Race Report August
9th, 2009
WEEK #14
Week # 14 and yet another threat
of rain. What else is new I guess. This race is always
something special as it is our Bob Warnicke Scholarship
Race. Established after Bob’s death in 1994, the
NBL awards $20,000 each year to ten deserving college
bound students. There is a selection committee that
chooses the riders or ex-riders who will be the recipients.
Foothills BMX historically has donated $5 for each racer
in attendance and this years donation is $850. We are
undoubtedly the biggest contributor to this worthwhile
fund. I have a special place in my heart for Bob as
without his support back in the early 90’s, I
would probably never have been given the opportunity
to become one of the NBL’s National announcers.
Bob was elected posthumously to the NBL’s Hall
of Fame three years ago.
At any rate the threatening weather would be evident
all day long and it seemed like it would start to pour
at any moment. Maybe Warnicke was providing a big umbrella
over the facility or had some influence on what was
happening as it just never rained during the race. With
173 riders registered and split into 50 motos (Counting
the Open) it was a very nice turnout.
In the Announcer’s tower were two prestigious
individuals that we were proud to have visiting us.
Joann Ryan, the president of the Northwest Connecticut
Chamber of Commerce and Mayor Ryan Bingham of the city
of Torrington were here to enjoy the day. Mayor Bingham
welcomed everyone to Torrington and couldn’t say
enough about the distance that people traveled to race
at Foothills. Joann’s grandson, 7 yr old Danny
O’Leary was our honorary gate starter and pushed
the button in the first gate to open the race.
That first moto was the 35-40 expert / novice class
featuring two experts and two novices. As expected the
two experts finished 1-2 as Garrick Yanosky held of
a determined Bill Clinton for the win. Mike Jasensky
(X-Treme Marine) held off Matt Holderman as the first
novice across the stripe. In the 26-34 Expert class
Stampede’s Chris Giacomazzo won two of three for
the overall win while Mike Greco averaged out a second
place finish. The third spot went to Alex Rivera. It
was pretty neat happenings in the 17-18 Expert class
with only three riders present. However, all three won
one moto. Pauly Maher, in his first race after breaking
his hand in a non-BMX accident (Sort-of) won the first
moto but it was obvious that he was in some degree of
discomfort. The second moto went to Colby Lake while
Enzo Perez won the third. This relates to the official
overall finish of Colby Lake the winner, Enzo second
and Pauly third.
Josh Wedge continued his dominance in the 16 Expert
class as he beat William Barna all three rounds with
15 Novice Jason Kellogg finishing third. Again Jason,
please understand that being combined with experts mean
you get “Expert Points”. Your third place
finish is equivalent to a first place finish in a pure
Novice class. Great experience and nice points. Roberto
Elizondo (14 Novice) was in the same boat as he was
combined with two Experts in the 14 Expert / 14 Novice
class. Roberto finished third but with expert points
is the same as winning his class. Austin Cyr was the
winner with Stephen Kallas second. Kallas bailed hard
in turn two in the third round but was okay. The 12
Expert class featured the weekly battle between Dan
Delisle and Chris Pannullo (Fusco’s Auto Salvage).
Delisle was perfect with Chris right on his tail all
three rounds. Troy Atchison was third. Casey Tanner
won two motos in the 11 Expert class with an impressive
effort coming from second place finisher Jonathan Zeiner,
Chris Therriault was third.
In 7 Expert / 7 Novice combined the youngest rider in
the mix was the only expert; Hunter Zeiner was enjoying
his 7th birthday. Hunter would finish second behind
the strong ride of Alex Kuehn. Derek Eisenbach was third.
Michelle Main and Nicole Milton would finish 1-2 in
17 & over woman. Track Champion Angela Therriault
beat Carly Curtin who was making a rare appearance at
Foothills. Carly rides for Stylin Racing on the National
circuit and it was great to see her.
Katie Moody and Jayna Roy made up the 12 Girls class.
Katie would prevail. 5 riders in the 12 Girls class
was an impressive turnout. Mel Cianciola was the winner
as she kept a hard charging Jessy Maher behind her in
all three rounds. The third place points went to Michaela
Groves. Mackenzie Atchison held off Alexus Doty (Connecticut
Wells) in 10-11 Girls action.
Kyly Milton, who is pretty much unbeatable this year
continued her winning efforts in the 9 Girls class.
Second place went to Halee Persinger (Halee Monster)
and third went to Abby Mitchell.
Beth Passeck topped Ashley Jasensky (Mom & Dad Racing)
in 5-7 Girls. Josh Knowlton beat Carl Carlson in 19-25
/ 26-34 Novice racing. Wes Reel held off Matt Bovat
(Uncle Pat) and Trev Fox in a closely run 12 Novice
class. Dave Moody (D-Man) was the top gun in 10 expert
11 novice racing. The first novice across the stripe
was R.J. Miville and Tajeh Cozzaglio was behind him
for third. Two Experts and 4 Novices made up the 9 Expert
– 10 Novice class but they all rode like experts.
