Race Report June 5th, 2011

Week #6

Okay so here we are only 6 weeks into the 2011 season and “The New NBL” and their ground breaking-think–outside-the-box new membership program has caused them to virtually run out of money. In reality, despite the confusion, anger and animosity that this situation has caused, never mind the loss of new riders, it may actually be the one thing that puts BMX Racing back onto a path of growth for the first time in a few years. Unfortunately that may not happen until the 2012 season.

USA BMX, if all goes according to the current plan, will be the newly formed unified governing body of BMX racing in the United States. No more sanction wars between the NBL and the ABA. These two 30 year old plus organizations would be operating under one umbrella called USA BMX. This organization would be managed by the current owners of the privately owned American Bicycle League. Brian Anderson (B.A.) has told me via a phone conversation that USA BMX will have two divisions; the NBL Division and the ABA Division. Only one license will be required two race both divisions. The license fee will be in the more traditional $50 neighborhood and you simply pay as you go at each track. In Connecticut, we have an option to race for points and trophies or the “points only” option. Currently all ABA tracks do not offer the points only option.

We look forward to the future and anticipate many ridings from the nearby track in Whip City (Westfield MA.) infiltrating Foothills on Sundays and hope that some of our riders visit nearby Whip City on Friday nights once this transition happens.

So how is all this affecting Foothills and our rider counts? It appears to some of us that, even though the $133 local license all-you-can-race scenario is a fairly easy sell to families who are familiar with BMX here in the Nutmeg state but very difficult to sell to the new families who are not yet committed to racing every week at multiple tracks around the state. When you look at last week’s race with a 7 year low of 27 motos and only 29 motos this week, its obvious that the rider counts are affected by something. Granted, two weeks ago we went against the Memorial Day weekend coupled with a large National event in PA.

This week we pushed the starting time back to 2:30 in hopes that we could offset the effects of a National Challenger Series event in Bennington by giving enough time for our riders who were up there to drive the two hours in time to participate in our program. It would have worked had they not experienced mechanical problems with the gate equipment in Bennington. None of the riders made it back here in time.

With all of that said we did have 105 riders to be split into 29 motos. Alex Hubbard (WYLA INC) started the day off with a “perfect” in the first moto. It looked like an ominous start as both Jon Daversa (Daves Auto Detailing) and Garrett Gracie crashed hard in the first turn on the very first moto. Gracie would come back and score a third in the main while Jon didn’t show for it. The second spot went to Jim Ferris in the combined class of 15 ex-16CH-17-18 EX & CH-17-29 Rookie.

In a combined class best described as 12 & Over girls challenger, the Asselin sisters were left to battle each other as Gina Layman, still injured, would just be touching the gate. Nicole and Lauren shared moto wins but it was Nicole keeping Lauren behind her at the main event finish line.

Kyly Milton was the only Expert Girls in the 10-11 Challenger – 11 Expert class. Kyly easily won everything with Chloe Arnold and Helen Elizondo in tow in every race. Faith Creighton (O & G Industries) managed a fourth.

In 8-9 Challenger Girls action Ashley Asselin topped the efforts of Ashley Jasensky who settled for a solid second place finish. The third spot went to Gianna Spina.

In 5-7 Challenger Girls, we are beginning to wonder just how many Asselins there are in this world? Genevieve Asselin was the winner today with Azra Milton finishing second. Its obvious to us that the Asselin vehicle that headed back home to Massachusetts must have weighed a lot more than it did driving down as they went home with a lot of trophies.

Greg Slone, Don Hottes III and Mike Jasensky was the predictable order of finish in the 26-34 Ex – 35-40 Ex – 41+ Challenger group.
Ian Dickinson made it 3 outta 4 including the Main event in 14-14 Ex and Ch action keeping Dave Lamb and Darren Zimmerman behind him.

In 12Ex-13014Ch racing consistent inconsistency was the norm. For example: Connor Arnold finished 1-2-4 in the motos. Wes Reel had firsts and seconds. The main would see Wes on top with Connor finally settling down into a solid second while Dave Moody finished third.

In 11Ex-12Ch action there was actually enough riders to cause two groups of motos. Even though all 8 would transfer into the main events the moto action was pretty fierce. Justin Boissonneault won all of his motos while Erik Dugan won two of his. Isabella Sanchez put the fear in both of them by winning one of her motos. So, the main event was shaping up as an exciting one and it definitely was just that. When the dust settled it would be Erik Dugen just managing to stay ahead of second place finisher Sanchez while Boissonneault could only watch it happen in front of him from the third spot.

In the 10Ex-11Ch class Sky Domain won all of the motos while Brandon Galeski (Home Town Pizza) was finishing second and third. But the main event would be totally different. Galeski won it with Domain second and the third spot went to William Guido (Big Johnson Guitars).

The largest group of the day was the 10CH – 9 EX class with 9 riders entered. They battled hard through the motos with Ethan Russell-Ward, Jagur Layman and Zach Ferris all claiming moto wins. Ferris (Tactical Arms) would earn the main event win. Layman was second with Garrett Fosbrook finishing in the third spot.

Fin Milton nailed the perfect in the 8Ex-9Ch class. Fin was the only expert so the Challenger riders were battling hard for the second spot which eventually went to Seth Norton with Dustin Souza grabbing the third spot.

After winning two motos Ian Fosbrook had to settle for a second place main finish in the 7ex-8CH class. Derek Fantano was the winner.

The 6 Yr old Challenger class winner was Sam DeGrange. Garret Cooper finished in front of Aman Egan for the second spot.
Greg Fantano stayed ahead…actually…far ahead of Len Ferris in the 45 & over Cruiser division. At the finish line Ferris was so far back he was in a different zip code.

Pasquale Gigliotti had it all his way in the two rider 35+ Cruiser class as Gina Layman was just touching the gate due to injury.
In 12-14 Cruiser action Ian Dickinson earned a hard fought win with Isabella Sanchez, one fast lady, finishing second while Pete Franolich slid safely into third.

Sky Domain and Brandon Jasensky finish 1-2 in the 10 Cruiser class.
Jagur Layman and Derek Fantano was the finishing order in the 8-9 Cruiser class.

Steve Doyle got it done in the 14-15 Rookie class Chris Haas and Andrew Liontonia were second and third.

In 12-13 Rookie action a full gate of six riders was the lineup. Julien Roberge aced a perfect by winning everything in the class. Austin Andrews was second with Travis Welsh finishing third. This was the order in every moto plus the main.

Frankie Buckley beat Mike Steinbacher in 10-11 Rookie action.
Colto Degroat did the same to Alex McCarvill iin 9 Rookie racing.
Victor Alves layed claim to fame in the 5 rider 8 Rookie class. Dominic Nivolo enjoyed a nice second place finish while Jasper Manka had a solid third.

Rylan Carlson, Kyle Lyman and Nick Mauro was the finishing order in the 7 Rookie class.

Aiden Biello, after winning just one of three motos, came back to capture the main event. Anthony Starr_Bennett was second while Vinny Delorenzo was third. Vinny had some fun in the motos as he won two of them.

In 4-5 Rookie racing the little Hot-Rod Trevor Cooper aced all the wins. Ty Palmer was second with Danny Calarco, who wishes his brother would come back and race, finishing third.

Don’t forget gang, yet another national event in the area next week so we will start at 2:30 pm.

On a side note, we are sad to hear one of our long time and favorite riders, Chris Pannullo, suffered a broken collar bone at another track earlier this week and may be out for the season. Chris worked very hard over the off season and his riding skills have gotten so much better. He will be back and better then ever ane the sooner the better. Get well soon Chris!

For a complete listing of all of todays finishes