Race Report NUTMEG
STATE CHAMPIONSHIP
State Championship
Well, during the regular season
we were able to “run-the-table” regarding
the weather and our ability to run a race without a
cancellation. That is amazing in itself. Now, with the
big one scheduled for Sept 7, could our good fortune
continue? When the beginning of the week rolled around
it was obvious that tropical storm Hannah would have
an influence on the biggest BMX event of the year. We
had a gate practice scheduled for Saturday at noon yet
on Friday night, a deluge happened about 2:00 am. Some
of us thought we should cancel the practice as surely
the track would be in bad shape. We decided to check
the track first before we decided. Once there it was
obvious that the rain on Friday had little impact on
the tracks condition and the Gate Practice stayed on.
At 3:00 pm with practice over, Track Director Erik Maher
decided to cover some of the areas of the track that
have been most vulnerable to washouts and soft spots.
With a limited number of plastic tarps available, those
areas were covered and cinder blocks and any other available
heavy items where loaded on top to secure them from
the predicted 60 mph winds. About 5:00 pm the rain started
with a vengeance. All through the night into the wee
hours of the morning the rain saturated everything with
about 6 inches of water. At 2:00 a.m. the skies cleared
and the wind picked up. This just may serve as a drying
feature. I arrived at the track just before 7:00 am
and all but one of the tarps had held. Peeking underneath
I could not get to the phone fast enough to change the
answering message to “GAME ON!.” By 8:30
there must have been 25 bodies working on the track
and by the 10:30 am mark it was ready. The surface was
extremely smooth, the place was decorated with balloons,
buntings, flags and even the jumps had the track names
painted on the sides of them. This was going to be a
good one under the bluest skies of the summer and with
temps in the mid 70’s and a nice steady breeze.
The impressive rider count was 321 amateurs racing in
class, 12 riders in the open classes and another 9 in
the Ultimate Warrior pro-am challenge series finale.
The Civil Air Patrol provided a color guard and Mindy
Delisle performed the National Anthem while all the
participating teams rode in a parade lap. At 1:30 it
was time for this intense triple points event to get
underway.
Starting this lengthy report with the Bikers Edge Pro-Am
challenge series there were only 11 riders qualified
to make the run for the green. Thanks to PJ Collectables,
Tactical Arms and The Litchfield County BMX Group Inc.,
for stepping up to fund the series end payout of $1,000
to the top five. Eight awesome number plates were provided
by Johnson Number Plates for the top eight.
With only 9 of the 11 in the house it was a hot pursuit
for the top five yr end positions. Justin Hellwinkel,
although qualified, was back in college in Colorado.
Matt Markie, sitting in the fifth position ($100 slot)
going in was not present due to a sore shoulder from
an earlier injury. With scrambled motos and double moto
points available, the luck of the draw could really
change things. Allen Currier would be 8 points ahead
of Max Egdorf for the lead and realistically, the only
two who had a shot at the title.
The door was open for Max in the first round as he was
not paired with Allen Currier. 6 points would be given
for a moto win, 4 for a second and 2 for a third. At
the end of that first one Pete Lorenzo would send a
wake up call to everyone as he won the moto, Ty Johnson
was second and Pete Balotti grabbed the last available
points. Max was fourth and lost a golden opportunity
to gain some ground. Now he had to sit and watch the
next moto and hope the same fate happened to Allen.
No such luck as Currier would ace his first win in what
would be a clean sweep of wins through the three rounds
of motos adding a valuable 18 points to his total. Max
Managed a second and third place finish in the next
two rounds but fell another 12 points behind Allen going
into the main event.
So the stage was set and the final eight main event
riders were Currier with 127, Max Egdorf with 107, Pete
Lorenzo with 87, Billy Ripley with 75, Ty Johnson with
65, Mike Campbell with 59, Alex Rivera with 46 and Pete
Balotti with 31.
When the gate dropped Egdorf took off like he had a
rocket attached to his bike. Out of turn two Max had
a lead with Lorenzon in tow and Currier back a full
6 lengths in the third spot. As they exited turn 2 Currier
started to reel in the two hot rods in front of him
and turn three was the turning point. Lorenzo dove to
the inside of Max and they would go side by side up
the back stretch with the Pistol having the coveted
inside line going into turn 4. While all that was going
on, Currier had caught them in the rhythm section. Into
turn 5 they flew having broken away from the rest of
the pack. At the stripe it was a half a bike between
each one with the order being Lorenzo, Egdorf and Currier.
