Interview: Café Willoughby Holeshot Challenge.

Oct 02, 2017

Written by Bart de Jong

Read 5727 times

Talking shit, complaining, heckling, there's too much of that going down these days. The internet has made it easy for keyboard monkies to tell the world what's wrong. Getting out there and make a difference, that's what counts. The crew over at Café Willoughby are firing up their first event to show how much fun BMX racing can be. The Café Willoughby Holeshot Challenge is taking place in Chula Vista on November 6th from 6pm-8pm and we caught up with Sam Willoughby to see what the plan is.

What's the main idea behind the Sam Willoughby holeshot challenge?
Sam Willoughby: Well it's the “Cafe Willoughby” Hole shot race. But it's really unfair to just have my name to it as Tyler Brown is the brains and work horse behind it. Basically the idea came about from our smash hit show on Monday nights at 6pm Pacific time live on Facebook (CHECK IT OUT!). A hot topic on the show has been prize money, the races being boring blah blah blah. So conveniently Tyler runs a track! And most these pros hate racing because it gets in the way of training so we thought screw it! We will put a race on that caters to both, A holehsot race! We are going to put up prize money and run this thing under the lights with an amp-here that all BMX racers want!

Boys class and Girls class?

Sam Willoughby: One class but we will be inviting some ladies to mix it up!

What's the set up. Do you have transponders set up or a girl with a checkered flag at the finish line after turn one?
Sam Willoughby: We will have a checkered flag scenario out of turn 1… Maybe a finish line camera! I don’t think the transponder loops will be in in time for this years event.

What brand of gate are you using? Is it the standard 'random gate' procedure?
Sam Willoughby: Standard random gate call.

Full gates? or one by one for the fastest time?
Sam Willoughby: So we will invite 8 top elite riders. A few already have committed like Corben Sharrah (Word Champion) Joris Daudet (ABA Champ) Anthony Dean (Human Dragster) Nic Long (Olympic Holeshot guy and good bloke).

We will have 8 invited riders, and host an open qualification to anyone interested. From that open qualifications we will get down to 8 riders for a total of 16 into the nights show. To put it as simple as possible the first 2 rounds the bottom 2 will drop from each group until we only have 8 riders. From then we will run rounds every 10 minutes dropping only the last place rider until we have a head to head showdown with only 2 riders on the gate!

Will this favor the power riders or the skilled riders more?
Sam Willoughby: It will cater to both but mainly this will be an ego you know what swinging contest for the pros. The catch will be no lane choice and when we eliminate riders the gates will close in so they always start next to one another. For example the final two show down will be in lanes 4 and 5.

How are you going to do the live streaming and where can people watch it?
Sam Willoughby: It will be live on the Cafe Willoughby Facebook as per usual on Monday night

Does this feel like a sort of 'JAM' on the BMX racing side for some good fun?
Sam Willoughby: This is a head to head race at something every pro does for training everything. It will have fun factor to it and most importantly loud music bright lights! And a party atmosphere.

Has the '2016 Olympic Holeshot Gold medalist' been putting some extra practice gates in?
Sam Willoughby: He can’t do anymore gates then he already does but he will be a hot favorite although he will have to practice more than lane 6.

Who can enter. How much is it to enter. What's in it for the winners and who are supporting the Café Willoughby Holeshot Challenge?
Sam: Anyone can enter; Pro, amateurs, Male, female! The Cafe Willoughby Holeshot will offer a 5K purse which we are still looking for partners for plus half the spectator entry fees which will be $5. Entry fee for the riders will be $20 which will also go into the purse! We currently have Support from FLY, FULL TILT BIKE SHOP, ANSWER, SSQUARED and BOX. Please email or message us on social media if you're interested!

Anything else the people out there need to know?
Sam Willoughby: This event is all geared around a passion for making BMX racing fun and a great show!

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