Welcome to another addition of Blurbs! The weather is finally showing off some heat as yesterday was over the 70 degree mark for the first time here in New Jersey since October of last year! It was a great day and hope every weekend of racing is like this! This weekend though, I will be making a very short trip to the closest track to my residence, Raceway Park near Englishtown, for the next Loretta Lynn Northeast area qualifier! Rain is expected for Saturday and the sun is planning to show off its hotness on Sunday. That has been a common trend at these Northeast area qualifiers this year. Threat of rain on Saturday and a picture perfect day on Sunday. Now, let’s see what happened last weekend to my visit to the first round of the 2008 Ultimate Series at Pagoda! HG
Films Promo Week Now Extended One More Day!!! Before I head into my weekend at Pagoda, my first ever Promo Week at Blue Diamond is looking really good! I have a number of riders scheduled for the week and I’ll be ready to capture you (or your rider) all day for your personal video! With the number of riders scheduled for a video rising, I am extending Promo Week one more day into Saturday now! I will be available from Wednesday, April 16 to now, Saturday, April 19! I rarely do setups like this so this is a great way to take advantage of getting a personal video done by the one and only Matt Wozney of HG Films! Your promo video comes with 5 professionally designed DVD copies made for you, your family/friends, and sponsors, your video uploaded onto a special future Promo Week video page at MotoXposure.com and on MySpace.com, and top it all off with a free copy of Moto Xposure 3! Click here for more information regarding my HG Films Promo Week! Opening Ultimate Series Round at Pagoda
The first round of the 2008 Ultimate Series presented by Vertucci Performance Equipment (VPE) at Pagoda was amazing to say the least. The track was prepped to perfection on Sunday after a full heavy practice day on Saturday. The track had a record amount of riders combined for both days and the racing just that good. VPE had nearly their entire rider lineup in attendance on the track with such names as Damien Plotts, Josh Emmi, Billy Hauser, Zach Klaptosky, and many other top riders from the area. Owner Fred Vertucci had a great showing with a very cool tent setup that featured a suspension seminar Saturday night and support for their riders! As a title sponsor of the Ultimate Series, they are definitely starting off on the right foot and showing everything that they have to offer to each racer who shows up to the gate for the Ultimate Series. For more information on the Ultimate Series, head to their web site at www.amadistrict6.com.
Now to the racing…which saw a bunch of racers making their first (or one of their first) few races in their new skill level classes, especially in the A class. Newcomers to the A class included Addison Kramer, Dylan Brajkovich, Nick McPhee, Nick Johnson, and a couple of others who are still early testing the waters of the A classes. Addison took the win in the first 250A moto and finished 2nd overall in Open A and 250A classes. Nick McPhee had some strong battles with some local veteran A racers. Dylan Brajkovich and Nick Johnson seem to still get used to the new class but are showing much improved speed to move up in the class.
But as far as the regulars in the A classes, VPE’s Damien Plotts took a dominating overall win the Open A class with tremendous amounts of ease each moto. Even after a really scary close call in a few ruts leading to a step up that saw him fly off the jump with one leg totally off the bike after his foot tapped a rut before the jump (Oh, I wished I filmed that….but I didn’t! :( ), Damien made it look way too easy with different lines no one touched all day and just seemed to be on a whole other level over the young A class racers.
Dennis Johns had some strong showings on his KX250 2 stroke scoring a 3rd in 250A and a 6th in Open A. The 471 Suzuki ride of Ryan Zimmerman looked consistent with a 3rd in Open A, but did take the overall win in the Collegeboy class! Kawasaki rider Stephen Stella took a 2-1 finish in the 250A class for the overall win. Check out Stella at the nationals as he is planning to do all the rounds and already has a couple team offers on the table. He has the speed and stamina to back it up so here’s to a successful season Stella!
The B classes saw New Yorker Josh Emmi take dominating wins in the Open B and 250 B classes. His speed was unmatched by everyone in those classes and he could be a favorite going into the big races this year, including Loretta’s! Joey Peters was there dominating the Schoolboy class and running very well in the B class but not seeing him on his usual Kawasaki machine was something I had to get used to. Joey has hooked up a ride through Yamaha and plans to make the trip to Loretta’s once again and a few amateur nationals this year. His transition to the big bikes looks really good and he could be a force to reckon with at any of the races you see when the #35 Yamaha roll up to the gate!
Zach Klaptosky has stepped it up a lot for 2008! He took a second place overall finish behind Josh Emmi in the Open B class on Montgomery Cycle Center’s Mike Cepress’ super clean KX450. It was also his first time on a 450 and did very well on riding a machine he never rode before! Check out more of Zach this year on his number 59 ride. (I goofed up in a last blurb that said he was 58….sorry for being one off there Zach!)
Tyler Hawk was another fast kid out there who was throwing it out there all day long until he suffered a nasty knee injury. Hopefully he heals up quickly and safely and gets back on the track soon! Another injury that weekend was to another top B rider, Lebanon Cycle’s own Kyle Sidle, who crashed right in front of me in the first turn of one B moto. He walked away toward me and asked how he was. He said “Shoulder popped out.” It definitely looked like that and again, hopefully he heals up and gets back to shredding some dirt soon!
The mini classes saw some new faces to me and some that are usually shreddin’ like always. Andy Johns was out there throwing the sick scrubs like he always does and is definitely focused on a better year for 2008 with a strong win in the Supermini 2 class. Tyler Connor is a rider I have seen on and off but his speed at Pagoda definitely stood out to me and he took two overall wins in the Supermini 1 and 2 classes and a second in Schoolboy on his 85 (presuming it was a 105 that is). But still, Tyler has stepped it up this year as well and whew, he’ll be considered as top competition in the Supermini and Schoolboy classes! Robert Piazza took the overall win in the Junior Mini 9-13 class. Luke Palonicola had a sweep in the 85 9-11 class. New York’s Sean Ballard had a great race for the overall win in the 85 12-13 class. And young Brandon Hartranet ran away with the 65 7-9 class and also had a strong showing in the 85 9-11 class with a 3rd behind his brother Jacob, who went 3-2 for second overall. If you have not checked it out yet, check out my latest video from Pagoda online now on my Videos page! Click here to check it out now! 2
MORE VIDEOS from Pagoda! That’s right! I got 2 more videos I just posted yesterday at my Moto Xposure Podcast you can view at iTunes! They will be only seen on my Podcast so check them out there. One shows expert rider Dan Bogdan making the best of his bad motos with some awesome goon riding and the other shows a typical Saturday night at Pagoda with a video appropriately titled “The Carnival of Motocross”. Check them out at the Moto Xposure Podcast link on the top left and subscribe to the podcast to receive new videos from HG Films for free! The Injured Rider List - After showing off his speed at Pagoda Saturday for practice, Kameron Page made the short trip Tomahawk for the opening round of the MDRA series and suffered a broken leg! He’ll be out for awhile and hope he gets all healed up in time for the LL regional qualifiers! - Tyler Wozney is still recovering from an AC separation and a cracked shoulder blade he suffered at the Tomahawk LL qualifier. He’ll be in a sling for a week or 2 and then will be getting some physical therapy afterwards. He is really itching to ride!! -I will also include Tyler Hawk (knee injury) and Kyle Sidle (shoulder) from last weekend's Pagoda race. Hoping all riders are all healed up very soon! That
will do it for this blurb. Thanks for reading and hope to see many
of you at a hopefully sunny Raceway Park this weekend!
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