POMONA, CA

A capacity crowd of 10,000 fans was treated to a grand display of freestyle motocross' most daring tricks when eight of the sport's top athletes took to the course in the ASA World Championships of Freestyle Motocross on October 5 at the Fairplex in Pomona. Initially thought of as a battle between defending and two-time World Champion Jeremy "Twitch" Stenberg and four-time World Champion Nate Adams, the competition ended with a hard-fought, surprising win by Mike Mason (above).

During practice runs just days prior to the contest, Twitch sustained an ankle injury, causing him to withdraw from the competition. The door then seemed wide open for Adams. In fact, he sailed through the quarterfinals when rear-wheel problems on Beau Bamberg's bike left Bamberg unable to finish his run. Bamberg was the rider against whom Adams had been matched in the first round of this head-to-head competition. Therefore, Adams advanced to the semifinal round with relative ease.

Against Taka Higashino (right) in the semifinals, Adams put down a near-perfect run filled with huge whips, no-handers, seat grabs, and a crowd-pleasing sidewinder, which sent him to the finals.

On the top half of the draw, Mason was riding past his challengers as well, throwing a huge flip whip in his quarterfinal run that brought enthusiastic praise from the fans and the announcers. With it, he passed Myles Richmond, and met Ronnie Faisst in the semis. Faisst had bested Adam Jones in the quarterfinals with a good run, but his loss of focus in the semis cleared the way for Mason to ride through to the finals with a more solid, quicker-paced run.

Mason rode first in the finals and turned out a great run with huge extensions, but he wasn't sure how it would fare against Adams. All he could do was sit on the sidelines and watch Adams, hoping that what he had done was enough. Soon after Adams began, he started to just sail through the air over each jump, riding out his time. It was later learned that a hiccup from his bike made it unsafe for him to perform any tricks. Mason had won.

"Atta-baby!" said Mason in celebration. "I always wanted to win this event, so I'll take it. A win's a win. This is my favorite event, because it's the most fun, the course is fun - it's a 'rider's event,' so I'm happy!"

Adams hoisted his second-place trophy.

"When I can mess up and still get second, it's all good," Adams said.

Higashino and Faisst met in a run-off for third place, and Higashino was the victor.

The ASA World Championships of Freestyle Motocross will be broadcast in an hour-long network television special on CBS Sports on Sunday, December 6, at 5 p.m. ET, following NFL football. Visit ActionSportsTour.com for dates and times.

Results

ROUND 1: 1. Ronnie Faisst; 2. Mike Mason; 3. Taka Higashino; 4. Nate Adams.

SEMIFINAL: 1. Mike Mason; 2. Nate Adams.

FINAL ROUND O/A WINNER: Mike Mason.