Race Report August 9th, 2009

WEEK #15

Finally the Double Points race would happen. When originally scheduled on August 2nd the rains came just as we were about to start and simply never stopped. At that time the rider count was a nice 221. With this race being a make-up race, coupled with a number of riders out in Ohio at the NBL National event, we figured that we would be very fortunate to have 210 riders. Even at noon time the crowd seemed rather small and we were asking ourselves “Where is everybody”? At the close of Registration (12:30 pm) the count was over 240 but, there were people who were entered as hold-overs from the original race so we compared who had checked in with who had entered. We did this exercise at 1:10 thinking that anyone who was coming would certainly be there already. With that said there were about a half dozen riders who were not checked in so we removed them from the race and posted motos. OOPS !
Comet o find out, they all showed up, After loading them back into the computer we reposted all 60 motos and the rider count stood at a whopping 244 riders!
That was the reason for the 15 minute delay and our first late start of the season. Our Clerk Michelle made a great recovery and the rest of the day was flawless.
I the pre-race ceremonies 15 yr old Rookie Alex Hubbard was named our Rider of the Week. He said Greg Sloan was his favorite rider.
With nearly 100 Rookies in the house lets start with these Hot-Rods this week. How about the 9 yr old Rookie clan where 14 riders were ready to rock us crazy as the biggest class here. Split into three groups it would take semis to determine the final eight to make the main event. With Connor Calarco, Ajay Francis, William Guido and Dustin Petosa all winning motos the Main event was very difficult to predict who the clear cut favorite would be. Its worth noting however that Dustin Petosa and William Guido were both perfect in their motos. As the gate dropped in the main it was Dustin Petosa all the way around and challenged every inch of the track by a determined William Guido. Petosa ran a flawless circuit and got the win. Guido was second and the third spot went to Joe Petrino Jr. With Colin Riggs (Tactical Arms) in the house you just knew the 8 Rookies class was in for a tough time trying to beat him on his home track. No one did all day long as he was perfect right through the main event. Jason Lee sure made him work for it in the main and enjoyed a solid second place finish while third would go to John Cox. A big group in the 7 Rookie class also meant that it was no free ride to the main event. Casey Navin was the dominate rider right through the main event and was unbeatable this day. Seth Shaw was second all day long and did the same in the main. Jon Todd, after winning two motos had to settle for third in the main. No less then 12 ankle-biters in the 5 & under Rookie class. One more rider and it would have been a need for semis. Wow! Mike Bohlke and Brady Valliere were both perfect through their motos. In the main event showdown the first place trophy would belong to Bohlke with Valliere second and Danny DesMarais slid into the third slot. No main in the 6 yr old division and James Cox would edge out Justin Falasco for first place while third went to Ian Fosbrook. With eight riders in the 10 yr old Rookie class all would transfer into the main event but some serious double points were at stake in the motos. Jake Layman won two of his three motos and the first place main event trophy. Nick Bates was second and the third place award went to Brandon Ortiz. Harwinton’s Bryan Basile and Oakville’s Erik Dugan were in a battle of the former Riders-Of-The-Week as they finished 1-2 in the main with Chris Stewart finishing third in the 11 yr old Rookie Main. A full g0ate of 12 yr old rookies but no main featured a perfect by Phil Miklovich in his first visit to Foothills. Taylor Yurgalevicz was second with third going to Nick Painchaud. Dylan Vadney won the 13 Rookie class with Josh Santiago second and third Darren Zimmerman. (David J Mahoney Painting). The current Rider-Of-The-Week, Alex Hubbard proved his selection was no fluke as he dominated the 15 Rookie call by winning every moto. Matt Anderson was second and a nice effort by Gian Gonzalez earned him a third. Nick Landi and Jer (A=Bone) Royer traded wins in the 16 Rookie class but the tie-breaking third round went to Landi. Dave Foster was third. It was an impressive turnout in the 17 & over Rookie class as riders ranged in age from 17 to 45. So who won? Believe it or not the Main event went to 45 yr old Jason Gladstone. Second was Dan Sears and third was George Haydock. As has become the norm, Experts and Novices are combined together. Its important to understand that as unfair as this may seem, the equalizer is that the Novices earn Expert points when this happens. That means that a third place finish by a Novice would be equivalent in points to a first place finish in a pure Novice class. With that said. 35-40 Ex and Nov combined saw Garrick Yanosky, the only Expert get the job done with second going to Mike Jasensky (X-Treme Marine and third was Matt Holderman. Stampede’s ben Atchison earned a first place finish for his team with Renato Dasilva second and third to Chris Giacomazzo. In 17-18 Ex and Nov combined action Pauly Maher showed that his broken hand is felling much better. He was able to finish ahead of Enzo Perez with third going to Colby Lake, even after he flipped the gate in one round. Next up was 15 noc / 16 Ex / 16 Nov mixed bag. Josh Wedge, selected this week to be our Rider Representative in the Trophy Dash at the State Championship, easily got the job done. Will Barna was second and Anthony Reilly (Aunt Leighann’s Day Care) was third. Kyle Bock, managed to win two of three motos which was enough to capture the overall 14 Ex / 14 Nov title. Austin Cyr was a close second with third going to Stephan Kallas.