The win was worth $297 to Pete with Max earning $178
and Allen settling for $119.
The series finishing order would be:
Allen Currier $300
Mag Egdorf #250
Pete Lorenzo $200
Bill Ripley $150
Ty Johnson $100
Mike Campbell
Alex Rivera
Pete Balotti
Josh Sanford.
In the amateur classes the action was pretty furious
also. Michelle Main would win the 17 & over womans
class with consistant first place finishes. Gina Layman
held off Nicole Milton for the second spot.
In 15-16 Girls it was Reigning State Champion Christine
Grysbek keeping her skinny digited number plate in the
lead all three round with Amy Block second and britt
Shaw third.
In 14 girls racing Angela Therriault would have a problem
in the first round but salvage two wins later in the
day for the overall. Krysta Zbikowski was second and
third went to Victoria Sunbury. Unfortunately Katie
Edgar would suffer a hard crash in round one and display
one of the most amazing exhibitions of intestinal fortitude
that I have ever witnessed. Once she got up she mounted
her bike and rolled slowly around the track in obvious
pain with her arm tucked in tightly against her side.
Every time a track official tried to help her she was
simply say “NO” in a loud voice. Agonizing
minutes later she crossed the finish line in an explosion
of applause. It was learned shortly there after that
she suffered a broken collarbone and was done for the
day. Our hearts go out to her.
In 13 girls it looks like the state championship just
might stay where it was all year as Brianna Clinton
would win todays event. Carly Curtain was second and
Gabby Boxall was third.
The 12 girls class looked like it would belong to Katie
Moody as she won the first two rounds. A hard crash
in the third round sealed her fate and led to Amanda
Wedge getting the overall win. Katie salvaged second
with third going to Jayna Roy, who rode with a heavy
heart. More on the reason why later.
In 11 girls action Mel Cianciola, reining champ, would
ace a “perfect” with a nice second by Chealsee
Kalivis and Jenn Cote’ earning a third.
Juliona Olson earned to win in 10 girls with Samantha
Lumbra right behind her for second and Alexandra Biron
finished third.
Devin Murphy, in a rare 2008 appearance here at Foothills,
showed she hasn’t forgotten the track as she won
every 9 girls moto. Mackenzie Atchison was second and
Nicole Bitnaitis was third.
Another ‘perfect” was in the 8 yr old girls
division as Kyly Milton pulled it off. Alysha Olson
was second and third went to Katrina Campbell.
In 5-7 girls Dixie Damelio was the winner with Jess
Nuzzaci second and third going to Juliana Spisek.
In the expert classes the racing skills were on display
everywhere. Garrick Yanosky won the 35-40 / 41&
over class with Mike Sigrist, throwing away his overtime
opportunities as a cop in Bridgeport to be here second
and Mike Savage third.
Chris Giacomazzo won the combined class of 26-24 / 26-24
expert Kevin Clark second and Mike Greco third.
In 17-18 / 19-25 action a main event would be required
to determine the winner. Billy Ripley hung on for the
win, Anthony Del Vento was second and Justin Coelho
was third.
In 16x / 16 n combined it was Paul Maher our winner
with Kyle Strong second and Mike Campbell third. The
first novice across the stripe was Colby Lake just in
front of Keith Brown.
15x Dylan Perez got it done in the 15x main with Colby
Benoit second and the third spot going to Mike Dembrowski,
who was so happy he forgot his helmet and sun glasses.
Don’t worry Mike, we have them locked up and safe.
14 x / 14 n racing resulted in Zack Pirulli grabbing
the win, D.J. Scott second and Jason Chamis was third.
3 time track champion Kyle Block got the overall win
in 13x with a hard charge from Austin Cyr, who was second
and Stephan Kallas was third.
The 12x win went to Shawn McAuley after he and CMR’s
Mike Iurato traded wins. The tie breaking third round
went to Shawn. Third place went to Ryan McCoy.
