Miller, White, Mejia, control the Heat that Round 2 Fox Valley Off Road Fathers day double header!

Photos by 451 Photography

Story by Kenzie

Results

6-15-2024

Saturday's Gp wasn't as bad as Sundays HS when it came to heat and humidity but it sure was a like a sauna both days.  Thankfully with the way it works most all of the racing gets done before the temps get real ugly.  We don't have a lot of Gp racing coverage this round as we were short handed and didn't get to watch as much of the Gp like we normally do.  The racing was excellent as the weather didn't slow the riders down much. 

Running fathers day weekend which has been a tradition around here i guess for 20+ years was another good one with the Gp hitters all coming out to play.  Ayden White, Dane Miller, and the new hotshoe Byrson Mejia putting together solid rides and winning their classes in grand fashion.

Shout out to Dwayne Walters (38) for his we believe his first ever win in the 40+ C class taking his Honda 450 to a level he hasn't done before with 2-1 score.  The nice thing about a Gp is you get that "second chance" to get a win he stated!  it worked! 

Tank Laws (28) a regular Gp racer in the 50Sr class dominated but had some solid competition from moto kid Jax Donnelly the two Cobra riders went 1-2 for the day with Easton Daniels on his Gas Gas going 6-3 and using that second moto to elevate his overall score in a big way! The racing in this class had some major shifts as the riders all are learning and consistency at times is hard to do.

30+A has had a new rider this year a Greg Dickson moved over from moto to try his hand at some "woods" racing.  Ryan Smith long time Gp racer (249) and Bob Sandy Jr. (443) gave the class the needed competition to keep them all on their toes.  Miro Tuska was on hand to make sure he could compete with the top three and Keagan Schmidt coming "home" to FVOR since he had moved away (work related) and it's been a while since he raced here at the park.  His second moto ended early with a trailer ride and a rear tire major malfunction as the bibe decided it no longer wanted to couped up in his back tire. 

Womens class had 10 riders this day, it's been increasing a bunch as the women find out how fun this kind racing is and value of the time on the course but not hanging out all day is the way to go. Morgan Mcdonald (23) came back and raced this day, and with the womens class not being in the little bike classes anymore ran some great laps. Taylor Longstreth on her (405) Husky pulled a 4-2 to beat Amanda Taylor (451) with a 3-3.  Ali Kocher (452) pulled a 2-4 as these ladies have raced each other for a long time an sometimes a little luck will determine the out come.  Today was no different. Nicci Balzer (806) took home 5th on her new Ktm machine as she gets used to it, likely will be competeing with the podium spots again!

Noteable mentions Dave Pucharich (27) easily handled the 60+ class over Jeff Oldenberg and Gerhard Ward.  "Puch" as man know him is a fast ole guy on a dirt bike. He shows up and normaly the rest of the 11 rider field is racing for 2nd!

50+ B/C was 

another strong showing with 10 in it's class with Mark Spizzirri (616) taking home the 1-1 score but not to return on Sunday with the kids, if you see him ask him why? 

Thats about all we can say on the Saturday Gp this event, The racing the whole weekend was "reverse" which always makes nice layouts and racing is different as the corners, going through the tunnel to make the track work all of it makes for interesting racing.  Gp flowed very well, the Hare Scramble was equally challenging but was kept all in the shade with super high temps to keep the riders from overheating too bad.  Here are some assorted shots from the day. 

