Gran Prix Racing returns to Fox Valley Off Road!

6-17-2023

Story by Kenzie  Photos by 451 Photography

Results 

Gran Prix racing has become pretty popular at Fox Valley Off Road over the years, as riders are enjoying a shorter day and longer motos.  As it's been like 10-11 years maybe more since it's inception Gp is a great way to have racing, and time for other things.  Maybe hare scramble races are even better at this time thing!  Racing commenced on this Saturday and the first race of the day is the 65cc Beginners on the small course.

As the 65 Beginner class takes off, five out of the six are all tight close together already starting their battles. Easton Donnelly (169) pulled the whole shot and took the lead, with Theodore Cappiello (126) pulled second, and Sophia Kavsky (121) was in third. Daniel Motoc (99) who was in fourth wasted no time with making passes, the kids were still on the track before they even went in the woods and Motoc had already passed Kavsky to switch their places around. With all these guys starting so close together, as soon as Motoc got around Kavsky, he was right on Cappiello’s tail. As they come out of the woods Donnelly still in first, Cappiello is still managing to hold of Motoc, while we see another battle going on between Kavsky and Liam Damewood (441). Damewood is in fourth but he is tire to tire with Kavsky, waiting for the right time to make a pass. Although Donnelly was in first, he was still just within reaching distance of the other two behind him, if any one of these kids make a mistake it could change the whole race around. As their third lap is coming to an end we notice Damewood had found somewhere to make the pass around Kavsky and put himself in fourth place now. Cappiello and Motoc were pushing each other so hard that they were starting to get just a bit closer and closer to Donnelly by each lap. As we’re down to the last few laps, Damewood has now pulled away from Kavsky, but Kavsky was making sure she stayed in that fifth place spot. Down to the last lap, Donnelly came out of those woods first and took first place all the way to the finish line, Motoc must have crashed in the woods because as Cappiello came out, Motoc was no where near him, so that left Cappiello finishing in second. Motoc couldn’t of been down for very long because he didn’t let anyone get passed him, he took that third to the finish. Dameood came out in fourth and Kavsky in fifth.

Jakob Sherwood (90) pulled the whole shot in the 50 Sr with Liam Damewood (441) right on his tail, these two took off into the woods and by the time they came back out to end their first lap, Damewood was extremely close to Sherwood, these two were practically racing right next to each other. Starting their second lap on the track and Damewood manages to just barely get in front of Sherwood, it didn’t take long for Damewood to get completely around Sherwood and once he did that, he took off from him and the rest of the class. Sherwood was making sure to keep his speed and stay in second. Damewood held first all the way to the finish line to get a win and Sherwood finished in second.

The battles start as soon as the flag gets waved for Kade Heilman (447) and Cooper Duff (201) along with Dane Miller (152) and Cooper Lair (53) in the 85/SM class. As these four head down to the track Heilman and Duff are neck and neck. As Miller and Lair are headed down the straight away on the track, they are right next to each, but Miller made sure to stay just ahead of Lair in third. Miller was not going to let Lair get passed him, at least not this soon into their race. As they all head back into the woods to finish their first lap around, Heilman is still holding off Duff and Miller is keeping ahead of Lair. By their second lap, Miller is actually able to pull away from Lair just a bit. Heilman and Duff were still extremely close to one another, while the two were in the back part of the track, Duff was getting up right next to him and had us all thinking he was going to get around Heilman, but Heilman pushed even harder to stay in the lead. Now that they are getting down to the end of their race, Duff must have fell or something because by the time Heilman came out of the woods, Duff was no where near him anymore. Heilman finished with a first, Duff kept second even after his mess up, Dane made sure to stay in third, and Lair finished in fifth with Samual Fabian (367) who got around him to take fourth.

With 11 women in Women’s class, it turned out to be a pretty good race once again, especially in the middle of the pack. Amanda Taylor (451)started out the race in fourth with Ava Unold (92) keeping right with her. Abygail Buettner (515) was shortly behind them in sixth, Alli Kocher (452) in seventh and Taylor Longstreth (405) in eighth. These girls were wasting no time and started making passes right away. Just within the second lap as they were racing on the track, Unold made a pass on Taylor and switched their positions, at the same time Longstreth was making her way up there. She made two passes in that second lap and put herself right up behind Taylor. With majority of the women’s class getting lapped, their third lap around was also their last lap. In that last lap, Longstreth made another two passes and moved herself right up into fourth place and ended the race there. Unold was moved down to fifth but had no intentions on moving any further down. As Taylor and Buettner are making their way on their last lap onto the track, Buettner is right on Taylor’s tail, Taylor just had to make sure she could hold her off to the finish line. Luckily for Taylor, she was able to hold off Buettner and finish with a sixth and Buettner with a seventh for their second moto.

As the B class headed off into the woods Cameron Linden (422) started off in fourth with Tyler Spizzirri (143) right behind him and Jack Allgeyer (16) right behind Spizzirri. It didn’t take long before Allgeyer started making passes and passed Spizzirri to put himself ahead and instantly try and go for Linden now. As soon as Allgeyer caught Linden, he was right there on his tail, not backing down for anything, he wanted to get around Linden. And he did just on their second to last lap around. He stayed in front of him the rest of the way back up to the finish line and got fourth, leaving Linden with a fifth, and Spizzirri in sixth.

12-29 C had many battles going on throughout the whole race. As soon as these guys got to the track on their first lap around, Sawyer McNabb (22) was already making passes around people and had himself up to third right behind Norman Mcnabb (13) who was in second as they went back into the woods. While these two are now battling, we also have Andru Backos (894) in fifth with Kyle Bliss (833) coming up right behind him to start another battle. Right after these two Morgan Wheelwright (23), Amos Vincent (2031), Cooper Lair (53), and Travis Wilkinson (82) started their first lap all pretty close to one another. By the next lap they were already switching it up and making passes, Wilkinson got around Lair out in the woods and was making his way to make a pass on Vincent now. As this group is out on the track, Wilkinson passes Vincent and started pulling ahead and headed for Wheelwright. And before they even got to the end of their second lap Wilkinson made it around Wheelwright, but Wheelwright wasn’t gonna back off, she made sure to stay right up on him. It wasn’t long before she passed him back and switched their places back. With these two battling out and pushing each other, they had caught up to Backos and Bliss, which the two had switched their positions, and got around both of them in the third lap. While these battles are still occurring, S. McNabb made a couple more passes and moved himself up to first now, with N. McNabb still staying close behind him in second. As Wheelwright and Wilkinson are on the track headed to end their race, Wilkinson made another pass against Wheelwright. Every time they got to the track the two were racing right up next to each other and passing each other back and forth, making it a very close race. Wilkinson made it to the checkered flag to finish with a fourth and Wheelwright with a fifth.

Gran Prix racing and Hare Scramble racing returns to Fox Valley Off Road July 15th and 16th, WFO, URC, FVOR and AMA District 17 points event with both days being free t-shirt day, it happens every year in July!  They are also trying an electric class for adult bikes as well, many new things happening as this season unfolds!