Race Report July 13th, 2008

WEEK #11

This was a day of “Finallys” as finally we would get a day without the threat of rain and finally, we would be able to run that Untimate Warrior main event that was postponed due to rain on June 8th. So what did this equate to in rider-count? Pretty impressive with 172 amateurs riding in their classes, another 7 riders in the Elite Open Class and finally 18 riders vying for the top three positions in the Bikers Edge Ultimate Warrior Pro-Am Challenge series race. Using a calculator this comes out to be 197 riders split into 49 motos. The day started out with 12 yr old Eric Passeck being named the Rider Of The Week for his efforts on July 6th. He told us that his favorite rider is “Shades” Austin Vaillancourt. We also extend our congratulations to 5 yr old Arefin Milton who, by winning this week in Bethel, became only the second 5 yr old in Connecticut to become a novice at this time. Hunter Zeiner will now have someone to race.
So the day started off with a bang as the first race run would be the June 8th main event for the 8 riders who waited over a month to vie for the cash. With an impressive lineup featuring Pete Lorenzo, Nick St. Lawrence, Billy Ripley, Matt Markie, Max Egdorf, Allen Currier and Mike Campbell, this was gonna be shear excitement. Shawn DePrete was scheduled to be in the main but scratched due to an injury suffered at South Park a few weeks before. So the gate rose, locked the riders in and here we go. Bam! It dropped and the crowd roared as these hot rods flew down the front straight. Out of turn 1 Currier took the lead and just never looked back. Lorenzo would bale in that turn and not be the same all day. All the way around they flew but not a lot of passin after the announcers tower. At the stripe it was Currier first, Egdorf second and Nick St. Lawrence was third all sharing a piece of the $360 pot. Rounding out the finishing order was Matt Markie fourth, Billy Ripley fifth, Mike Campbell was sixth, Pete Lorenzo was seventh and Shawn DePrete was not here. As the action continued, an impressive 18 riders were entered into stop number 4 of the pro-am challenge. With moto points available this year it sure made for exciting racing long before we got to the main. When the dust settled and the semis were run, the main event lineup was as follows: Billy Ripley, John Crossan, Ty Johnson, Nick St Lawrence, Allen Currier, Max Egdorf, Dan Bycenki and Matt Markie. Coming out of turn one with St. Lawrence on the point. Currier wasted little time however as he powered by Nick on the second straight. As they came out of turn two, Markie and Ripley would get tangled up and wreck big time. The rest of the field kept flying and by the time the finish line came up it would be Currier again the winner, St Lawrence got second with Egdorf winning third place money. Fourth went to Dan Bycenski, 5th to John Crossan, 6th was Ty Johnson while the 7th spot was Matt Markie and Billy Ripley would eventually finish 8th. Both Matt and Billy were slow to get up but both appeared to be okay.
A good number of females were in the house Sunday and they certainly are fun to watch. Some real heart throbs were in the 15 / 17 & over woman’s class with Amy Block, Michelle Main, Nicole Milton and Brooke Patterson going for the glory. Michele Main was perfect for the day as she showed her boyfriend Justin Hellwinkel how its done. Nicole Milton was second as she is learning from her 4 yr old son Arefin. Third went to Amy Block and Brooke Patterson, who’s dad is the track director at New Paltz BMX took fourth. She also took her boyfriend Allen Currier.
Katie Edgar made a rare appearance at Foothills and aced a perfect in the 14 girls class. Angela Therriault was second and the third spot went to Victoria Sunbury.
Gabby Boxall beat Nina Runtharamy two of three motos for the overall win in 13 girls racing.
In the now very competive 12 yr old girls class, Amanda Wedge had to push hard to stay in front of Katherine Moody and Jayna Roy. Push she did and did win the class.
The 11 yr old girls winner was T & M Builder’s jess maher with Kendra Covington second and a brand new rider this day was Rachel Labonte finished third. Rachel is the 88th new rider at Foothills this year and we welcome her to our family of BMXers.
Julionna Olson continued her dominance in the 9-10 girls class with another win keeping Emily Daigle behind her all day.
The 5-7 / 8 girls class went to Kyly Milton with Alysha Olson in the two spot and Liz Passeck third in her first race ever. Alysha is starting to show that she can do it as she had the lead in one of those motos yesterday.
In the 13-14/17-24 womans cruiser class, two riders were entered but it sure was evenly matched. Angela Therriault and Sarah Shatkyvich really battled hard in all three rounds. Sarah won the first two but had to pass Angela to do so. In the third round she had one last shot to get around Angela and dove to the inside coming out of turn 5. As they hit the last rollers side by side there was slight incidental contact and Sarah would fall pretty hard. She was seen limping to the parking lot with an apparent sore ankle. We hope she is okay.
With 72 Rookies in the house the life blood of BMX featured some hot and heavy excitement.
In the 17 & Over class, where week after week its just Brandon Miville and Dan Sears doing battle, Brandon looked like he would continue his unbeaten streak by winning the first round. Something would change however as Dan came back in dominating fashion to win the next two for the title.
