PSC to host Paul Smith Memorial on Saturday

For the second consecutive year, the Psycho Sports Cartel will fly through the First State Bank Car Show and Hi-Line Drag Strip this weekend. The event will feature Pat Manzi, a motorcycle stunt performer.

The death-defying freestyle motocross demonstration will feature PSC riders Ryan Hilfiger, Devon Hoyer and Travis Cady. The event will run twice on Saturday, June 3, with the first show at 11 a.m. and the second at 1:30 p.m. weather permitting. The crew will run an additional show at 1 p.m. at the Hi-Line Drag Strip on Sunday, June 4.

“They are so excited to come back,” Shane Carnahan, the event’s coordinator said. “They just enjoyed the people of this community.”

Carnahan explained the course the riders will run.

“It is a 75-foot ramp to ramp setup,” Carnahan said. “You will have guys flying through the air at about 35 feet in a 75 foot distance doing everything from grabs to cliff-hangers on a bike, almost every big upright trick you can think of.”

Carnahan wasn’t initially going to pursue a second run with PSC, but upon popular demand, he reconsidered.

“I didn’t really consider doing it again and then enough people approached me and I thought, okay we will do it,” Carnahan said.

The event was scheduled to bring back California’s Jason Springfield as a rider, however due to an injury Springfield will attend the event only as a spectator.

“Just last night Springfield went down,” Carnahan said. “He busted his collarbone. He has been back-flipping for 10 years and never under rotated one and he did last night. He is pretty bummed because he had never been to a town so cool in his life. He loved it up here and thought this was the coolest town ever.”

The PSC crew was hit with a tragedy last season as Paul Smith, who flew through the Malta skies last June, tragically fell to his death during a practice run last August in California.

“We lost him last August,” Carnahan said. “He under rotated a back flip and he passed away.”

This weekend’s event will also serve as a memorial for Smith.

“He was one of the guys that really enjoyed it up here too because he came from a small town in Nova Scotia and he had been in the big cities for so long,” Carnahan said. “It was so nice to come to a place where you could just relax; not just go, go, go. They said they haven’t relaxed like that in years.”

Cady, a rider from Montana, fell last year in Malta during the practice run and was unable to ride.

“He’s going to try to redeem himself,” Carnahan said. “It was his first show of the year last year and he was riding a bike that he had just bought that morning. He came down, bounced his face off of the handle bars, broke his nose and got a concussion. He is ready to redeem himself and he has been living every day on his bike this spring.”

The Mint is holding a Brew Fest with part of the proceeds going to the PSC riders and Phillips County Motorsports from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Saturday night.