13 Expert racing was another dominating performance by Shawn McAuley. A much improved Chris Pfeffer (George’s music center) was right on his rear wheel with Ryan McCoy settling into the third spot. Zack O’Neil showed us all how he got that National #1 plate by out racing the rest of the 12 Experts. Troy Atchison was second and Tommy-Lee Busky was third. 11 yr old Expert racing was crazy. Chris Therriault would win the first round but crash in the second. Casey Tanner would crash in the first round but crash in the second. Therriault came back and won the third round for the overall. Doug cable was second and Tanner had to settle for third. 31 Females were on site for some classic racing as only they can provide. Christy Kestler, exploded out of the gate every moto and once out in front was uncatchable as she aced another perfect in the 17 & over Woman’s class. Michelle Main and Nicole Milton had to settle for second and third. Angela Therriault and Amy Block were paired together in a 15-16 Girls class with Therriault, our reigning track champion finishing on top of the class. Only two 14 yr old Girls were racing and Crystal Lumbra and Michaela Lourenco were trading moto wins until the third round when Crystal put together a good lap to win the class. Katie Moody got the best of Jayna Roy in the 13 Girls class. Five racers vying for the top points in the 12 yr old Girls gang and Melanie Cianciolo held off a hard charging Jess Maher for the win. Maher was a close second with Michaela Groves in the mix for third. Samantha Lumbra got it down in the 11 yr old Grils grouping. Alexus Doty (Connecticut Wells) was second and Julionna Olson was third. Stampede’s Mackenzie Atchison was the fastest 10 yr old Girl this day as she kept Marisa Lumbra behind her all day long. It looked like Halee Persinger had it all together in the 9 yr old Girls class. She beat local favorite Kyly Milton in the first and second rounds with close finishes each time. In the third round Halee would self destruct and go down hard handing not only the moto win to Kyly but the overall win as well. Halee would get second with Alysha Olson third. Halee was okay and rode it off. In a rare Foothills appearance Dixie D’amelio picked up where she left off the last time we saw her as she won everything in her class. Beth Passeck could only watch Dixie in the distance as she settled for second and Keely Michaud was third. Hope Maher (Mark T. Kelly Construction) was the fastest in the 5-7 class and also the oldest as a 7 yr old. 6 yr old Rileigh Valliere and 6 yr old Ashley Jasensky were second and third. The 19-25 Novice class went to Carl Carlson. A full gate full of 13 yr old Novices saw David Main the “Main” man as he was perfect. Wrecks were everywhere in this group but all were okay when the dust settled. Gabe Cruz was second in spite of a 5th place finish in one moto. The third spot went to Jash Rivera. In the 12 Novice group Matt Bovat would finish in the 4th spot in the first round then came back to win the next two rounds for the overall win. Wes Reel was second with third going to Kevin Aiken. Speaking of the Aiken family, Kurt was the top dog in the 11 Novice class. R.J> Miville was a very close second and the third spot going to Tajeh Cozzaglio (Twiz the Wiz). In the 10 Novice – 9 Expert class Nick Cote’ (9 Expert) was acing a perfect while a perfect second went to Justin Boissonneault and third was Jake DesMarais. The 8 Expert – 9 Novice class would need a Main event to determine the winner. With Lane Maher (Hartford County Tattoo) and Steve Hull (Sekulski Millworks) both perfect in their motos this could be a good main to watch. Its impressive to note that this was Steven’s first race as a Novice after winning his 15 Rookie win in Trumbull on Tuesday. Lane would dominate the Main with Sky Domain second and Austin Clinton third. Steven was the hard luck guy with a 6th place finish. 11 riders in the 6 Expert – 8 Novice combined class. The results were a win for Tommy Gladstone, a second for Jagur Layman (After winning two motos) and a third place main finish for Luke McAdams. Arefin Milton was our winner in the 6 Novice class. He battled hard with second place finisher Evan Kowalski and third place finisher Riley Tweedie. With five riders in the 5 yr old Novice class Derek Fantano took advantage of finally having someone in his own class to race. He simply won every moto. Second place went to Max Gustafson while Brad Wohlers settled for a third.
In the Cruiser classes Randy Bitinaitis (Cutting Edge) was unbeatable in the 40-44 division. Bob DesMarais was second while Enrik Benazic managed a third. Curtis Jackso was the same force in the 35-40 class as he stayed ahead of Tom Kuehn and Tom Bacis. Goina Layman, in her first appearance at Foothills since winning the World #7 ranking in Australia, easily won the 35 & over Woman’s Cruiser class. Marianne Sklarsky was next followed by Therese Campbell. Greg Sloan and Joe Dasilva were 1-2 in 30-34 Cruiser. In the 11 & over Cruiser groupings Richard Rude, riding a heavy looking mountain bike stole the show. No one was close to him. The second spot would go to Zach O’Neil while Chris Pfeffer managed a third. Jayna Roy did battle with Lisette Ortiz in the 12 & under – 13-14 cruiser class and Jayna would prevail. Nick Cote’ would beat Kyle Johnston in 9-10 action while Sky Domain did the same to Alex Kuehn in 8 & Under action.
In the Money Open Pete Lorenzo won everything with second place money going to Enzo Perez.
Two races next Sunday with both being a two moto system. Four rounds of motos and get credit for two races. See you all then.

For complete finish report