Race Report August 10th, 2008

Week 15

Well, another weekend and another prediction of afternoon rain and another National event to contend with. Pottstown Pennsylvania was hosting the last National of the year and enjoyed over 100 motos this weekend with some of our regulars vying for some valuable National points. So where does that leave us for a rider count?
Surprisingly it wasn’t too bad by 2008 standards with 151 riders racing in the amateur classes and another 5 in the 16 & over open. They would be split into 43 motos and provide some pretty good excitement under hazing sunshine with increasing clouds all afternoon long. Riders from Massachusetts, Florida, New York, North Carolina, Maine, Vermont and Rhode Island joined our Connecticut riders.
10 yr old Jeff Vadney, from East Cannan was named Rider Of The Week and named Pete Lorenzo as his favorite rider.
With an eye to the skies the first moto got underway at 1:31 and the gloomy weather forecast (Rain by 1:00) would soon be forgotten.
As has been the norm this year, Experts seem to be a rare commodity so combined expert and novice classes were numerous.
There were three 26-34 experts which is enough to create their own class but only one 35-40 novice and one 26-34 novice. This created a five man moto. As expected the three experts swept the top three finishing positions with Tony Kumiega, Kevin Clark and Mike Greco the first three. The first novice across the stripe was John Ross with Brian Anderson in hot pursuit.
An impressive six riders were in the 19-25 expert class which featured three different moto winners. Justin Coelho won the first round; Zak McCready the second and Hector Gonzalez the third. Zak would be the overall winner with “Gonzo” second and Justin third.
17-18 ex and nov combined saw Jeremey Bakunis making it two out of three moto wins for the overall while Dan Krouse settled into the second spot.
Pauly Maher, the only 16 ex in the house got combined with two 16 novs and it was “sound the bell cause school in in session” as he dominated. Novices Mike Secor and Colby Lake finished second and third.
Four riders in the 15 expert group and the 2008 resurgence of Josh Wedge continued as he was perfect in all three motos. The second spot went to Peak Performances Dave Clark with William Barna finishing third.
Two experts and two novices were combined to make up the 13ex / 13 nov combined class. Expert Kyle Block won all three rounds with an impressive effort from novice Tim Lambert, who hadn’t raced in four years, finishing second. The third spot went to Dave Norris.
In 12 ex action Shawn McAuley would ace a “perfect” keeping Chris Pfeffer (George’s Music Center) and Ryan McCoy behind him.
11 ex and 12 novs were combined and Aaron Moccia (11 ex) would be the dominator. Nick Killmer (11 ex) was second and the two novs were third and fourth. (George Norton and Mike Buonocore).
The National Bicycle League considers it an “equal” class when an expert class is combined with a nov class of the next higher age group. An example was the last class mentioned and also the next one. Remember, it takes three riders to make a class. Its also important to note that whenever novice riders get combined with experts they receive “expert points”.
Two 10 exs were here and also two 11 novs. They would be combined together and the results were experts Chris Therriault and Jon Zeiner finishing first and second and the two novices, Matt Bovat and Trevor Fox finishing third and fourth.
In non-combined novice racing James Oslander (Waterbury Tire and Auto) won the 15 nov class staying in front of Mason Johnson (Esquire Cleaners) and Halton McCready.
The two 8 novs were combined with the three 10 novs creating two classes in one. Kobe Covington won it with R.J. Miville (Jack’s Auto Body) an impressive second and Owen Giese (Bell Electric) third. Owen was impressive as he was one of the 8 yr olds.
One group had three classes in one with 5,6 and 7 yr old novice riders grouped together.
7 yr old Lane Maher (Hartford County Tattoo) would be the winner, 6 yr old Hunter Zeiner (Oxycare) was second and 5 yr old Arefin Milton was third.
66 rookies would save the day for the riders count. In 5 & under action Derek Fantano would be the overall winner even though Riley Tweedie won two motos. Riley was late arriving and missed his first moto and had to settle for second while Max Gustafson was third and Ashley Jasensky, in her first race ever was fourth.
Casey Navin dominated the 4 rider 6 yr old rookie class which included winning all his motos plus the main event. The second spot went to Dustin (Dusty) Souza. Randy Donaghy (Torrington Firefighters 1567) was third.
5 riders made up the 7 rookie class and Colin Riggs was perfect but it sure wasn’t easy. Lucas Petosa enjoyed a solid second while Tanner Storz was the third place finisher.
With 9 riders in the house in the 8 rookie class a main event would be required to determine todays winner. William Guido and Brandon Jasensky (Vectro Custom Computers) would each win all of their motos so it would be a classic show-down in the main event. “Wild-William” would prevail with Brandon settling into the second spot. Third went to Steven Hull.
Eric Passeck easily won the 9 rookie class this day. Bubba Hodge was second and Devon Schoenbarger was third. Bubba left the track today and headed back to his home in North Carolina. See ya next season Bubba.
Pete Franolich (The Pines) won two of three motos for the 10 rookie overall win. Jeff Vadney manage a second with Chris Stewart third.
Another main event needed in the 11 rookie class. It appeared yet another classic showdown would occur as both Ty Hesterberg and Wes Reel won all of their motos going into the main. In the main Wes Reel made it look easy but the second spot went to Taylor Yurgalevicz (Rich Carlson heating and Cooling) and Kyle Stricker snuck into the third spot. Hestereberg salvaged a fourth.
Main event time also for the 12 yr old rookies. It would see Nick Hull in the winners circle, Dylan Vadney second and Rami Mohamid third.
In 14 rookie action Dametri Savvidis won all three rounds. Justin Hawes finished second all three rounds and the third spot went to Zach Watkins even with his wreck in the first round.
James Norris beat Jer Royer (A-Bone) in 15 rookie.
CJR’s Benny Ayala go the job done in the 5 rider 15 rookie class. Jasen Brewer was second while Mike Clark (CJR) was third.
Brandon Miville edged out Sean Parzuchowski for the 17 & over win.
In female racing the 17 & over win went to Michelle Main. Amber Kumiega was second and Nicole Milton was third. It was great to see Amber again after a three yr absence.
Angela Therriault beat Ashley Theriault in 14 girls racing.
Katie Duncan had to work hard to stay in front of Gabby Boxall for the 13 girls win.
Amanda Wedge got the win in 12 girls with Jayna Roy second.
Kendra Covington beat out Rachael Labonte for the 11 girls win.
Kyly Milton was unbeatable in 8 girls with Catherine Buroker second and 5 yr old Liz Passeck third.
There were some pretty good cruiser races and Angela Therriault would finish in front of Therese Campbell in 13-14 / 45 & over action.
Jasen Brewer won the 9-10 / 11-12 / 25 – 26 class. Second went to Chris Therriault while Chris Pfeffer was third.
Greg Sloan won the 30-34 class with Florida’s Robbie Avery second.
In 35 -39 action it was “Animal House” with Moose and the Squirrel in the house. (Where was the hare when you need him?) Flyin Fred Roy won the class, Todd Zeigher was second, Rob Delamare (Moose) was third and Rob Johnson (Squirrel) was fourth.
In the 35 – 39 class Garrick Yanosky (Old Skull) continued his impressive run with another win. Track Director Erik Maher was second and the third spot went to Jay Cerullo.
Tim Buck edge out Stu McCready for the 45 – 49 win while Joey Watley did the same to Len Ferris in 50 & over.
In the 16 & over open wheels class Justin Coelho was the winner with Justin Hellwinkel second and Pete Balotti third.
Don’t forget the Double Pointer next week. This is a great tune-up for the September 7 State Championship Race. Have a great week.