Donnelly, White, and Mize conquer Father's Day Gp!

Fox Valley Off Road 6-18-2022
Photos by 451 Photography Story by Kenzie.

Results 

What a difference a month makes.  First Gp of the season gets slammed by rain and 2nd motos cancelled.  To this weekends dry conditions but in reality it's been a wet year for the most part.  This didn't stop a sizable crowd of racers from joining in on the fun.  Saturday's on race weekends are reserved for Gran Prix and more and more riders are finding out that long motos, less classes, and some real terrain is a good way to see if you can stack up against the other guys/and gals. 

Today was when the track is run in reverse, back before the tunnel the course would have to use some tight trails and weasel around to the back of the mx track but with the tunnel this now becomes a figure 8.  Not some fancy big bridge, but rather just a way to change up the direction of the course, but still allow to run the mx part like it's supposed to run.  Including HP Hill and Wood Chip downhill, along with 3 line uphill then over to Gp down hill made for a very good layout, and fun course to run.

Sienkiewicz took a little moto break and did some gp racing.  Ran a solid 3rd in A class all day.

New for 2022 is the addition of the d17 kids classe which run on the kids course and trail.  This has become very poplar especially with the URC Series and many kids and even young adults trying out this new racing series.

65 Beginner started off the morning with 6 kids lined up on the starting line. They were all as ready as can be waiting for the green flag to be dropped, as the flag dropped all 6 of them took off the starting line with Jack Mize (112) pulling the hole shot and within just a short amount of time he managed to get a good lead on the rest of the class. As the kids came out of the woods on their first lap, Mize still in first as he was flying through this course with no issues at all, Kaydee Bliss (111), Theodore Cappiello (126), John Machay (81), and Vince Binkowski (545) all came out within a really close distance from each other. As this group was going into their third lap Binkowski had a little fall in the corner which led him to fall back from those three a little bit. Bliss, Machay, and Cappiello were still keeping close until the end of the third lap and beginning of fourth lap when we started to see Bliss pulling away from the others a bit, but still pretty far behind from Mize. Cappiello and Machay were able to catch back up and pass Bliss, not too sure if something happened to Bliss out there which caused the two to pass her. Now the battling was down to Cappiello and Machay, these two kept close the entire race up until the very last lap where we saw Machay come out of the woods before Cappiello. Mize ended up getting first, Machay in second, Cappiello in third with Bliss in fourth, and Binkowski finishing in fifth and Ryker Decker finishing the race in sixth which I believe this was his first GP ever. These kids went out there and did an amazing job! Of course, since the GP is scored based off of both first and second moto these weren’t the final placings. With combining first and second motos Mize got first, Machay got second, Bliss third, Cappiello fourth, Binkowski fifth, and Decker sixth.

In the 50 Jr class we had Jaxon Donnelly(116) out there for his first GP ever! As the 50s went out there for their second moto Donnelly basically had the hole shot until he was going up the face of the jump and had a little tip over and struggled to get back up so that put him back a few spots and gave Tandem Johnson the lead. As the kids came around from their first lap, Johnson was in first with Madoc Marfell right behind him and Donnelly in third. Second lap around Donnelly was making his way real close up to Marfell, right up on him waiting for the right time to make a pass. After Donnelly was able to get around Marfell, he made his way closer to Johnson and by the fourth lap Donnelly had Johnson and put himself in the lead which put Johnson in second and Marfell still in third place. These three were able to keep their spots for the rest of the race and as Donnelly was finishing going over the jump, he put his feet up in the air showing that he was excited and proud of himself. It was cool to see how Donnelly was able to come back and win after his fall in the beginning and with it being his first GP ever, it was definitely worth watching!

All weekend long Robert Johnson (42) and Andrew Burge (47) kept the competition between each other. These two had a close race for both the GP and HS and made sure to put on a good race making everyone guess who was going to pass who and win the race.

C class came out in force for the Gp today 33 riders were very hard to put all in line for the start and if it happens again I hear word that their start maybe moved to the lower track to give them more room.  Jack Allgeyer (16) who piloted his Ktm to a double moto win today was the kid to beat.  No one kept him in sight but the rest of the class has some consistency issues.  Will Fabrizius (142) Tyler Tabor (26)  and Brady Dillbeck (84) managed some good races in one moto or another to keep them on or close to the podium at the end of the day.

B class saw  Ayden White (88) keep his bike in one piece this race and with wire to wire with double moto wins.  Regan Doer (336) went 2-3 for 2nd and Austin Beaty (726) stayed consistent to pull the 3rd spot. 

Passing was a little tough in spots with the dust and hard pan, but the moto track and upper field had some great places to wring out the machine and hold it on just a little longer then the next guy to make the pass.

Women's class has picked up as of late, some mx riders come over from time to time and dabble in gp racing.  Kyleigh Mclaughlin (18) and Grace Gordon (226) were here today.  Mclaughlin fresh off a broken arm and looking a little stiff but as the day went on found some rythm and had good motos going 1-1.  Gordon did well first moto with a 4th, but found that one slick up hill with another rider down on it made for a long day.  Alli Kocher (452) this race stayed on the bike and didn't have a muddy uphill like last race to do her in, as she kept a solid 2nd in her grasp all day.  Nikki Dixon came out with that well ridden 150r Honda and put in a solid 5-3 for 3rd.  Honorable mention goes out to Taylor Longsteth and NIcci Balzer completeing the top 5.

Ryan Duff (430) and Steve "Perkinator" Perkins (164) had a good battle in the 40+ A class, one with moto back ground and one with woods background they don't race each other unless it's a Gp.  Husky vrs Honda.  Today the Honda got the 2nd.  Miro was back and with his new Beta commanded a 3rd place finish.  Tuska (625) always seems to be in the hunt and as he gets used to his Beta likely will be pushing the others in his class at the front.

So June and Fathers' day weekend started off with a nice day, and good if not some great competition.  Riders many who stayed for Sunday's HS were in for a treat on that front as well with a very techincal and tighter course set up.  Next up is the July 16th Gp with it being the Free T-shirt weekend it's bound to be another excellent day to ride a dirt bike!  See ya there!