Winchester Speedpark puts on New England’s race of the year once again.
photo courtesy www.buckleyphotos.com
The Labor Day weekend has come to be known in New England amateur motocross racing as a time to watch for riders stepping up their game in search of glory and all the rewards that come with it. The 4th annual New England Regional Championship presented by Factory Connection/Amsoil/Honda/Dunlop and Planet Fitness was the stage and Winchester Speedpark was the place to catch all the action.
Leading the charge for the new guard was Factory Connection/Amsoil Honda’s boy wonder Justin Barcia and wow is this kid exciting to watch, he just rings every ounce of speed out of the track. Barcia routinely ripped the fastest lap of the day on his way to the lead in his races but suffered from some mistakes and mechanical issues that sidelined him in a few motos.
Jimmy Decotis rode his DCS Financial Group machine solidly never finishing outside the top 5 all weekend and bringing home the Youth A title. Kawasaki mounted Ryan Blizzard sometimes found himself mired in the pack in the Lites and Motocross classes showing flashes of brilliance throughout the weekend but redeemed himself by riding to the top spot in the Open A.
Fresh off a pair of podiums down at Loretta Lynn’s Team Green/No Fear standout AJ Catanzaro grabbed the Lites B title in a field stacked with Jersey boys Frankie Lettieri and Nick Desederio as well as fast New England local Matt Fisk. The Coastline Motorsports backed Catanzaro followed that with a runner up finish to DeCotis in the Youth A.
Don’t feel too bad for Fisk though he managed a title of his own in the Open B and spent plenty of time of the podium. Lettieri grabbed himself plenty of glory as well taking his American Suzuki ride to the championship in the School Boy, MX and Youth B classes, not bad for his rookie outing on the track.
The Regional has come to be known for much more than just the stellar racing and the 2008 event was no different. With 1,000 race entries and beautiful weather smiling down on us that lasted the whole weekend the folks at Dunlop kicked off the festivities sponsoring the supercross pit bike races as well as returning as sponsor of hugely popular Family Fun night. I spoke with Dunlop’s vice-president Mike Buckley on hand for the event who told me that it was exactly that family atmosphere that made them want to be involved After two days of racing everybody got to relax with team challenge obstacle courses, games for the little ones and free Ben and Jerry’s ice cream sundaes some scooped up by 2008 East Coast Lites champ Trey Canard who was on hand signing autographs and as night fell the fireworks show commenced, perfectly capping the day.
Domination was the order of the 3 day event on the mini’s with David Milana sweeping the 50cc 7-8 on his Cobra while KTM rider Brian Borghesani stacked his hand full of aces in the 50cc 4-6. On the other hand; the vet classes are looking like the usual suspects with Planet Fitness teammates Keith Johnson and Mike Treadwell chasing each other along with Vitamin Water’s Pat Barton and the re-emergence of Wally Silva. Johnson swept his motos in the 30 A and 35 + classes and you can expect to see him on the Vet class podiums for some time to come, the guy is fit, serious and lethal on the track.
This brings us to John Dowd..... Legend? I think so, heck what can you say about the guy that hasn’t already been said? Every cliché is true though, the guy is a machine, probably the most determined rider on the gate in any given race and he seems to be able to just find lines where there aren’t any. Doesn’t just take the 40 + A but snags the MX A class title as well against the fastest of any age. Not to mention the fact that he brought a two-stroke RM250 to the line for the Lites A class.
The second Lites A moto has the makings of a bench racing classic, Barcia and Dowd took off on an epic battle for the race win and neither rider would back down the throttle. Dowd would get the run on Barcia through some of the tighter sections and then Barcia would blaze back with corner speed to maintain the gap on the expansive Winchester Speedpark course. The pace out front was absolutely insane and Dowd just kept positioning his Keene Motorsports ride inside Barcia in turn after turn as the two riders spent all but the final lap of the race within 1.5 seconds of each other but Barcia refused to crack under pressure and eventually rode away with the race win and the Lites title. It was one of those races that folks will be talking about until next years Regional.
