Race Report July 23rd

Week number 10 was next and the weather on Friday night said up to 9 inches of rain by Sunday noon in the Northwest corner was very possible. After Friday nights work party (only 4 men) the track was in great shape, the grass was mowed and the weeds whacked. Now the fear was how long would the track stay that way. All day Saturday the skies threatened and thunderstorms rolled through the surrounding hillsides. When dawn broke on Sunday and fearing the worst, some workers showed up as early as 7:30 am to begin track repairs. To our amazement it appeared that the track received very little rain and was still in great shape. BONUS! So now it came down to how many would show up for the race as there was a Regional National in nearby New Paltz New York and the Double and Triple points races were behind us.
When registration closed there were 171 riders registered and 44 was the moto count. Three new riders signed up this week bringing our total of new riders for 2006 to an impressive 91 riders. R.J. Miville was honored as the Dozer’s Place Rider Of The Week for his efforts last Sunday.
Lets start with the Cruisers this week and Poor Dan Delisle (9 & Under) was paired with Zack McCready (16-17) and, as should be expected, Zack was pretty dominate with a perfect. In 35-39, 40-44 combined Steve Rossi out rode Dave Daversa for the win. Good racing in the 45-49 class as Butch Feitel, wearing his Free Agent colors, was the fastest. Stuart McCready and Dan Krouse had some great racing action for the second spot with Dan going home with the second place award. In 14-17, 18-29 in was all Allison Thomas in front of Sarah Shatkyvich in some fairly close racing.
A few girls were here and in the 6-7 class Mackenzie Atchison and Devin Murphy had to have had some fun with Mackenzie looking really good for the first two and one half motos. Its was the fall in that last half of the third moto that ruined her perfect. Monica Butler was the quickest 8-9 girls as Chealsee Kalivas and Jenn Rossi had to settle for 2nd and 3rd. Ali Thimmish (Ali-Kat) dominated the 10-11 class and Heather Brouillard eked out a win over Deanna Batista in the 12-13 class. Christy Kestler, although only winning one moto, was the overall winner in 14-15, 16& over closely contested action.
Enough experts were in the house to generate their usual brand of excitement. In the 8 ex, 8 nov combined class Todd Maniscalchi beat the two novices out there with him; Trevor Fox and Mike “Animal” Guerin. Same type of situation in the 9ex, 9nov combined class as Dan Delisle beat his two novice competitors Chris Pannullo and Nick Killmer. In 10 ex action Shawn Mcauly had to work a little harder this week to stay in front of Josh Thimmish but he did just that in 2 of 3 motos for the overall win. Kyle Block held off a hard charging Taylor Anderson for his win in 11 ex. Only one 12 ex was here (Jacob Fish) and he was combined with 6 other 12 and 13 novices. In the main it was D.J. Hall’s sponsored Mike Borla in an upset. 13 ex Dave Clark got combined with two of the best 14 novices at Foothills and in the end, it was Marty Tartaglino beating the expert. Anthony Del Vento was the dominator in 14 ex-15 nov combined. Josh Fish held off Dylan Hickey in 15 ex racing. Jason Bush was touching the gate as he starts his recovery form the collar bone injury suffered last week. The Mod Squad (16 ex) was loaded and the J.P. McGuire and Associates sponsored Ty Johnson came out on top. Great efforts also from the Buck brothers in that class. Dan Bycenski was the winner in 17 ex and 18-21 went to Matt Markie. 38 yr old (WOW) Tom Johnson was perfect in 35 & over.
All the novices got combined with experts today except in the 7 yr old group. Ryan Christopher was flyin and aced himself a perfect there.
Seventy six rookies were here and that is were some of the best racing was to be found. The “Rug-Rats” (5 & Under) had 6 riders racing and, when the dust settled it was Sky Elwood winning again this week. Justin Boissonneault and Owen Geise combined for 6 moto wins each but at show-down time in the main it was Justin winning the 6 yr old class. In the 7 yr old division, R.J. Miville not only won the class, but he also won the CJR sponsorship trophy as moto 36 was the lucky moto. In 8 yr old competition four moto winners brought their points to the main event. Austin Lillis, Kobe Covington, Jonathan Zeiner and Larry Coderre all enjoyed victory. When the main was over it would be Zeiner with the first place trophy. The 9 rookie class also would have a main event to determine its winner and Mike Buonocore and Troy Atchison would both win their motos. Mike Buonocore would win his last rookie main ever as, by doing so, he earned his novice ranking. Congratulations Mikey, you sure deserve it. Mike Valentine was the 10 yr old winner and Dave Norris the 11 yr old champ. Frankie Spegnolo got the win in 12 rookie. Harwinton’s James Oslander got the overall in 13 rookie and the 14 yr old class went to ERA II’s Keith Brown. Keven Mottai continued his dominance over the 15 rookie class with a perfect right through the main event. In 16 yr old action the Winchester Modular Housing sponsored Jeremy Bakunis got within 3 wins of turning novice as he put another one in the win column. Carl Norris won the legion of doom class (17 & Over).
13 riders were on hand for the 16 – 29 open wheel division and it was great racing as usual. It was a fantastic exciting main event until turn four as eight riders went in but only 4 came out. Steve Oldham, Dan Smith, Dan Bycenski and Rob Zuffelato were the four survivors as Pete Lorenzo, Justin and Matt Markie and Darrin Merli would all wreck in the forth turn. Everyone was okay as the day ended at 4:15.