Race Report May 31st, 2009

WEEK #4

Today’s event was a good test of what our “normal” attendance might be for the season as there was no holiday, no nearby National event and the weather was cloudless, at least in the morning. This would be the first time since our opening day that this would be the case. When registration was over, it would be a decent rider count with 180 riders in class and another 14 entered in the “Open Wheels” money race.
In the pre race festivities 7 yr old Jacob Bacis was honored as or “Rider-Of-The-Week” for his efforts the previous week.
With 48 motos on tap, it was another on-time start as the gate dropped at 1:29 pm. First up was the 35-40 Ex and nov class and it was great to see an old friend Scott Merenda back at Foothills for the first time since our opening year 15 seasons ago. Scotty won every moto with Mike Jasensky (X-Treme Marine) second and the third spot going to Matt Holderman.
In 26-34 Experts Mike Greco won the class by winning two of the three motos. Ben Atchison was second and the third port went to Tony Kumiega. (More on Tony later)
9 riders were entered in the 17-18 nov / 19-25 ex / nov class and the motos would see Matt Racine and Devin Kelly dominate in their motos. The main event would be won by Aggro’s Dan Bycenski as Racine didn’t show for the main. Cody Buck was second with Kelly finishing third.
In 15 nov/16 expert / nov it was Colby Benoit (Pauly Maher’s shirt) and Josh Wedge perfect in their motos. When the main event crossed the line it was Shaun O’Connor winning it with Colby second and Josh third.
In 14ex / 14 nov action there was no main but Kyle Block would probably have won it if there was as he dominated every moto. Tim Osborne was second and the overall third sport went to Aggro’s Tommy McClure. Tom probably would have been the second place finisher had it not been for his third turn crash when he tangled with Tim Osborne in the third round.
In 13ex racing Austin Cyr and Shawn Mc Auley traded closely contested moto wins in the first two rounds but the tie breaking third round went to Cyr. Alec Norkowski was third overall.
In 11ex / 11 nov racing Casey Tanner and Todd Maniscalchi would take their perfect days into the main event. When the shootout was over Todd was the winner with Casey second and Chris Therriault third.
Only three 9 experts were in the house and the finishing order was Justin Boissonneault first, Ryan Ellefson second and Nick Cote’ third.
In 17& over womans action Nicole Milton would make it two of three moto wins over Allycia Reel. Allycia would fall after racing was over and was last seen in the reg building putting a bandaid on a skinned elbow.
In 14-15 girls Angela Therriault was again the fastest rider in that group this week with Crystal Lumbra and Ashley Royer finishing second and third.
Katie Moody held off Ashleigh Johnson (Esquire Cleaners) for the win in the 12-13 Girls class.
In 11 Girls Samantha Lumbra, Jen Cote’ and a much improved Jillian Sayre were having great battles. Jillian was really looking aggressive and much improved and was right in the mix. She took an unfortunate fall in turn one in the third round that cost her any chance but she was really looking like she is going to be a very good BMX’er. The win went to Samantha Lumbra
In 10 yr old girls racing I misreported last week that Alexus Doty (Connecticut Wells) was the winner with Emily Daigle second. Well I had it just backwards as Emily was last weeks winner. This week she would be a repeat winner as she held off Alexus in two of three motos for the overall win.
Mackenzie Atchison easily won the 8 yr old Girls class as she finished well ahead of second place finisher Kyly Milton and third place new rider Madison Birch.
In 5-7 action for the Girls, it was Hope Maher (Mark T. Kelley Construction LLC) winning it on her first ride on her brothers old bike. Elizabeth Passeck was second and third went to Ashley Jasensky. Ashley fell in one round of motos but luckily was just fine.
Its always a classic battle in 12ex and 13 nov when Dan Delisle and Chris Pannullo are paired up. That was the case today with Dan winning first and third round for the overall win. Chris was second and third was Jashua Rivera.
12 nov rider Nate Perkins was perfect in his class with Matt Bovat (Uncle Pats Memory) second and Wes Reel third.
In 10 nov racing, Justin Rivera beat a determined RJ Miville two of the three motos for the win. RJ settled into the second spot with third going to Pete Franolich. (Villaris Martial Arts). Great racing action was the feature of the 8 ex / 9 nov class. Jake DesMarais won the first moto, Lane Maher (Hartford County tattoo) the second and Jake came back to win the third. Sky Domain, finishing third, was right in the mix every moto.
