Race Report July 26th, 2009

WEEK #13

Well, here we go again with competing against another NBL National Event. When the NBL National schedule came out and Trumbull was awarded a National Event we had a couple of decisions to make. As a “Host State” for one of these events, its customary for all the tracks within that state to provide volunteers to help. All the tracks certainly came through and the Trumbull National was a well run, fun event. It does however, have an effect on any local program running at the same time. So our options were to not schedule our race for that weekend or go ahead and run it recognizing that our “National Riders” would probably not run both. In recognizing our commitment to the grass roots side of BMX, and our dedication to our “local riders”, we unanimously voted to run a scheduled race but start it one hour later to allow our volunteers to make the trip up from Trumbull and also any riders who might want to race both. We knew full well that it would not be a big race, but felt at the time, and still do, that it was the right thing to do. We certainly have no regrets.
Compounding the situation was the fact that the National Weather Service had issued flood warnings for Litchfield County and predicted torrential rainfall including possible hail around 3:00 p.m.
At 2:00 pm we were pretty much ready to go but because we had scheduled the start of the race to be at 2:30 and all riders who were registered had not yet checked in, we simply had to wait. At 2:20 pm the skies revealed that rain was imminent. Only one rider had not yet checked in so we decided to start the race in hopes that he would arrive before we finished the first round. If need be we would hold his moto until the end of the first round.
Only 128 riders were on hand and were split into 35 motos. We started the race but in moto #15 the rain came hard enough to stop the race. Doppler radar accessed through cell phones revealed that the rain cell was relatively small and we decided to give it 10 minutes. On cue, it began to clear 10 minutes later. We asked the crowd, by making noise, did they prefer a two or three moto system. It was obvious that the majority preferred a two moto transfer at this point and that’s what we did.
For his efforts last week, 10 yr old Rookie Bryan Basile was named our Rider-Of-The-Week and he named Trevor Fox as his favorite rider.
Mixed classes were everywhere and right off the start moto one and two were for 15 nov / 16 Ex / 26-34 nov / 35-40 nov. Wow, how do I even describe that? Anyway, the lineup in the main event would be (4) 16 experts, (1) 15 nov, (1) 30 nov and (1) 40 nov. Josh Wedge was the first across the stripe with Colby Benoit second and Kyle Strong third and all 16 ex’s. Mike Jasensky (Xtreme Marine) (40 nov) finished 6th and Carl Carlson (30 nov) was 7th. The only 15 nov, Jason Kellogg was 5th. Remember, all riders received “Expert Points” for their efforts.
Three riders in the 14 Expert class and Austin Cyr would finish with a perfect score. Second went to Stephen Kallas with Alec Norkowski, feeling the effects of a practice round wipe-out, finishing third.
Only two 14 yr old girls racing today and Michaela Lourenco would finish in front of Ashley Royer.
Katherine Moody and Jayna Roy, who were both, racing earlier in the day at Trumbull finished 1-2 in the 13 Girls class with Ashlee Hodge finishing third. Ashlee is honing her skills each week and definitely getting faster.
In the 11-12 Girls class Jess Maher would prevail (Seems to happen every week) with Michaela Groves second and Alexus Doty (Connecticut Wells) third.
Kyly Milton dominated the 8-9 Girls class yet again this week as she seems to be setting a new standard on how girls race BMX. Abi Mitchell was second and Beth Passeck finished third.
In 5-7 Girls racing Hope Maher, another rider who raced Trumbull in the morning, raced her way to a win over Ashley Jasensky (Mom & Dad Racing).
As we move forward, remember that under the NBL rules, any rider who races with an expert in his class will receive expert points. A novice finishing third in a pure novice class would normally receive 30 points. A novice finishing third in a class that has experts on board will receive 40 points (equivalent to a win in a pure novice class).
