Welcome to Thunder In The Sand in Wildwood, NJ!
The track had the usual beach sand ready to go for all riders today for practice.
This tricky S-turn/whoop section had riders swapping to greatness or failure in practice today.
Check the ruts leading up to the finish line jump.
The jump launched riders very high in practice today but expect the jump
to develop with an overlay of low lines throughout the weekend.
The double-double section nearest to the ocean gave the riders, especially C class riders,
an overload of sand samples. Check out the wrecks below!
The quad turnout is always big at the Thunder In The Sand.
More quad riders line up for their practice session at Wildwood.
Mainstream exposure is always a plus in this sport!
ABC 6/Action News, out of Philadelphia, was on location at Wildwood
doing some live tapings for their afternoon news show.
An ABC 6/Action News reporter can't believe he's surrounded by quads on the Thunder In The Sand course.
While the live taping was going for the news show, numerous quads got into multiple pileups!
The last half of the practice session saw a strange fog/haze over the track
that made the amusement piers almost disappear in the background!
Visibility was not a problem on the track for the riders
but the strange haze sure got everyone
wondering where the sunny weather went!
Dakota Kessler was out there in the A practice sessions tearing it up on his CR250 two-stroke.
He did have his 450 there as well in the other sessions.
The moisture in the sand caused some odd mist on certain parts of the track,
which eventually added up to the foggy/hazy day.
Pit bikes are crazy fun on a sand track, as this rider demonstrates!
One quad rider tears it up in one of the early practice sessions at Wildwood.
How do you get a quad off the beach? Call in a dozer!
One quad rider scrapes skid plate on the ramp of this table and sent a shower of sand behind him!
Another quad sending a stream of sand behind him off a tabletop.....and wow, he jumped over the roller coaster!
The Thunder In The Sand course has some cool, multiple lines with this jump on the inside of this sweeper.
A rider Jesse Festestine gets close in one sand bowl corner.
He eventually popped off the track shortly after this shot was taken.
A flagger doing his job very well (sarcasm alert) while the haze blankets the amusement park rides.
Patrick Desantis, freshly out of the C class, rode well in the B practice session. He had a nasty wreck later in the day which got the EMT lights running. Patrick was OK and plans to race tomorrow!
While I was dodging bikes and quads today,
I also had to dodge those pesky sea gulls diving in all over the place!
A rider Bobby Jimenez rode very well during his practice sessions at Wildwood.
B rider Alex Stavola rails a corner in front of the Morey Pier roller coaster.
Alex looked like to be the fastest B rider in practice today.
Check out the cool puppy ears on this young quad rider!
Dakota Kessler squares up a corner to pass a fallen rider.
Just as I was making my way back to the track to catch the drag racing at 6:30, a brief storm soaked Wildwood and I quickly went back to the hotel to get to work on the photos and this report!
It should be an awesome day of racing tomorrow as the names of A riders planning to showing up grows and grows! The turnout is better than expected and riders were making their way across the beach after practice was done. The weather looks great for the weekend and I'm sure the action will be just as good! I will be shooting pics in practice and filming the motos on Saturday and Sunday. I took over 500 pics today so I can get most of them out of the way. Check back tomorrow for a Saturday update and check MXPTV's Twitter updates on the Thunder In The Sand Main Page throughout the day for up to the minute updates! Thanks for checking out MXPTV and check back Satuday night!
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