Race Report August 8th, 2010

Week #15

As the end of the season is now in sight, sometimes the rider count will dwindle significantly as vacations occur or even the interest in BMX racing wanes in the minds of the racers. With a single point team race scheduled for this week, and pretty nice weather predicted, it seemed like a rejuvenated competition level was about to occur. 50 motos and 211 riders are pretty impressive for a race in the dog days of summer.

After two races last week, there was a need for two Riders Of The Week to be named. For his efforts in race #1 last week, Ethan Russell-Ward was given the honor. Ethan was not there yesterday so his interview will take place next Sunday. In race #2 Isabella Sanchez was the Rider of the Week. She named her cousin, Derek Eisenbach as her favorite rider.

When the gate dropped for the first group (35-40 Expert and novice combined, Bill Clinton easily won the first two rounds but a third in round three made it close. Close only counts in horseshoes and grenades though and he still had enough point to eke out the overall win in front of Scott Merenda and Eric Yuhas. It was good to see Garrick Yanosky back on the bike even though he was just kinda going through the motions.

Good racing in the 19-25 / 26-34 experts with Chris Giacomazzo and Billy Ripley trading wins. Billy’s two of three was good enough for the overall, Chris settled into second place and the third sport went to Ben Atchison for a Stampede sweep.

Pauly Maher enjoyed the first Perfect of the day in 17-18 Expert and Nov. Josh Wedge was second and Jim Ferris, the only Novice in the group finishing third. Again, for those that are not aware, a nove who is combined in an expert moto earns expert points. Third place in a expert moto is worth 50 points, the same as a win in a Novice moto.

The next “perfect” (Winning every moto) went to Team Edge Yellow’s Jason Chamis as he turned the dirty deed on the two novices in his 16X / 16N motos. Jason Kellogg and Alex Hubbard was the finishing order behind him.

The 15X class was pretty exciting as Austin Cyr, the current points leader for the Track Championship, was beaten by Zach (The Animal) Andringa in the first round. Austin came back to win the next two for the overall title. Third went to Tim Osbourne.

In 13X / 13N action it was the usual hot rods in the lineup. O’Neil, Pannullo, Delisle, Dickinson with novice rider Wes Reel thrown into the mix. Dan Delisle aced the first two rounds assuring himself of the overall but it was Chris Pannullo (Fusco’s Used Auto Parts) and riding for team Edge Black who pulled a nice upset by winning round three. That would give him second place in front of Zach O’Neil.

New Yorks Chance Terpening won everything in the 12X class. Casey Tanner was second and the third spot went to Jon Zeiner.
The three for one class (7x / 8X / 8N) saw 7X Hunter Zeiner claim the top prize with 8N Derek Eisenbach second and third was 8X Alex Kuehn.

In 16 Girls / 17 & over Women it was Angela Therriault, wearing some bright yellow pants, scoring a “perfect” in her motos. Nicole Milton was second with Michelle Main third.

In the 14 Girls class the order was the same in all four rounds. Brianna Clinton (Mad BMX), Katie moody (Stampede), Jayna Roy (Cutting Edge) and Ashlee Hodge. We now say goodbyt to ashlee as she is heading back home in North Carolina.

In 12 yr old girls racing there were six ladies and three different moto winners. Round one went to Melanie Cianciola, Round two went to Alexus Doty with the third round going to Jess Maher after both Mel and Lexy tangled twice in the same moto. The overall win went to Melanie, second overall went to Jen Cote’ while Doty finished a distant third. This was the first loss at Foothills for Alexus Doty this year and what an impressive streak it was. With the pressure now off, look for her to finish the year as the front runner for the female track champion.

Reining Rider of the Week Isabella Sanchez again finished ahead of the other 11 yr old girls with Mackenzie Atchison (Stampede) second and Lauren Asselin (Zero Tolerance) third.

Kyly Milton continued her dominance in 10 yr old girls as she go the job done in a class that featured a full gate of six young ladies. Chloe Arnold was second but the gap between her and Kyly is definitely closing. Chloe Bourgoin was third and she is also noticeably improving.

The 9 yr old Girls class was owed this day by Zero Tolerance’s Ashley Asselin as she was unbeatable. Lainie Stroh (K & R Services was second with the third spot going to Julia Brock. Gianna Spina is finally back from vacation and looked good in her new uniform even though it got pretty dusty after her third round wipe out.

Hope Maher, on her 8th birthday just edged out her Mad BMX Teammate Dixie D’Amelio in the 8 yr old class. Dixie managed some first place moto points by winning the first round but Hope nailed the next two.

With 37 females competing this day, the last of the groups was the 5-7 class with six riders going for it. Rileigh Valliere (Stampede) aced the perfect forcing Genevieve Asselin to settle for second place and Ashley Jasensky (X-Treme Marine) third.

In 41 & over Novice action Fred (Short-Memory) Roy could not be caught. Jason Gladstone gave it his best shot but was second while the third spot went to new rider John Michaelman. John’s brake was hung up against his rear wheel so his speed was way down. At least his legs got a good workout.

Mike Iurato, Dave Lamb and William Chaput all enjoyed wins in the 7 rider 14X / 15N class that featured two girls jumping in the fray.

Autumn Classey and Crystal Lumbra sure brightened up the class but the top three in the Main event would be Iurato, Lamb and Chris Pfeffer (George’s Music Center) riding for Team Edge Black.

Tom Goclowski easily won the 14 Novice class with Josh Santiago and Dylan Vadney third.

With 6 riders registered but only two of them Experts, Mr. Bobblehead, aka Dave Moody, had it go all his way in the 11X / 12N class this day. Connor Arnold, who recently moved up to Novice was an impressive second while the third spot went to Expert Jake DesMarais.

