Race Report May 8th, 2011

Week #2

Another Mothers day and another NBL Regional (Challenger Series Race) scheduled on the same weekend in nearby New Jersey. This has been the norm for a few years now and the combination of the two always affects our rider count. This was certainly the case this week as the weather was perfect for racing but we only had 119 riders split up into 34 motos. None-the-less, the action was fast and exciting. Except for the annual Mother’s day race which was simply “exciting”. More on that later.

With Foothills regular announcer Lou Mota handling the microphone duties in New Jersey, Foothills relied on a fill-in announcer who, although he tried his best, he certainly is no Lou Mota. Lou should be back next week thank goodness. Kudo’s to the ladies in the registration building for the on-time start. It’s always hectic in the two hours before our scheduled start and they recovered very nicely from the pains of last week. Basically, we were done this week before we started last week. What a difference a week makes.

Before we started the weekly Rider of the Week award was presented with Dominic Nivolo winning the prize for his efforts last week. In the interview he claimed Hunter Zeiner as his favorite rider.

So as is the usual with a fairly low rider count, combined classes were everywhere. Don Hottes, the only 26-34 expert in the house, was combined with Mike Sigrist and Fred Roy, both in the 41 + classification. Don easily won the first moto but he obviously had a sore wrist from a non bicycle related incident and it affected his riding the rest of the day. Mike would come back and win the next three races including the main event with Fred finishing second.

Colby Lake and Andrew Cox, as 19-25 experts combined with Matt Racine who was a 19-25 Challenger. Matt only made it to the gate for the first round so it turned into a two rider shootout with Cox grabbing the wins in every race.

Three 17-18 experts were on board and it would be Josh Wedge at the top of the leader board in every round. Jim Ferris edged out Colby Benoit for the second spot in the main.

15 Challengers / 15 Experts saw the 2011 debut of the reigning track champion Austin Cyr. Austin was unbeatable in the Main but a much improved Chris Pfeffer (George’s Music Center) was the eye catcher in this one. A solid second for Chris in front of Autumn Classey and Darren Zimmerman.

Jayna Roy topped Michele Gamelin in the 13 Challenger – 15 Expert Girls class but that one was probably best described as two winners for the day.

Kyle Milton continued her dominance in the 11 Challenger – 11 Expert Girls class but Chloe Arnold is so much closer this year and is now good enough to win on any given Sunday. Chloe Bourgoin, the third place finisher today is also getting very close. We encourage Carli Piper to stay with it as her day in the sun will be coming soon.

Lainie Stroh (10 yr old Challenger) stayed in front of Bella Delorenzo (9 yr old Challenger) all day long for the title in her mixed class.

Justin Thompson made his return to racing a good one as he aced a win in the 16 Challenger – 17-18 Challenger main event. Finishing second was Jon Daversa (Dave’s Auto Detailing) with Mike Castle into the third spot.

Two 13 Experts were joined with three 14 Challengers and Wes Reel, one of the Challengers gave Jon Zeiner (13 Expert) all he could handle. After Jon won two of the three motos, the Main event would go to Wes. Another Challenger, Drew Scheinost, edged out Zeiner for the second spot.

Five riders strong or should I say “Five strong riders” made up the 13 Challenger class today. Conor Arnold would ace a “perfect” by winning everything. Trevor Fox, another rider showing some serious improvement this year was second with Mark Tully rounding out the top three.

The biggest class of the day was the 11 Expert – 12 Challenger group with ten riders in the lineup. Split into two groups of five, this was gonna be a challenge just to transfer to the Main. To add to the challenge, one of the riders was Alexus Doty, our reigning female track champion. So that got the boys attention and the pressure was on. Alexus managed a win in her motos as did R.J. Miville, Jake DesMarais (Bikers Edge) and Erik Dugan. In the eight rider Main event, DesMarais eked out the win. Dugan was second with Jon Moura rounding out the top three. Doty finished a respectable fifth.

Sky Domain rocketed to a main event win in the 10 Expert – 11 Challenger class. Brandon Galeski (Hometown Pizza) was a close second with the third spot going to Colin Riggs.

No one was finer then little Hunter Zeiner in the 8 Expert – 9 Challenger class. Hunter was perfect in his motos and in the second group Arefin Milton was also perfect. The Main event showdown would see Hunter as todays Top Gun. Milton settled for second place as Ethan Russell-Ward was third.