In 7 nov / 8 nov Brandon Jasensky (Vectro Networks) would make his debut as a novice as he won his class the day before at Falcon and earned his move-up. Today the class would belong to Collin Penn with Craig Lumbra second and Jasensky third.
In 5-6 nov racing it was Hunter Zeiner (Gramma – Mary Shorette) winning every moto and Finny Milton second with Derek Fantano third.
In the 40-44 Cruiser class Tom Johnson got the best of a closely contested battle with Len Ferris. It was about as close as Connecticut is in proximity to the state of California.
In 30-34 / 35-39 Cruiser action Garrick Yanosky was the easy winner but the battles behind him were exciting. Second place would go to Tom Kuehn and third to Erik Maher.
Gina Layman (KFC / Double Dip) topped Theresa Dengler in 35-39 / 40-44 Cruiser racing for the females.
Dan Delisle won the mixed Cruiser class for the 9-10, 11-12 and 13-14 age group. Second across the line was Chris Panullo (National Mail) and third was Chris Pfeffer (George’s Music Center)
In 15 & over Rookie combined racing Benny Ayala and Jeremy Royer would trade wins and trade crashes as both won motos and both crashed. The overall winner was Ayala, second was Steven Maynard with Royer third.
In 14 Rookie action Roberto Elizondo held off Trevor Simmons.
A Main event was required to determine the winner in 13 roookie action. Darren Zimmerman won two motos, Brett Bosek won a moto and Andrew Wright won three motos setting up a classic main event shootout. This main would be marked with the possible broken wrist of Darren Zimmerman (David J Mahoney Painting) as he might have re-broken an old injury. Andrew Wright won the main, Brett Bosek second and the third place award went to Chad Daigle.
Ken Grenier was perfect in the 12 Rookie class with Josh Macomber second and Tristan Lowry third.
Neal Backman won all his motos plus the main event in the 11 Rookie class. He finished just ahead of Mike Wasilonsky (Zeller Tire) and Jeff Vadney.
Erik Dugan showed the other 10 yr old Rookies how its done as he won everything in his class. The second spot was claimed by Bryan Basile with third going to Tajeh Cozzaglio.
The 9 yr old Rookie class was sure interesting. In the second round Steven Hull wrecked and Brandon Ortiz, instead of gaining a position by default, stoped to make sure Steven was okay. It was a great display of sportsmanship.
In the main event Eric Passeck would lead start to finish. Alex Wilcox second and third was William Guido.
In 8 Rookie action Jason Lee, after finishing second in every moto, saved the best for last and won the Main event. Connor Calarco, who won all of his motos had to settle for second and Jack Schiavone was third.
The biggest class of the day was the 7 yr old Rookie class as 13 riders were registered. It would take semis just to determine who would be in the main event. When the dust finally settled it was Jacob Bacis winning the hard fought contest with Casey Navin second and David Reyes third.
Riley Tweedie won the 6 rookie class as he managed to say in front of Justin Falasco (2nd) and Tristan Coolbeth ( 3rd).
The always popular 5 & under rookie class featured 9 riders. Moto winners were Dan DesMarais, Landon Richard and Max Gustafson. The Main event was won by Landon Richard with Max Gustafson second and third went to Bradleigh Wohlers.
In the Open Wheels class 14 riders were entered. They were split into two groups of seven riders with three being eliminated after three rounds of motos. The motos featured fast, hard close racing that had the crowd cheering. When it was main event time the crowds cheers would turn to gasps. As they rushed down the front straight it was Billy Ripley looking like he would challenge for the lead heading into the first turn. Just short of the turn he exploded and Tony Kumiega, having nowhere to go slammed into him. Pete Lorenzo was the eventual winner with Shaun O’Connor second and third place money went to Ty Johnson. Ripley would be okay but Kumiega was slow to get up and was seen limping gingerly as he walked to the parking lot area. In speaking with people afterward it seems he virtually ripped off his big toe nail. OUCH! Tony, I hope your okay and back soon.
Next week is two races. The first race with be followed by a two-moto race representing the make up from the opening day rainout. See you all there.

For a complete race report