Nick Cote’ won the 10X / 11N class while everyone else was having classic battles for the second spot. With everyone trading finishing positions back in the pack, it would be The Marshall, Matt Dillon, finishing second and Austin Clinton (Mad BMX), finishing third.

In 9X / 10N racing there were ten riders vying for the eight available spots in the main event. Stampede’s Jon Moura and Steven Hull were swapping moto wins in their group while Sky Domain was winning all of his. When it was over Stampede’s Doman remained perfect. Jon Moura second and Nick Oshiro slid into the third spot.

A full gate of 9 Novs were in the house and Tom Gladstone was the “Dominator: in this one as no one would catch him all day. Team Edge Yellow’s Colin Riggs hung on for the second spot and Zach Ferris, also riding for Team Edge Yellow, was third.

One 6X and two 7 Novs made up the line-up in 6X / 7N racing. The expert was Derek Fantano and he finished sandwiched between the two older novices. The front side was Finny Milton and the back side was Matt Webb.

The 6 novice class saw the continued impressive moves by Landon Richard who was the winner. Brady Valliere salvaged a second place finish while the third spot went to Kyle Kuehn.

As always there was some good racing in the Cruiser classes starting with the 50 & over gang where Butch Feitel would put another win in the record books for Zero Tolerance. Joe Watley and Jay Francis finished second and third.

Bobby DesMarais was perfect in 40-44 Cruiser action and almost did a perfect loop out going into the second turn in the third round. Nice save Bob. Greg Fantano had the best few as he finished second.

The usual intense battle between Greg Sloan and Tom Kuehn took place in the 35-39 Cruiser class with Sloan making it two of three moto wins for the overall title. Kuehn was second and Erik Maher watched it all happen from the third spot.

In the 13-14 cruiser class Dan Delisle finished third in the first round then came back to win the next two for the overall. Zack O’Neil was second and third went to Cutting Edge’s Ian Dickinson.

Jayna Roy (Cutting Edge), Lisette Ortiz (Ortiz Clan) and Therese Campbell finished 1-2-3 in their mixed class.

In 11-12 Cruiser action it was Casey Tanner and R.J. Miville finishing 1-2.

8 & under / 9-10 action featured Nick Cote’s perfect, Dallas Tuttle’s second and Evan Merenda’s third.

70 Rookies were on hand and their style of racing is always exciting to watch.

In 17 & over action, my description as “Legion of Doom” seemed appropriate as the main event was wild and wholly as depicted in the photo section. In the Main Matt Bennett was the winner but it was second straight away carnage behind him as there was a big wreck on the big double. With Matt Delisle, Jorge Cruz and Ray Quilles all bailing the second spot went to Garrett Gracie and third went to Giovanni Acevedo. Everyone appeared to be okay as they limped away.

In 16 Rookie Trevor Simmons and Gian Gonzalez traded moto wins in the first two rounds. The decided third round went to Simmons for the overall win. Dom Dolce was third.

Mike Castle, Liam Stone and Brenden Aleia finished 1-2-3 in the 15 Rookie class. Aleia would crash pretty hard in the third round but showed some technique in his tuck and roll and was just fine after he located his glasses in the grass.

In 14 Rookie racing Darren Zimmerman (David J. Mahoney Painting) came out on top even with a third place finish in the third round. Kris Holliday, all the way from Richmond Virginia, was second and Kyle Brock was third.

Four riders in the 13 Rookie class and all would finish in the same order all three round with John McKay first, Jose Estralla second and Tom Kozal third.

Six riders in the 12 Rookie class and Austin Andrews efforts would be strong enough for him to earn the overall win. Justin Michaelman (Cutting Edge) enjoyed a solid second place finish and Jeff Vadney was third.

With 10 riders registered in the 11 Rookie class a main event would be required to crown a champion. Mike Schlesinger would claim the crown with a perfect. Ian Henry, not racing BMX since he was 4 yrs old was impressive with a second place finish, even after crashing in practice, and Brandon Ortiz (Ortiz Clan) was third. Welcome back Ian! Goodbye to Homer Hodge and have a safe trip back to North Carolina. See you next year.

Dustin Petosa was the champ in 1o Rookie action as he worked hard to hold off Dale Doty (Connecticut Wells) and Frankie Buckley.

No main would be required but there were five pretty good riders in the 9 Rookie class. Jordon Benis was unbeatable as he aced a perfect score but all other positions were definitely up for grabs. After the scores were tallied it would be Jason Lee (Mirror Polishing and Plating) earning a second with Nick Piper finishing third.

A main event would be required in the 8 Rookie class and this would be unpredictable as Dan Osanitsch, Carter Stroh, Chris Guido, Ethan Dauphinais and Evan Merenda all won motos. The hard fought main went to Osanitsch with Dustin Souza earning a second while Carter Stroh (A & S Construction) powered his way to a third.

The 7 Rookie class saw Ian Fosbrook earn a perfect with Tobey Barlow, in his first race ever earned a second and Ryan Hayes a third.

A full gate of six riders in the 6 Rookie class saw Aman Egan (Indian Mountain Mower Service) earn the perfect score. Dan DesMarais (Bikers Edge) was second with Ian Hayes earning a third.

In 5 & under action Sam DeGrange’s two of three moto wins was good enough for the overall title as he was riding under his sponsorship from Betera Chrysler – Jeep. Robbie Webb was a very close second while Anthony Starr Bennett battled hard for a third.

Dont forget, we start 1 hour later next Sunday. Registration from11:00 to 1:30 with gate drop at 2:30.

For complete finish report