A combined mixed bag of riders made up the 7 Expert / 7 Challenger / 8 Challenger five rider class. Danny DesMarais was not a front-runner in any of the motos as Derek Fantano and Torin Ellis were the top dogs. But the Main event was the surprise as Danny won it with Derek and Torin finishing second and third.

Aman Egan held off a determined Garret Cooper in the 6 Challenger class. Third went to Addison Miller.

Now here come the biggest disparity in ages that was in any group. The class was identified as 12 & Under Girl Cruiser / 16-16 Girl Cruiser / 40-44 Woman Cruiser. The Main event saw Jayna Roy (My legs feel like rubber), Alexus Doty (I’m soooo tired) and Denise Classey (I feel good) finish 1-2-3.

Fred Roy worked hard to beat Len Ferris in the 45-49 / 50 + Cruiser class. About as hard as the effort required to get up in the morning. Well wait, that’s a big effort for 60 year old Len ferris. Anyway, Len takes a lot of ribbing about his age but it’s all in fun. He is our oldest rider and deserves a ton of credit to get out there. Nice going Len. We are proud of you!

A great battle up front in the 35-39 / 40-44 Cruiser class between Bob DesMarais and Greg Sloan. After trading moto wins, the gas tanks were in the conserve energy mode and Kevin Marchildon cruised across the Main event finish line first With DesMarais and Sloan in tow.

Drew Scheinost and Justin Thompson were 1-2 in the 14-16 Cruiser division.

In 12 Cruiser action R.J. Miville won all of his motos. He then did NOT show up for the Main event so the win went to Peter Franolich. Bryan Basile could only touch the gate as he recovers from an injury suffered last week.

Jon Moura won the two rider Main event in the 10-11 Cruiser class after Sky Domain won every moto.

8 & under Cruiser action saw Derek Fantano and Torin Ellis going at it with Derek grabbing the win in the Main.

Three 16 yr old Rookies plus 42 yr old William Scheinost made up this class. Scheinost, showing them all how to crash without getting hurt too bad, provided the excitement with his wreck in the first round. After he walked away sore, but otherwise okay, it would be Mike Rousseau, Cody Marchildon and Josh Thans making up the order at the top.

14-15 yr old Rookies were represented by only two riders. When the dust cleared it was Steven Doyle getting the best of Chris Haas.

The 13 Rookie class featured the riding skills of Austin Andrews. He was simply awesome. Behind him in the Main event was Travis Walsh, Shana Frazier with William Channels skipping the Main.

Julien Roberge, Ty Bourgoin and Zack McNally made up the finishing order in the 13 Rookie Class.

Frankie Buckley sure has come a long way from last year. He won the 10-11 Rookie class today by keeping Own Davidson and Jakob Carver behind him.

The 8 Rookie class saw Victor Alves and Dominic Nivolo finish first and second while Nick Delbone earned a third place finish.

Antonio Grazzo grabbed a "perfect” by winning every moto plus the 6 yr old Rookie Main event. Vincent Delorenzo and Anthony Starr-Bennett finished second and third.

The 4 – 5 Rookie class saw Trevor Cooper win this moto-mite division with Tyler Palmer and Stephen Clark rounding out the top three.

In the Annual Foothills BMX Mothers Day Extravaganza five ladies were up for the challenge. Lisa Ferris, Michelle Pannullo, Amanda Hubbard, Aurora Papa and Korrie Domain all gave it a shot and jumped on some racing bikes to test their skills on the renewed track. When the gate dropped it was actually Domain who had a slight lead. The lead quickly evaporated as Aurora powered her way down the front straight to grab the lead going into turn number one. Domain was still second and “Ole Mother Hubbard” was in the third spot with Ferris and Pannullo in fourth and fifth as they exited turn one. When they hit the first obstacle on the 2nd straight, the order was the same but Pannullo’s racing machine got a little wobbly and she would go off the course and eventually crash half way up the straight. The pace was not too fast as the order stayed the same the rest of the way around the track. The good news is everyone had a good time and no one got hurt. All were smiling or grimacing as they received their trophys.

For a complete listing of all of todays finishes