Motorcycle stunt costs rider jail time and competition By the Staff of Clutch and Chrome January 16th, 2008

With the recent focus on motorcycle riders who perform dangerous stunts on public roads gaining more national attention, the Florida Highway Patrol decided enough was enough.

Riding eleven hours from Louisiana to participate in an annual StuntWars Competition at U.S.A. International Speedway in Lakeland, Christopher Fredrick, 23, was caught performing a stunt on the westbound side of Interstate 4.

He was on his way back from practice when, the FHP said, he was caught in the middle of a "seat stander," in which the rider stands upright on the seat of the bike while "popping a wheelie." Fredrick had done it many times before.

This time however, Fredrick was arrested and charged with reckless driving for standing on his motorcycle and failing to have a motorcycle endorsement on his license.

And because he was in jail, Fredrick missed Saturday's preliminaries and could not compete in Sunday's main event.

"That's what you get for playing around, I guess," he said Sunday.

The trip had not gone well for the three friends.

Damien Davies, 25, who had followed Fredrick to the jail Saturday, puzzled over how to get back to the trio's Howard Johnson motel room.

Derek Meyer, 20, had come down with the flu Thursday and spent most of the trip in the hotel room, trying to sleep off an upset stomach.

Fredrick was released from jail Saturday night after Meyer loaned him the $500 bail. By then it was too late. The trip was already a dud.

"It was kind of a disappointing trip," Meyer admitted from the road Monday. "This was Chris' and my first time trying to compete. That was the most disappointing part."

Davies had not planned to compete because he broke his finger a few weeks ago doing a stunt.

Meyer said he was not surprised when Davies called to tell him about Fredrick's arrest..

"He said exactly what I knew I was going hear," he recalled. "We were expecting it. We try to keep it in the parking lots, but we knew if we got into the streets, we would do it."

Fredrick agreed: "It's a part of the life."