First, we would like to apologize to the fans for the delay in getting this first post on the blog. We know many of ya’ll been waiting with anticipation! We had writers block plus a few logistical issues, which got in the way. It looks like things will be under control for the rest of the series. Thanks for your patience.

On Friday, we were on PitPass Radio. Chester announced that he is putting in four more years and then he is retiring, like his hero John Dowd. We also talked about the growth in Arenacross. Chester was sporting his old school Mr. Clean look for the first race.

The Carolina Xpress was practically derailed in Des Moines ... not exactly how we intended to kick off the first round of the Arenacross Series – but that’s Arenacross. We know the first few rounds of the Toyota AMA Arenacross series are always stacked, this year was definitely no exception. With the talent at an all time high and the whoops at an all time low (literally) the racing was intense. Chester (the older and slightly balder of the two Jim’s) was able to make some of the Mains both nights, but no podiums for the Xpress this weekend. Chester actually made one of the Mains by taking Neese’s spot in the LCQ so he is officially off the Carolina Xpress (just kidding – sort of). The announcers were having a fit watching us fight it out in the LCQ.

Unfortunately, we both got to watch a lot more racing than we wanted. We witnessed the fastest man there fail to qualify through the day program on Friday but check out from the field in Saturday night’s main. Strange - not really if you take into consideration how it all goes down. Eighty riders, nine heats, top two riders in each heat advance and only five laps to get it done (that’s about two minutes worth). Maybe intense isn’t a strong enough word. Add to that a whoop section that the 65 invitational kids were skimming. Chester is allowing this slam on the whoops into the blog under protest – he liked the itty-bitty whoops.

We understand the concept of smaller and faster, but surely we can find a happy medium. Ok, that’s enough whining. We're on our twelfth hour in the van after leaving at midnight and we have five more to go.

We got beat down physically, mentally and monetarily, but we can’t wait to get home to start training for next weekend. Albany – the Carolina Xpress is heading north.

If you didn’t see the bikes they looked great and ran great. RoostMX did an awesome job of getting our killer bike graphics to us right on time. Definitely, the best-looking bikes we’ve ever had. All of our sponsors have been great. CV4 Products made sure that the bling was there and the Extremion coatings looked bad on the fork tubes. Even if we didn’t ride to the best of our ability – we sure looked good. The Moose gear was spot on. Thanks to Kenda for the tires.

Ya’ll come back real soon.

Later from the Carolina Xpress.