They got accepted. The Smage Bros Riding Shows AGT page has this background text (containing one large error, which I’ve corrected and highlighted in bold):
Phil and Pat Smage are The Smage Bros., two motorcycle-riding brothers from a farm in Elkhorn, Wisconsin. This riding duo developed their love of motorcycles from their parents, who first met at a racetrack. Growing up, the brothers were taught by their parents how to ride. Finding they had both similar talents and a love for performing, the two formed the trick-riding group, The Smage Bros.
Phil and Pat began performing their act at local motorcycle shops, races and fairs during the spring and summer. The other part of the year found them competing in action sports competitions, including motocross, snowboarding and snowskating, with one following the sunand the other chasing the snow.
Their pursuits brought them a great deal of success. In 2007, Pat realized his dream of becoming the youngest National Endurocross MotoTrial Champion in the history of the sport. He went on to win the National Championship three additional times. Phil, who spent his free time traveling towards the snow, collected three national championships in snowskating at the Winter X Games. Even though the brothers were pulled to opposing climates, one thing always brought them back together: their love for entertaining people on motorcycles.
Here’s a video of their first appearance on AGT in New York in June.
Here’s the video of their performance in Las Vegas:
Here’s the video of their performance in Hollywood:
Here’s the video of the judges’ decision in Hollywood, moving them to the semi-finals:
The section at the end of the article describes his involvement with motorcycles, trials, and the TTC.
Back to the down to earth aspect of Dan Brown, his "lifelong passion" for motorcycles is legendary. He has motorcycled since childhood, and participates at various levels of off-road motorcycle competitions, some possibly death-defying.
Brown is working at continuing this passion with his six grandchildren. The eldest boy was a national champion in the six-year old category two years ago; Brown quickly notes that there weren’t many contenders.
Brown has 600 acres of mountain land where he rides and hosts competitions. The site includes some big concrete pieces of drilled shafts that youngsters like to use as challenging obstacles to ride over, he says.
Motorcycling is a dominant theme indoors, too, says John Wolosick, who reports that a cycle has a prominent place in the Brown living room. Brown verifies that, saying that it is an antique Bultaco Sherpa-T. Professor and co-author Turner, calling him a "wonderful speaker," says that Brown often incorporates humorous analogies to motorcycles in his technical presentations.
Mr. TTC, Dan Brown, was in Minnesota this week and I met up with him for dinner last night.
No, it was not a Mototrial-related visit, but rather with his other hat on as head honcho at Dan Brown and Associates ("Specialists in Deep Foundation Design, Construction, and Testing and Slope Stability Problems").
DBA is "performing geotechnical design of the bridge foundations and settlement mitigation" for the new bridge over the Mississippi River at Hastings, MN. So we talked a lot about deep foundations, with a little webmaster-mototrial stuff on the side.
We got an email last week from Tim Pilg, marketing manager at American Beta, alerting us that they’d signed 2010 AMA/NATC MotoTrial champ Cody Webb to a two-year contract. "Cody will be competing on an Beta Evo 290 in the 2011 Trial Championship as well as a Beta RR in the 2011 Endurocross series."
The Nov. issue of Trials and Enduro News reports that Louise Forsley has signed with Sherco USA for 2011 and will compete in the AMA/NATC championship series. Louise was the Women’s National Trials Champion from 2006-09. She took the year off in 2010.
We received a notice from Tim Cody over the weekend:
I am saddened to inform the trials community of the passing of John McWilliams Sr. John was an avid rider and major national trials events organizer in the 1980′s in KY.
John was a boy scout leader for several years. He had many passions, including music, animals, and motorcycles.
John spent time competing in motorcycle trials competition with his sons.
Visitation will be from 5:00- 9:00 p.m. on Monday, August 23, 2010 at Oldham, Powell, & Roberts Funeral Home. Funeral services will be held at 11:00 a.m. Tuesday, August 24, 2010.