Sunday Hare Scrambles 6-16-2024 Fathers Day

Jaxon Moore

 (95-517) came up from Texas and decided to try out some Woods racing, and even though it was his first time racing out in the woods, he found himself some competition in the 50 Jr class! Easton Ball (18) also came out for his first woods weekend to give a new type of racing a shot! The first lap through Hoyt Nelson (17), Tresser Bickerton (91), Ball, and Moore came around in a close pack. As they made their way through the course for their second lap around, Bickerton was not with the group anymore as he must of went down somewhere and leaving the battle to the other three. By the time Bickerton came around he was about 25 seconds behind the three, trying to pick speed back up to catch them. A couple more laps went by and Nelson, Ball and Moore are still hanging out in a pack together, but this time, Bickerton was only down by about five seconds behind these guys. Looking ahead of these guys, Bryson Mejia

(27) who was in the lead, had Coltin Laws (13) in second place inching towards him. Next lap around and Tresser got around Nelson, Ball, and Moore to bring himself up to that third place spot! In the same lap Ball had a tip over which pushed him back to sixth place and Moore made himself a couple of passes to move up to fourth and put Nelson in fifth. About 15-20 minutes in, both Mejia and Laws are running into lappers, slowing them down and making things more intense between the two. While Mejia is still keepin

g the lead, Laws is now 6 seconds back caught behind a lapper with Bickerton coming right up on him. Laws was not letting Bickerton get passed him so he found his way around the lappers and picked up his speed to pull back away from Bickerton. With only a couple minutes left in the race, Moore was holding onto that fourth place position with Nelson about 4 seconds behind him in fifth and Ball staying in sixth about 45 seconds behind. Last lap around, Nelson got right on Moore, he came up and made the pass on Moore to move himself up to fourth. Checkered flag was out, Mejia took the win, Laws took second, Bickerton in third, Nelson in fourth, Moore came around in fifth, with Ball finishing in sixth!

As the 50 Sr class takes off the line, Tank Laws (28) took the lead with Brecken Shannon (81) and Jaxon Donnelly (16) out behind him, just within the second lap, the three started pulling away from the rest of the class. Next lap they came by the checkpoint and Donnelly had made his way up to second place past Shannon and right up on Laws. With Shannon in third now he was about 6 seconds behind the two, bringing more intensity to the race. As they run into lappers, Laws is able to put about 5 seconds on Donnelly while Donnelly puts 20 seconds on Shannon. Once Donnelly is able to get around those lappers he gets right back up to Laws but with only little time left and Laws doesn’t look like he’s gonna give up that lead very easily. Time is up, checkered flag comes out for Laws to take the win with Donnelly coming in second, and Shannon taking third!

AA started with Regan Doerr (36) ahead of both Garrett Ward (31) and Matt McDonald (45), but pretty quickly into the race, Ward and McDonald made their way around Doerr. Once Ward got around him he took off from the other two while Doerr was hanging right on McDonald’s tail. After awhile of Doerr hanging on McDonald, McDonald started to pull away from Doerr. Next lap when they came around, Doerr was ahead of McDonald by quite a bit. McDonald ended up crashing out in the west side of the course, which led him to slow down a bit, and eventually pull off. The rest of the class finished their race and kept their places they were in, Ayden White (88) took the win, Ward finished in second, and Doerr took third place.

In the 25+ race there was a quick battle between Tyler Spizzirri (143) and Nick Balzer (106). Balzer was in the lead but had Spizzirri right on him and Spizzirri looked like he was ready to make the pass as soon as he got the opportunity! Spizzirri made the pass on Balzer pretty quickly after and made sure to pull away from Balzer to make sure he locked his position in. Spizzirri kept his speed up and took the win! 

Chris Cabellero (251) was racing around the course with Ryan Farrell (296) right on his tail in the Open B class. When the two came around on the west side of the course, they went around one of the corners and Farrell killed his bike for a quick second, used his electric start to keep up moving with Cabellero! Within the next couple laps, the two had a pretty decent gap between them, if Cabellero stayed moving he could keep his position to the checkered flag. As the race went on, checkered flag came out, Cabellero finished in third and Farrell kept his fourth place!

The weekend was very hot and humid but the riders did great and put some amazing races.  Fathers day event has been throught out history a very family oriented weekend with the dads being the focal point!  2024 was no different!  Next Race is Free T-shirt event and  Don't forget that Next month WFO riders will invade the Fox Valley Racing as they earn points and compete with the FVOR ridership.  FVOR riders head over to Geneseo in late September and do that same!