Race Report July 19th, 2009

WEEK #12

Torrential rains on Thursday and Saturday rendered the track unridable on Sunday morning. In fact, this was the worst I have seen the track during mid season in many years.

Arriving at the track at 7:15 Sunday morning it was time to start the extensive repairs, and all by hand. By 9:30 am there was a good group of individuals helping out and at 10:45, work was completed after approximately 12 wheel barrels full of clay were brought out to assist in the repairs and using a pickup truck to roll the areas where the clay was added. The entire track was raked and although it is down to the gravel base, at least it was ridable.
A big thanks to everyone who came out early and helped. You all saved the day.

In the pre-race ceremonies 11 yr old Samantha Lumbra was named the rider of the Week and she named her brother Craig her favorite rider.

159 riders including those in the “Open” money class were on hand and split into 45 motos.

21 girls were on hand providing some great female competition. The best of the powder puff squad was the full gate in 9 yr old action. Joining our regulars was a rider who I have had the pleasure of calling some of her motos at National Events around the country. Halee Persinger has moved from Tennessee to Connecticut and you can bet we will all see a lot of her for the remainder of the summer. Welcome to the Northeast brand of BMX Halee, you are a welcomed edition to our weekly series. Halee joined our regular hot-rods of Kyly Milton, Mackenzie Atchison, Madi Birch, Keely Michaud and Katrina Campbell. All the motos featured great action and Halee had the lead a few times in her Foothills Debut. When the dust finally settled it would be Mackenzie Atchison (Mac-Attack) using her skills to find a way to win which she did in all three motos. It looked like Halee would settle into the second spot but maybe she wasn’t used to a 1200 foot track as Kyly passed her every time on the final straight for a second place finish.
Hope Maher (Mark T. Kelley Construction) had to really work hard for the win in 5-7 girls with Rileigh Valliere second and Ashley Jasensky (Mom and Dad Racing) third.
Samantha Lumbra was able to beat Alexus Doty (Connecticut Wells) in 11 Girls racing.
Michaela Lourenco, brand new rider in 14 girls class won every moto over Ashley Royer who was not her usual perky self. Ashley spent some time in the Reg building after feeling faint in practice. She still put up a good effort in her racing. Angela Therriault beat Stephanie Wohlers, another new rider, in 15 Girls-17& over woman’s action. Katie Moody was perfect in 13 girls as she stayed in front of second place finisher Jayna Roy and third place finisher Ashlee Hodge all day long.
5 riders put on a good show in the 5 & under rookie class. These ankle-biting moto mites really were going had. Brady Valliere was the most consistent with three wins for the overall title. Second went to Azra Milton with third going to Mason Holderman.
Justin Falasco topped new rider Aiden maple in the 6 Rookie class. In the five rider 7 rookie class the top three spots were the same order in all three rounds. It was “Jumpin” Jeremiah Taylor 1st, Casey Navin 2nd and Chris Guido 3rd. Tanner Storz won the 8 yr old Rookie class by winning two of three motos. Jason Lee was second and the third place award went to Nick Piper. The 9 Rookie class was big with 9 riders in the house so a main event would be required to determine a winner. Dustin Petosa won all of his motos and Steven Hull (Sukulski Millworks) did the same. This looked like a classic showdown for the main event. Into turn one they flew but it looked like an explosion of 9 yr old rookies as three of them went down hard. Hull was able to cruise to another win, William Guido was second and Connor Calarco was third. The crash victims (Petosa, Brandon Galeski and Bubba Hodge) would all ride off okay.
“Flyin” Bryan Basile continued his surge through the 10 Rookie class with another win. The second spot went to Nick Bates and third went to Justin Fracasso. The 11 Rookie class featured a main event and it would be Neal Bachman winning the big one after acing a wins in two of his motos as well as the main. Taylor Nelson (CT Basement Systems) was second and third place went to Chris Stewart. Jamie Lamb was the only 12 yr old Rookie here so he was paired with four 13 yr old Rookies. David Lamb would win the class with Josh Santiago second and Dylan Vadney third. Alex Hubbard (Absolute Masonry and Home Improvement) won the 14 Rookie class with Brenden Aleia second. A mixed bag of older Rookies as 15,16 and a 24 yr old were combined together. Nick Roy (24 yrs old) was the winner with Nick Landi second and Bobby Guttman third.
