Motor SportsNews

Riders offer thrills, extreme stunts

Flying high above the horse racing track, ATV rider Christian Gagnon completed a stunt as part of the Bull X Moto Rodeo on Sept. 21 at the Los Angeles county Fair. This event also featured bull riding, dirt bike stunts, and monster trucks. / photo by Rhiannon Mim
Flying high above the horse racing track, ATV rider Christian Gagnon completed a stunt as part of the Bull X Moto Rodeo on Sept. 21 at the Los Angeles County Fair. This event also featured bull riding, dirt bike stunts, and monster trucks. / photo by Rhiannon Mim

Rick Montañez
Assistant Editor

It’s a rodeo. No, it’s motocross. No, it’s a monster truck show.

Actually it was all of the above.

On Sept. 21, the Los Angeles County Fair hosted the Bull X Rodeo at the Fairplex Park Budweiser Grandstand.

Fans packed into the grandstands for the free show. About 85 percent of the stands were full of screaming fans. The smell of beer, hot dogs and nachos filled the air.

The show began with the bull riding rodeo. It was judged by three professional rodeo champions.

Six riders took their turn trying to outlast the other. The longest bull ride lasted about 10 seconds.

Of course with any rodeo many of the riders and rodeo clowns were tossed about like rag dolls.

On the other side of the field the dirt bike riders watched from atop their ramps. At the end of the rodeo, which lasted about 25 minutes, the bulls were put back onto their trucks and the gates began to come down.

The motocross section of the show began soon after with three riders, Bobby Lee, Jimmy Fitzpatrick and Wesley, jumping ramp after ramp.

The first biker jumped the ramp and while in mid-air leaned back off the bike and placed his feet under the handle bars.

“It was nuts,” said Jabra Mitwasi of Covina. “I thought he was going to fall off.”

The air was filled with yells and cheers, oohs and awes. Jump after jump, the stunt bikers kept the crowd either on the edge of their seats or on their feet.

“He’s insane,” said Christa Costello of Covina. “His whole bike went vertical.”

The stunt bikers repeated several tricks that left the crowd unimpressed, yet still entertained.

“The tricks are cool but they get old after the first three times,” Costello said.

When the three dirt bikers were finished, the ramps were removed to reveal another ramp for Justin Goodno and Christian Gagnon on quad bikes.

One of the two drivers was able to do a back flip on their quad.

The crowd knew when it was time for the monster trucks to take center stage; the rumble from the engines was incredibly loud.

The vibrations from the sound were felt internally.

“I love monster trucks,” said Chris Rice of San Dimas. “They are so cool, because they are so powerful and loud.”

The air was no longer just filled with lights and noises. The monster trucks kicked up enough dirt to fill the air with a brown haze. The lights beamed through the haze.

The show was an odd assortment of entertainment. Yet, the crowd was drawn to this new attraction.

Rick Montañez can be reached at rick.montanez@hotmail.com.

Rick Montañez
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