Three time Nat’l Champ Zac O’Neil was the
one to beat that no one could in 11x. Dan Delisle was
a close second and Jake Pirillu was a solid third.
New Yorks Casey tanner put himself in the 10x winners
circle with State Champ Chris Therriault settling for
second and Doug Cable was third.
The D-Man, Dave Moody go the win in the combined class
of 10n / 9x. Justin Rivers went home with the second
place trophy and third was R.J. Miville (Jack’s
Auto Body).
With 10 riders registered in the 8x / 9n class, a main
event win was earned by “Quick-Nick” Cote’.
In close pursuit was second place finisher Justin Boissonnault
and Sam Beardsley finished third.
Only one 7 yr old expert was competing today and Sky
Domain would be put in with the 8 yr old novices. It
didn’t matter as he was “perfect”
Tyler Coenraads was the first novice with Austin Clinton
and Owen Giese (Bell Electric) behind him.
Plenty of Novices were here and it was wild and dusty
at times. In 17-18 action Jeremey Bakunis earned the
overall after Dylan Rooney wrecked in the third round.
Dylan was right in the mix for the win before that as
he won the second round and aced a win in round one.
He slipped back to the third spot overall as John Kolanda
finished second.
The 15n class featured a main event win for Mason Johnson
(Esquire Cleaners). Halto McCready was send and third
across the stripe was Jon Daversa.
Dan Miklovich scored a “perfect” in the
13n class right through the main event keeping Tim Osborne
and Alec Norkowski behind him along with a pack of other
riders.
Colin Rooney won the 12n gang with a win in every moto.
Gabe Cruz was second and the third spot was swept by
Jash Rivera.
The 11n main event went to Tommy-Lee Busky, Matt Bovat
(Uncle Pat) was second and finishing third was Robbie
DesMarais).
A main event in the 7n class saw Superfly Lane Maher
finishing out his day with a “perfect” on
his home track. Collin Penn snuck into the second spot
just ahead of Tom Gladstone.
Griff Kavanaugh won the 6 nov division with Alaxander
Keuhn second ad Hunter Zeiner rounding out the top three.
“Finny” Milton was the only 5 & under
novice this day.
Cruisers or should I say “Bruisers?” well,
maybe so in one case.
Joey Watley had to beat New rider “Leapin”
Len Ferris to retain “his title” in 50 &
over action. Didn’t seem like a heavy workout
for either rider. In 45-49 it was different as the “Flyin
Dutchman” Pieter Coenraads earned a ‘perfect”.
The second spot went to Butch Feitel while Foothills
regular Stu McCready was third.
A rare main event was required in the 40-44 cruiser
calss and it would be home-town hero Tom Johnson winning
it with a legend in BMX Mike Savage, finishing second.
The third spot went to Bob Delamare who finally jumped
the “suicide step-down”. It was this class
that that a real freak accident occurred. Fred Roy (Fast
Freddy the Flying Ferret), after finishing a solid third
in the first round was just finishing his second round
when disaster struck. Fred was just cruising over the
last set of rollers and he simply blew up. When the
dust settled, Fred suffered a fractured collar bone,
broken in three places and requires surgery. The surgery
is scheduled for next Monday. We all wish Fred a speedy
recovery.
Randy Bitinaitis put the Cutting Edge colors in the
winners circle in 35-39 action. Garrick Yanosky was
second with Don Olson third.
The 25-29 win went to Greg Sloan as he stayed just ahead
of Matt Theriault and Alex Rivera.
Gina Layman was first across the stripe in the 30 &
over womans mixed class. Therese Campbell was second
and Kerry Kuhn was just touching the gate after recent
knee surgery curtailed her racing ambitions.
Angela Therriault and Brianna Clinton battled it out
for 13-14 yr old supremacy with Angela winning the war
this day.
Zack Pirulli won the 11-12 / 13-14 class with another
Zack, Mr. O’neil second and Dan Delisle third.
With 106 rookies racing at least the future looks to
be intact. With 17 riders registered in the 8 rookie
class this would be the biggest class of the day. Split
into three groups the key would be to make the semis
and then finish in the top four to transfer into the
main event. The story here would be the one semi. It’s
frustrated but not unusual to see what happened in this
semi. Its important for the riders to understand that
it doesn’t make any sense to take a chance in
the semis if your sitting in a transfer spot (Top four).