There wasn’t too many pure Novice class but an impressive one was the 5 & under Novice class with three riders ready to go. Derek Fantano was the fastest of the three with Kyle Kuehn second and Brad Wohlers third. Collin Penn was perfect in the 8 yr old Novice class as everyone else was trading positions all afternoon. When it was over the second spot went to Lucas Petosa and third went to Craig Lumbra. The 6 and 7 y old Novices were combined with one 6 yr old Expert; the infamous Hunter Zeiner. It was Zeiner winning everything with Alex Kuehn second and Arefin Milton third. Two 9 yr old Novices were combined with two 8 yr old Experts as the NBL considers this situation the same class, in other words a 1 yr younger expert is equal to a 1 yr older Novice. This day the two Experts would prevail as Lane Maher (Hartford County Tattoo) beat Sky Domain for the win. Third went to Owen Giese. Remember any Novice combined with an Expert earns “expert” points. It was pretty much the same situation in 10 Nove-9 Expert racing as 3 Novs were combined with 2 Experts. The Experts again prevailed with Nick Cote’ and Justin Boissonneault finished 1 – 2. The third spot went to RJ Miville. In 26-34 Expert / 35-40 Novice racing, Ben Atchison was the winner with 40 yr old Novice Mike Jasensky (Xtreme Marine) second and third went to Matt Holderman. Jorge Requena held off a determine Devin Kelly for the win in 19-25 Ex and Nov with the third spot going to Hector Gonzalez. In 17-18 ex and nov combined it was the Chilean colors of Enzo Perez the winner Cody Sheridan second and Josh Sanford (Midtown Auto Parts) third. In 16 Ex -15-16 Nov combined it was Josh Wedge perfect for the day but, in the third round, “Candy” Anthony Reilly (Auntie Leighann’s Day Care) had it goin on with the lead coming out of turn two when his pedal hit the jump and flipped him over the bars. It was probably the fastest “Ant” has probably ever gone and we hope this is a confidence builder for him. Second place went to Colby Benoit with third going to Reilly.
Austin Cyr and Kyle Block really went at it in 14Ex-14nov action and it would be the three time track champ Kyle Block the eventual winner. Cyr was second and the third spot went to Tim Osborne. In 13Ex-13Nov racing Chris Pfeffer (George’s Music center) aced a rare perfect for himself with an impressive showing. Settling into the second spot was a hard-charging Jash Rivera and Gabe Cruz was third. In 12Ex-12Nov racing Dan Delisle and Chris Pannullo would stage their weekly battle with Danny winning this one. Chrispy (Fusco’s Auto Salvage) was second with the third spot going to Nate Perkins. 10Ex-11Ex and 11 Novs were thrown together to create a class that needed a main event to decide a winner. The “D-Man” Dave Moody would win the main with the second place award going to Casey Tanner and third was Doug Cable (Gooseboro Drive in) third.
Moving onto the Cruisers it was Sky Domain and Alex Kuehn finishing 1-2 in 8 & under action. Nick Cote’ and RJ Miville 1-2 in 9-10 Racing. Dan Delisle doubled by also winning the 11-12 Cruiser class, Chris Pannullo (National Mail) was second and Chris Therriault was third. In a 12 & over girls cruiser class Angela Therriault, Jayna Roy and Lisette Ortiz would finish 1-2-3. Mike Vallone and Chris Pfeffer were paired together with Vallone winning this mixed age class. In 25-29 action AJ Roy would beat his buddy Jacob Bell two of three for the win. Tommy Kuehn and Greg Sloan were rippin around the track in 30-34 / 35-39 action and it was Kuehn coming out on top. Marianne Sklarsky (was that a little lace I was seeing) was the dominatrix in 40-44 Woman’s Cruiser action with Renee Lamoine second and Therese Campbell third. Glen Giese and Rob Giese would finish 1-2 in 40-44 men’s cruisers.
The Money Open would feature 8 riders who were split into two groups of four. The top six riders would transfer to the main event. The fun part was that each round of motos were scrambled so they never had the same mix of riders in them. Winning the moto money was Pete Lorenzo with John Pinsonnault second place cash. In the main event it looked like an upset was in the making as Johnny P had the lead out of turn one, all the way up the second and third straights into turn three. Turn three should be called “Lorenzo’s Loop” as once again he dove to the inside and got alongside Johnny. Into turn four and it would be The Pistol the rest of the way. Pinsonnault was second and the third place cash went to Balotti.
That’s it for this week; don’t forget, because of the National Event in Trumbull we will be starting one hours later next week. Registration is from 11:00 to 1:30 with Gate drop at 2:30. Will some of our regular volunteers being at the National, any help we can get on Sunday morning to get the track ready would be most appreciated. See you all next Sunday.

For a complete finish report

As always, thanks for your support.