78.75

PRO VERT
1 Simon Tabron 96.50
2 Zack Shaw 95.25
3 Bas Keep (Etnies UK) 94.25
4 Jon Taylor 91.00
5 Garrett Byrnes (Etnies) 89.00
6 Chris Mahoney 88.25
7 Stephen Murray 86.00
8 Ben Manuel 84.75

PRO FLATLAND
1. Effraim Catlow 91.75
2. Travis Collier 90.5
3. Christophe Dassie 88.25
4 Armin Batoumeni 85.0
5. Armando Rodarte 82.5
6. Yuji Shirai 82.0
7. James Needham 81.75
8. Amos Burke (Etnies UK)78.0