Simply put, there are no points awarded in semis, they
are simply Main event qualifiers) Just finish in the
top four and your in the main event. It’s usually
a live and learn situation and that’s all we can
hope happens here. Coming out of the last turn with
the top four riders already sorted out, one rider decided
to go for the win and try to make a pass. The lead rider
tried to hold him off and they both crashed 10 feet
short of qualifying. A BMX gift to the last two riders
who were already figuring they would be packing the
car for the ride home when the main was run. It was
just a sickening finish for the two riders who went
down. The eventual winner was CMR’s Brandon Jasensky
with William Guido second and Jacob Gleacher third.
Semis also would be required in the 6 yr old class.
When the dust in those events blew off into the setting
sun it was Casey Navin the winner, Seth Norton was second
and the third spot went to Dustin Souza.
In the 17 & over rookie class the main event win
would go to Brandon Miville. (See Youtube) in about
1 week. Joe Santiago and Dan Sears were second and third.
James Norris won the 15 rookie main event with Brennan
McGrath second and Jer Royer (A-Bone) third. A crash
by Jim Ferris (Tactical Arms) kept him out of the top
spots.
Demetri Savvidi easily got it done int e 14r class but
Trev Simmons was sure a hard charger. Alex Hubbard scored
a third.
13r Baird Dilworth impressed the Foothills crowd as
he won the main event after scoring some big points
in the motos. Seth Morris was second with the third
place award going to Mike Romanowski..
Nick Hull won the 12 rookie class but Dylan Vadney sure
made him work for it. Dylan would be second and Ken
Greenier was third.
It was a clean sweep for Wesley Reel as he won everything
that he ran in the 11 rookie class. Second in the main
was Phil Miklovich with Nick Painchaud third.
Rookie Mains were prevalent and the 10 yr old class
was no exception. Pete Franolich (The Pines) was the
winner with Kevin Germain second and the third place
finish was enjoyed by Jeff Vadney.
The 9 rookie main was won by Eric Passeck following
his perfect with Nick Bates and CMR’s Steve Brittingham
third.
The 7 rookie main saw Colin Riggs in the right place
at the right time as there was a wreck in front of him.
He rode through the carnage and captured the win. Tanner
Storz was second and third went to Ed Lentz.
In the always exciting
5 & under rookie class 10 riders were vying for
the 8 spots in the rug-rat main event. There was one
four year old in the mix and it really looked bad for
Max Gustafson when he wrecked in the first round down
in turn #1. A couple of third place finishes would help
him earn a spot in the main event. As the gate dropped
on the last main event of the year, it would be Jamie
Corsillo leading the pack across the finish line. The
second spot went to Riley Tweedie with our youngest
rider racing in class today, 4 yr old "Max-Attack"
Max Gustafson, finishing third.
One of the best and most exciting
races in the Nutmeg BMX season is the popular trophy-dash.
Each track picks a rider, either 15 or 16 yrs old, to
represent them in a one lap dash. This years line up
was Mike Campbell (last years winner) doing it again
for Bethel Supercross, Pauly Maher for Foothills BMX,
Dylan Perez for Trumbull’s T.R.A.C.K. and Colby
Lake, riding for Falcon BMX. When the gate dropped Mike
wasted no time in dashing to the lead position going
into turn one. Dylan Perez was right there with him
and actually pulled ahead momentarily. With Campbell
having the inside line into turn two there was no way
Dylan could power around the outside. While he drifted
high into turn two, Pauly dove to the inside and passed
Dylan. That moved took away a little momentum and Pauly,
now in second, was a good five bike lengths behind Campbell.
Colby was battling Dylan for the third spot. As they
sped around the announcers tower Maher was coming and
coming fast. Out of turn four they sped and Pauly was
only one length Behind Mike as they hit turn 5. That
would be as close as Pauly would get as Mike won the
trophy for Supercross. Pauly was second, Dylan third
and Colby forth.
The curtain would come down on the 2008 points season
in Connecticut. We at foothills, hope you all enjoyed
our season and our presentation of the State Championship
Race. We think it may be remembered as one for the ages.
See you at our outing on October 5th.
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