In 13 Ex / 14 Nov action Multi-time State Champion, Shawn MaCauley got the job done with Roberto Elizondo second and Chris Pfeffer (George’s Music center) third.
12 Ex / 13 nov results featured a win by Dan Delisle, Second place to Chris Pannullo (Fusco’s Auto Salvage) and third to Matt Mitchell.
11 Ex / 12 Nov action saw Doug Cable dominate the class with Jon Zeiner (Mary Shorette) second and Wes Reel third.
10 Ex / 11 nov racing saw the continued improvement of Robbie DesMarais as he was perfect after winning his main in Trumbull earlier in the day. Second went to Dave Moody while third went to Kobe Covington.
In 9 ex / 10 nov racing Nick Cote’ won everything in a nice six rider class. The second spot went to R.J. Miville while Justin Boissonneault slid into the third spot.
8 ex / 9 nov results were Lane Maher (Hartford County Tattoo) the winner, Sky Domain second and Mike Michonski third.
7 and 8 yr old novices were combined and Collin Penn and Lucas Petosa would finish first and second. 7 yr old Novice Zach Ferris (Tactical Arms) was third across the stripe.
6 yr old expert Hunter Zeiner (Mary Shorette), as the only 6 ex beat the only 6 novice, Arefin Milton who finished second and the only 5 novice Derek Fantano who finished third.
A very limited number of Cruisers were in the house and the 40-44 class saw Bobby DesMarais beating Rob Giese for the win. Joey Watley was entered into the event but decided not to race on the wet track.
Marianne Sklarsky and Jayna Roy were paired together with Marianne showing no mercy to the younger Jayna Roy.
Greg Sloan, AJ Roy and Jake Bell would finish in that order in the combined class of 25-29 / 30-34 cruisers. Mike Vallone and Dave Cruz were paired up in a combined class of 15-16 / 17-24 cruisers. Vallone would prevail.
Nick Cote’ won the 8 & under / 9-10 cruiser class with Sky Domain second. RJ Miville was seen at the picnic table when his moto left the gate in the second round OOPS!
That fluorescent Flyer, Nick Roy, aced a perfect in the 17 & over rookie class. Ray Clark and Giovanni Acevedo finished second and third. 16 yr old rookie Nick Landi got it done in his class as he managed to keep second place finisher Jayson Lanzi and third place finisher Jer Royer behind him.
Alex Hubbard (Absolute Masonry and Home Improvement) easily won the 15 rookie class with Matt Henderson second and Gian Gonzelez third.
14 yr old rookie racing only had three riders and it was Dave Lamb the top dog this day. Brenden Aleia looked good for a second place run and Jose Torrez was third.
In the 13 yr old rookie class Darren Zimmerman (David J Mahoney Painting) was the rider to beat and no one could this day. Rylan Vadney was second and Scott Colby was third. Scott fell hard in practice and just touched the gate to get the race in. Hope he is feeling better. Six riders in the 12 rookie class and Josh Macomber wasn’t impressed but sure rode impressively. He aced a perfect with Kyle Stricker second and Jamie Lamb managed a third.
We also enjoyed 6 riders in the 11 rookie class. Taylor Nelson (CT Basement Systems) was todays winner. Erik Dugan was a close second and third went to Chris Stewart.
Bryan Basile reminded us why he was the Rider Of The Week last week as he repeated his winning ways today in the 10 rookie class. Justin Fracasso was second and Alex Gauthier was third. Steven Hull, with a pretty nasty looking crash in practice, came back to win the 9 rookie main event. William Guido was second and Dustin Petosa was third.
In the 8 yr old Rookie class there were two riders going for the glory. There was much more at stake for one of them. All the way around in the track in the main, Ed Lentz was in front of Colin Riggs. As they came out of turn four, Lentz was in the middle of the track riding fast heading for the rhythm section. Riggs saw the open door and snuck in on the inside. That set him up for the inside line in turn five and once there, there was no catching him. Lentz will have to wait for at least one more race for his 15th rookie win and promotion to the novice class. It was an excellent race. Third went to Jason Lee.
6-7 yr old rookie class racing saw Dustin Souza win the first place trophy. New rider Henry martin had an impressive second place finish and the third spot went to Aman Egan.

For a complete finish report

As always, thanks for your support.

DONT FORGET DOUBLE POINTS NEXT WEEK