In the 16 Rookie class Benny Ayala got the best of his two CJR team mates with the win. Mike Clark, after a nasty crash in practice was second and the third spot went to Angelo Uriotegui
Five riders in the 15 Rookie class and Tactical Arms sponsored Jimmy Ferris would be the winner. A good battle for the second spot as Randy Purinton, in his first NBL race would battle CJR’s Matt Hyatt. Purinton would grab the spot.
In 12 yr old Rookie action a main would be required to determine a winner with all 7 riders transferring Dylan Vadney and Nick Hull were perfect in their motos. When they all crossed the stripe in the main, it was Vadney winning it while Mike Smith snuck into second and Luke Dengler finished third.
Former Rider of the Week Wes reel was rthe 11 Rookie winner as he managed to keep Kenny Grenier and the Rich Carlson heating and Cooling sponsored Taylor Yurgalevics behind him.
With eight riders present for the 10 Rookie class, they had to be split into two groups of 4. (NBL rules that no more the 6 riders in the motos). In the first group of four riders there would be three different winners as Jeff Vadney, Brandon Wojtkowski and Neal Bachmann all felt the joy of victory. In the second group of four, Mike Wasilonsky dominated all three rounds. In the Main event it would be the Zeller Tire sponsored Wasilonsky prevailing.
A full gate of 9 yr old Rookies saw Eric Passeck show us why we chose him as Rider of the Week last week. He simply won all three rounds of motos. Pete Franolich (The Pines) was second and “The Marshall”, Matt Dillon was third.
The biggest Rookie class of the day was the 8 yr old bracket were 12 riders were on hand. Jacob Shpur, Emory Burke, Bubba Hodge and Brandon Galeski would all win motos but the big main event went to Jacob Shpur. Lucas Petosa won the 7 yr old Rookie class with Connor Calarco second and Sunny Garcia third.
Riding for Tactical Arms, Zack Ferris won the 6 Rookie class with Dusty Souza second and Seth Norton third.
Finally in the 5 & under class, Hope Maher made it two of three over Spencer Burke.
In Novice action the usual combining with Experts occurred. In the 14ex / 15 nov bracket, it was DJ Scott (14ex) winning, Jon Daversa (15n) second and the third spot went to Esquire Cleaners Mason Johnson.
In 12ex / 13N it was Austin Cyr (13N) your winners, Brett Wojtkowski (13N) second and George’s Music Center’s Chris Pfeffer (12X) third.
Brianna Clinton Humbled the boys in 12 Novice racing by winning two of three motos. Only Gabe Cruz beat her in one moto. The third spot went to Jash Rivera.
Aaron Moccia easily won the 11 Novice class by beating both Mike Buonocore and Jen Cote.
Biker’s Edge Robbie Desmarias Captured the 10 Novice win. The second slot was occupied by Trevor Fox while Dougy Cable, looking a little like he was just going through the motions, was third.
Justin Rivera won the clash of 9 yr old Novices. Jake DesMarias (Biker’s Edge) was second and RJ Miville third.
A nice turnout of 6 yr old Novices featured the dominating efforts of Nick Cote. Second place went to Bell Electric’s Owen Giese while Austin Clinton slid into third.
In 5 & under / 7 novice racing Superfly Lane Maher, riding for Hartford County Tattoo, won all three round, Second went to Collin Penn and Skyler Domain was third. The two 5 yr old novices, Hunter Zeiner and Arefin Milton finish in that order.
In Expert escapades he return of Anthony Kumeiga and Mike Greco was fun to watch as neither had been around a BMX track in years. Tony would prevail.
In 19-25 action, most were also entered in the Warrior race so the efforts put forth were limited at best. Officially JJ Wernicki was the winner, Dan Bycenski second and Cliff Richards third.
Max Egdorf won the 17-18 class with Justin Hellwinkel second and Zack McCready, even after crashing in the third round, managed a third palce finish in this 5 rider group. Zack would leave the facility early to get his sore shoulder checked out up in Westfield.
Logan Mitchell took care of business in the Mod Squad Skirmish (16x) finishing ahead of Paul Maher, who was focusing his efforts more on the Warrior Race then this class.
The 15 Experts had a full gate and the action was fast and furious. Josh Wedge would finish in front of Peak Performance’s Dave Clark and Adam Hulse, who settled into the third slot.
Another class with 5 riders was the 13 ex group. Making Zack. Again, we all hope his shoulder is okay.
Four riders were slicing and dicing in the 40-44 Cruiser class with Tom Johnson winning it again and Flyin Freddy Roy was second. The third spot saw Bullwinkle (Bob Delamare) stay in front of Rob Giese for the third spot.
In 35-39 action Supercross’s Donny Olson got the bset of second place finisher Erik Maher and third place rider Jim Burke.
Greg Slone was the fastest in the combined class of 25-29 / 30-34 cruisers, Second quickest was Matt Theriault (even after a hard fall in the first turn) while Alex Rivera was third.
In 11-12 / 8 & under / 9-10 combined Cruiser racing, Chris Pannullo was the dominator with a perfect. Chris Therriault held on for the second spot while Dougy Cable was third.