Not one of the six riders won more then one moto. The
official order was Nick Cote’ (9 Ex) first; Justin
Boissonnault (9 ex) second and Jake DesMarais (10 nov)
third.
In 8 Ex – 9 Nov action “Superfly”
Lane Maher (Hartford County Tattoo) was the winner with
Sky Domain in hot pursuit. Third went to Owen Giese.
In 8 Novice action Luke McAdams made it two of three
moto wins for the overall win. Rob Marcantonio was second
with Luke Petosa third. In 5-6 Novice racing Arefin
Milton was first, Kyle Kuehn second and third was Brad
Wohlers. Milton was the only 6 novice rider in the mix.
In Cruiser racing Rob Giese beat our senior racer Len
Ferris in the 40-44 / 50 & over division. Marianne
Sklarsky finished in front of Theresa Dengler in the
40-44 woman’s class. In the 25-29 / 30-34 / 35-39
cruiser class Tom Kuehn (35-39) and Greg Sloan (30-34)
really had the heavy comp goin on. Tom would win all
three rounds but sure had to work for it.
Jayna Roy beat Lisette Ortiz in the 14 & under cruiser
combined group. The 11-12 Cruiser racing featured 5
hot-rods that were battling hard. Dan Delisle held off
Casey tanner for the win with Chris Pannullo (National
Mail) a close third overall.
Nick Cote’ won the 9-10 cruiser division with
Austin Clinton finishing second. Sky Domain and Alex
Kuehn made up the 8 & under class with Sky the winner
this day.
With 70 Rookies in the house the excitement was at it’s
usual high level. The 17 & over Class was made up
of three riders who all enjoyed a win. However one would
experience both the thrill of victory and the agony
of defeat. Nick Roy, clearly the most skilled rider
in the mix, experienced one of the hardest wrecks this
year. After winning the first moto and well in the lead
in the second round, he appeared to come off his pedals
and go over the handlebars in mid air while skying the
camel jump coming out of turn one. ( See photo section).
He literally fell ten feet straight down and landed
on his hip. We are still waiting on his condition and
will provide an update in the latest news section of
the web site when we know more. He did walk off the
track and was going to go to his home-town emergency
room for evaluation last night. We are all holding our
breath on this one. The overall winner was Giovanni
Acevedo with Ray Clark second. Nick Landi dominated
the results in the 14 Rookies class. But it sure wasn’t
as easy as the final standings indicated. Jer Royer
was right there and looked like he would win a moto
until he slipped in the forth turn and that slip cost
him any shot at Landi. Third went to Dave Foster.
Alex Hubbard (Absolute masonry and Home Improvement)
won the 15 Rookie class again this week. Matt Anderson
was the second place rider with third going to Bobby
Gutmann. Amazingly there was no 14 Rookie class so next
up were the 13 yr olds. Josh Santiago and Dylan Vadney
traded wins in the first two rounds but the ty-breaking
third round went to Vadney. Josh settled for the second
spot and Justin Walter got the third place points.
Taylor Yurgalevicz made on e of the sweetest moves of
the day in the 12 Rookie class as he swooped under Josh
Macomber in the fourth turn in the first round for a
hard earned moto win. Macomber learned well and held
off Taylor the next two rounds for the overall win.
Jamie Lamb enjoyed a solid third place finish.
The first Main event of the day would be the 11 Rookie
gang. Bryan Basile was perfect through the motos and
he continued his streak by capturing the Main event
win. Erik Dugan was second and the third spot was occupied
by Chris Stewart. The 10 Rookie main event went to Nick
Bates with Brandon Ortiz right behind him followed by
Rich Russell.
William Guido aced a perfect right through the main
event in 9 Rookie competition. Steven Hull, who is one
win away from the Novice ranking will have to wait a
bit as he finished a close second. Third went to Dustin
Petosa. 6 riders strong was the 8 Rookie class so no
Main event required to determine the winner. John Cox
clearly was the fastest this day in the early going
but a wreck in the third round sealed his fate and assured
that Colin Riggs (Tactical Arms) would earn the win.
Jason Lee was second and John Cox would have to settle
for a third.
The 7 Rookie Main event saw the continued dominance
of Casey Navin who must be getting close to his Novice
ranking. He had little trouble in acing a perfect today.
Seth Shaw had a nice second with Dustin Souza finishing
third. Justin Falasco was the 6 yr old Rookie winner
with James Cox in tow followed by Ian Fosbrook.
The 5 & under class finished the day out with Landon
Richard being unbeatable this day. Danny DesMarais was
second and the third spot went to Lucas North.
There was a small Money-Open class today and it was
between three riders. Allen Currier, Pete Balotti and
Enzo Perez. It was great to see Currier back and he
was running pretty good but crashing in turn 5 in the
first round would essentially kill his chances of a
win. Perez won two of the three motos and that was enough
to grab the cash.
For complete finish report
Don’t forget Double Points
next week. Possible double header the following week.
Free Clinic tonight starting at 6:00 pm
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