Race Report

August 14, 2005 - Week 16

Oppressive humidity and temperature over 90, what else is new? Today was the 26th day that the thermometers hit the 90 marks after only 6 days of doing the same last year. It’s been a hot summer for sure. Our expectations were not very high for a large rider count today and we decided that an expectation of 150 riders might even be out of reach. Who the heck would want to load oneself up with heavy clothing and a helmet anyway? Well, we sure underestimated our expectations as a very decent rider count of 187 split into 51 motos just left us scratching our smiling heads. The program got underway 3 minutes early with a gate drop at 1:27.

The always exciting 16 & over class was not a disappointment and had a nice line-up of riders. Making the main were Marc Sundstrom, Matt Markie, Bobby Nash, Pete Lorenzo, Don Olson, Flavio Silvera, Steve Oldham and Allen Currier. Right after the rider introductions and just before the gate dropped a clap of thunder could be heard in the distance. A storm front was moving in, in more ways then one. Slam! The gate dropped and it was Steve Oldham and Allen Currier side by side at the first jump. Into turn one and Oldham still had the lead with Currier right on his rear wheel. Sunstrom got on the inside of Silvera and Flavio drifted up high and almost over the big turn. One of the favorites, Matt Markie was mired in the 7th slot onto the turn. Oldham hit the T/C Cycle hole shot line first with Currier inching his way to the inside. Up the entire second straight it was a two rider breakaway with Currier still working the inside heading for turn two. Into the turn “Thunder” rolled to the front as Steve had no choice but to give up the inside line. All the way up the third straight it was Currier, Oldham and Bobby Nash starting to reel them in sitting in the third spot. Matt Markie now was up to forth and had a serious head of steam. In and out of turn four and nothing changed on the top two spots but Markie dove to the inside of Nash as his run towards the front continued. Around the final turn and it was quickly over with “Rolling Thunder” Allen Currier winning his first Foothills Open, Steve Oldham was second and Matt Markie salvaged third. Nash, Olson, Sundstrom, Silvera and Lorenzo fished it out in that order.

An unbelievable 36 riders representing the Bay-State Invasion were on hand showing off their skills and it was impressive. Add to the mix 11 entries from New York, 2 from Rhode Island, one from Delaware and even one from Seattle Washington and the range of riders was pretty diverse.

In Expert action our National Champion Zac O’Neil was his usual self, scoring a “perfect” in the 8 Ex class. The current World #4 and former world champion Jared Reuter put his Dan’s Competition colors in the winner’s circle in 9 ex. D.J. Scott has been on a roll lately and it continued today as he was unbeatable in 11 Ex. It was good to see Adam Hulse back on the gas today and he aced his first perfect in 12 ex since coming back from his injury. Frank Olish and Anthony Del Vento traded wins in 13 ex but Anthony was the overall winner this day. A good group in 14 ex caused the need for a main event to crown the days champ and it would be show-down time for Jason Bush and Max Egdorf as they were dominate in their motos. But in the main, Dylan Hickey beat them both for the win. The “Wild Bunch” 15 ex also had a main event with the Casa Mia Restaurant sponsored Pete Balotti winning everything he ran on the 20” bike. It would be another great turnout and another main in the 16 ex gang. This was an impressive main event and its number was 101. That’s important because main 104 was the 16 – 29 Open Wheels main already described above with Allen Currier winning it. Well, only three mains before, “Thunder” also captured the flag in the mod squad. Yep, he won 16 ex and then only three mains later won the open! Did I mention that the heat index was near 100 with unbearable humidity? Matt Markie won 17 – 21 combined and Pete Lorenzo did the same in 22-29. Fabiano Garcia won 30 – 34 Ex.

Justin Rivera won the 6 Novice class. The 8 year old nov trio had Josh Velardi coming out on top. In 10-11 Novice action, Kyle Block continued to show us all why he is the reigning rider of the year as he raced to a win in this class. In 14 year old Novice action one of the most pleasant surprises of the day happened with the presence of “Lightning” Liz Passwaters from Delaware beating up on the local boys for the win. Looks like Liz is staying with the Egdorfs and getting ready for Bethel’s National Event next weekend. Rob Zuffelato, after turning Novice just last week, made it look easy in 15 novice as he was perfect. The 16 novice action was pretty intense as it looked like the Escape Plumbing and Heating sponsored Kevin Matthews would be perfect as he won the first two rounds. However, in the third round Kevin went off the course in turn 3 and Zack Ritchie won that moto and thus, had enough points to grab the overall win.