Newly crowned AMA/NATC National Trials champion Cody Webb was featured on the cover of Cycle News last week. The cover story, by Shan Moore: Webb Captures Trials Title.
We’d like to create a photo collage of all the overall winners of the Youth Nationals held here at the TTC in the past decade or more. We’ve researched our blog archives and thus far, have these champs:
2010 Logan Bolopue
2009 Bryan Roper
2008 Karl Davis
2007 Josiah Mizell
2006 Josiah Mizell
2005 Will Ibsen
2004 Louise Forsley
Do you know who won in years prior to 2004?
Do you have photos of any of the champs from the year they won? (Photos of them on a trials bike or on a podium would be best.)
If so, please Contact Us. (That page has an upload form that you can use to send us any photos.)
You’ll see their names at the top levels of the NATC year-end results for 2009. Likewise, these 2009 nationally-ranked riders were there that week (alas, no 2005 photos): Karl Davis Jr., Chase Harker, Louise Forsley.
Among them: left, Andrew Oldar and right, Eric Storz, now the stars of the Young Guns DVD available from Ryan Young Products. The catalog blurb reads:
Watch in dismay as the young teens, Andrew Oldar and Eric Storz, known as the YOUNG GUNS, thrill you with their uncanny riding ability as they hone their riding skills on their way to becoming two of the top PRO riders in the sport of Observed Trials.
Both these riders have already won Championships in their young careers but now they have their sights set on the big time. Filmed all around the USA, you will see not only these two outstanding riders, but also many of the top riders in Trials today. Watch them as they ride up huge walls and perfect their splatter technique on huge obstacles. Included in the Bonus Footage is the 2008 USA Indoor national, 2008 Tennessee FIM World round, and much more.
See Andrew’s and Eric’s recent YouTube videos below.
I have had the pleasure of meeting Chase Harker and his family here at the Trials Training Center on many occasions. He and his family are terrific people and a pleasure to be around.
Photos: (R) Chase teaching ledges at moon rock during Trials Training Days last month; (L) with his mom, Marie.
We have recently received an alert that Chase will be doing a trials demo at the Roll On Columbus show next month, a “motorcycle enthusiast focused charity event to raise money for Nationwide Children’s Hospital,” held at the LC Pavilion in the Arena District of Columbus, Ohio on May 22, 2010. From the news release:
Harker is a 15 year old rider from Taylorsville, Kentucky. He has already won six consecutive AMA Youth National Observed Trials titles, and is the current AMA NATC National High School Trials Champion and a former Junior Champion.
In addition to outsmarting gravity, Harker is also a 4.0 GPA Honor Student, and a part-time instructor at the the Trials Training Center. Harker is sponsored by Sherco USA, Ryan Young Products, Zip Express, Dunlap Tires and Ogio.
So head on out if you can to watch Chase and his friends “defy the laws of gravity.” If any of you are able to go, get me some pics to post please! Use our Contact Us form to upload them or just send us a link if you post them somewhere online.
Dan Brown of the Trials Training Center will be on Pitt Pass Radio on Tuesday, February 16. 2010.
The show starts at 8 p.m. Eastern Time and ends at 10 p.m.
The episode will also be available in their Pitt Pass Radio show audio archives so that you can listen anytime, your choice of three ways: click the Listen icon, download the MP3, or subscribe to the podcast.
Update 2/17 12 pm: You can hear the 10-minute segment with Dan Brown starting at the 43-minute mark. Visit the Pit Pass Radio podcast page and look for the Feb. 16, 2010 show.
Alternately, you can listen to the whole show via this Flash audio player, and if you want, drag the bar to the 43-minute mark.
Robert Thompson, who works for Dan Brown and Associates, was there to snap a few pictures and capture a little video of both Alex and bicycle trials expert Dave Campbell.
Pat Smage, 2011 AMA/NATC National MotoTrial champion, and his brother Phil Smage, have been getting prime-time national TV exposure this summer.
John was a boy scout leader for several years. He had many passions, including music, animals, and motorcycles. 
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