The second night of racing started with a sobering announcement that Jeremy McGrath's crash the night before was a little more serious than previously thought. It was discovered that McGrath actually fractured his C7 vertebra in two places. There was no spinal cord injury, there is no paralysis, but McGrath is still hospitalized. Sunday he will be moved to a hospital closer to his home. His release date has not been set, but he is in good spirits - so good that he wanted to attend the opening ceremonies, but doctor's orders kept him away. The crowd yelled out a collective, "Thank you, Showtime," before the program got underway. Get-well wishes can be sent directly to Jeremy at Jeremy@nacnac.com.
The show went on without its leader, and McGrath would have been proud of the night of racing. Josh Grant looked fast and determined again in the timed practice. Windham also looked just as he did the night before - fast and smooth. Travis, also in a repeat of the night before, alternated between fast laps and sight laps.
Unfortunately, Nick Wey went down hard. He was slow to get up, shaky on his feet once he had them under him, and was holding his left arm. He left the stadium on the Asterisk medical cart.
The freestylers were back again, and dazzled the crowd with amazing tricks off both their mobile ramps and the two metal ramps on the track. Travis Pastrana and Nate Adams took advantage of the track's five-wide metal ramps and did sets of side-by-side back flips for the crowd.
The racers took the track back for an eight lap heat to determine the gate pick for the moto at the end of the night. Windham and Cole Siebler were both out front in the first corner, but Windham quickly took control of the race and lead the pack around. While still bunched tight, Josh Grant collided with David Vuillemin landing through a rhythm section. Grant stayed up, but Vuillemin went down and did not finish the race. It would be the first shot fired in a new rivalry.
The focus of the rest of the heat was Josh Grant's charge from mid-pack into second. Apparently there was a mix-up in the pits and someone forgot to tell Josh Grant that he was down on power and shouldn't be able to pass 450 riders with such ease. Grant revved, finessed, and charged his way into second, where he pulled a comfortable gap over Jason Thomas. Kevin Windham, meantime, was quietly out front doing the only thing he was able to do up to that point all weekend - win.
Then the one-on-one elimination racing began. Two riders, two laps, winner advances, loser watches from the stands (until the night's final all-rider moto).
The elimination racing got interesting real fast. The second elimination race saw Chad Johnson and Jason Thomas make contact in the first corner. The very next race also saw first-corner banging with Heath Voss sliding a rear wheel into Cole Siebler. But then the fourth race of the night rolled around.