The first annual NE Regional Championship has come and gone but the bench racing and reminiscing will definitely go on all year. The idea for this series was born out of years of talk between racing friends Ricky Zielfelder from Factory Connection and Dave Boisvert co-owner of Winchester Speedpark. Why is it that New England is the second largest center for MX racing in the country but had no way to decide who the fastest racers were from the multiple organizations racing there? The Labor Day weekend of 2005 was marked as the date and the Winchester Speedpark Motocross track was the spot. Owners Suzanne and Dave Boisvert had everything in order and the weather could not have been more perfect. Rolling into the pits on Saturday morning I was amazed at how the Winchester Speedpark track had transformed from the one I am so accustomed to seeing week in and week out to one that looked like the home of a national. Cruising along the vendor row I was just blown away at how much it felt like walking through the pits/ vendor areas for our annual trip to “The Wick”, it was flat out awesome.
The format for the 3 day weekends race was a single moto for each class each day, 3 motos to determine the overall in each class. The first gate drop for the weekend was the 125 Expert Class and it was to be an indicator of how the racing would go for the entire weekend. The lead changed 3 times in the first 2 laps and the battles ran deep throughout the class. Chad Charbonneau has been running up in the Canadian national series and posting some very good results and he continued to show his skills throughout the weekend. The Litchfield New Hampshire native ran his Cernics.com/Factory Connection Hondas around like he was on rails smooth and scary fast going 1/1/1 in both the 125 and 250 expert classes. You can definitely expect to hear big things from Chad Charbonneau in the very near future, think Factory big and you can quote me on that.
Taking the top spot on the podium in the 125 Youth A class was Maine’s Craig Dube although in the final moto of the weekend it almost slipped away when hard charging Justin Rando pushed the issue crowding his Yamaha in through a very tight inside line with room for just one sending Dube to the ground and almost knocking him off the top of the podium. Dube remounted to take third giving him a 1/1/3 for the overall win with Rando running 2/2/2 for the second spot. Wareham Cycle Center/American Suzuki rider Mike Picone put together a 3/3/1 to snag the final podium spot. I lost count of the number of times I saw racers pushing it hard in the final turn before the checkered flag to move up one more spot but undoubtedly the best one of the weekend had to go to Michael Sottile. An unfortunate mechanical DNF in moto 1 took him out of the running for a title but in the second moto of the 3 the Kawasaki mounted Sottile was relentless sticking a wheel in at the very last turn and taking the win by .006 seconds. It was a smooth and consistent weekend from the Keene Motorsports backed Kawasaki of Matt Fisk who took the overall win in the 85 A 10-14 with a 1/2/3.
Fresh off of winning 2 85cc titles at Loretta Lynn’s and looking just as sharp was Monroe New York’s Justin Barcia. With a perfect record for holeshots and 1/1/1 finishes in both the 85 A 7-13 and Supermini 7-13 the FMF/Honda backed Barcia was unstoppable. Now lest we forget that Amateur motocross is more than just the 125 young guns and Mini classes I have to mention a New England motocross road warrior who richly deserves the attention. 39 year old Pat Barton can be found on any given weekend mixing it up on the MX tracks of New England, from Maine to New York racing for longer than some of those new “phenoms” in the minis have been alive. The Troy Lee Designs backed Barton swept all 3 motos in the 25+ and 35+ classes then took 5th overall in the Four-Stroke Open class. For good measure Barton was on track for a podium in the 250 Expert with a 3/5 going into the final day but got tangled with another rider at the start of the moto, fighting back to finish 14th gave him a 6th overall. That’s 4 classes with 2 sweeps and top 10 finishes in the rest, can you say competitive?
So you get my point? There was so much going on over the 3 day holiday weekend that you would have needed a full week to take it all in. Oddly enough, for me the whole New England Regional experience was summed up during the sight lap practice on the foggy Monday morning of the final day. Although the weather during the race days was perfect, clear blue skies breezy and warm, during practice on Sunday it was a little foggy but it burned off quickly and practice was accented by a low layer of fog that the bikes rolled through like a rock and roll stage set. Monday was a different story as the fog hung low and late, almost as if Mother Nature was reluctant to let the weekend come to an end. As the riders lined up for the sight lap practice and started off I was struck by what a perfect metaphor that was for the sport of Motocross, the truly solitary nature of racing. All the factory rigs and RV’s in the pits, fans and families lining the fences and the bright banners of the starting area were left behind. One by one the riders made their way out onto the track and heading out towards the back section they disappeared into the mist all alone. Soon enough they would wisp back into view only to promptly turn and disappear again. Faint glimpses of rider and bike through the heavy morning air like the mythical ghost riders. All on their own plunging headlong through the unknown until they reemerged to roll off the exit gate coated in mud and none the worse for the wear. Then again maybe I think too much
How long is it until the next New England Regional? Only 360 more days, I know I’ll be there.
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