VFORCE RACE REPORT – Dozer GP

BROUGHT TO YOU BY MOTO TASSINARI 
MOTO TASSINARI IS THE PREMIER MANUFACTURER OF PERFORMANCE ENHANCING REED VALVES

GREGOIRE SCORES FIRST PREMIER CLASS WIN

Brandon Gregoire on his Factory Connection Yamaha would win the first moto and claim the first PRO Class Overall win of his career at Round 4 of the FOX Racing J DAY Off Road Championship held in Huntington MA. At the Dozer Memorial Gregoire would continue his rise in the resurrection of a once promising off road career by realizing the potential we all knew he had. Brandon would ride his YZ to 1- 4 moto scores to clinch his first ever Premier PRO Class Overall win and vault himself into 3rd in the Championship race only 14 points behind leader Chris Canning on the Factory Connection / MotorBikes Plus Gas Gas who had an off day  at 4th Overall on a course that favored woods specialists of which Canning is trying to gain more experience of.  Nate Smith pulled a quick first moto start on the MHR/ POR/ FXR Husqvarna and lead lap one but Gregoire would not be denied and took the lead on lap 2 and never looked back, well maybe a couple of times when he was leaping through the air on the 120 Foot Kenda Sendahhh in front of the very large and enthusiastic crowd. Gavin Simon on the Edelman’s Husqvarna would rip through the pack after a tough start completing lap one in 8th and then pushing all the way to second on lap 2 and finishing the moto there. Another Vermonster and reigning J DAY Off Road Champion Simon Johnson on the Plaistow Power Sports / Factory Connection Yamaha would have a worse start coming through in 11th on lap one but pushing through to 3rd on lap 2 and holding the position throughout the moto. Toby Cleveland the New York Speedster would take the Rock Star Energy TC 125 Husqvarna to 4th in the first moto while points leader Canning would end up in fifth after a moto long battle through the rough and dusty course and some riders he is not used to battling with. Rounding out the top ten in moto 1 were Nick Kordana on the MotorSports Nation YZ , Cole Daniel , Nate Smith, Nick Casey and Ryan Ames with his first ever top ten PRO moto finish.

Moto 2 would see Cody Williams on the Bullit Racing / MotorBikes Plus / Factory Connection KTM rocket out of the first turn clearly with the Holeshot and he was gone baby gone. Williams would have one of his worst J DAY motos ever in the first go round finishing 18th and coming out of it banged and bruised after losing a fight with a tree. The veteran racer out of Massachusetts did what he has done many times before and put a tough finish far from his mind and concentrated on the task at hand on admittedly one of his favorite courses on the J DAY tour and lap after lap did not falter from his plan of winning the moto and in the process build a 19 second lead over the young gun Toby Cleveland and maintain it throughout the final four laps for a resounding victory. In one of his most dominant performances ever Pizza Willy proved he still has what it takes to win and finished 9th Overall at Round 4. Cleveland would hold 2nd to the line and finish on the second step of the podium. Nick Kordana would enjoy a much better moto finishing 3rd and claiming the third step on the Red Bull Podium. The man finishing fourth in the moto would stand on the top step of the podium today and that was of course Brandon Gregoire on the Factory Connection Yamaha in a very proud moment. Fifth in moto 2 and eighth Overall was Brayden Nolette on his V3 Kawasaki. Sixth in Moto 2 and fourth Overall would see Chris Canning continue to lead the Championship after Round 4 but allow the competition to catch up and make it a very interesting title chase. Rounding out the top ten Overall for the day in fifth was 2022 Champ Simon Johnson 8th in the 2nd moto, Gavin Simon sixth who was 9th in moto 2, 7th in moto 2 and Overall was Nate Smith who by the by sits 5th in points, Nolette, Williams and Cole Daniel in tenth. The heat and the tough, short track took it’s toll on the riders who were into lapped traffic at the start of lap two in both motos as there are 4 other classes in this moto and made for some crazy tales at day’s end and some inconsistent results.

And now for the rest of the story…

Bright sunshine and cool temperatures greeted the riders on Sunday morning of Memorial Day Weekend in the beautiful Berkshire Mountains of Western Massachusetts and the Kenda Pee Wee Challenge buzzed out of the gate at 8 o’clock and raced for 40 minutes and some of these Iron Boyz turned around and did it again in the next moto for 30 minutes with older riders and bigger bikes !! At 10:30 AM we assembled at the Red Bull Podium and celebrated Tucker Aldrich’s Victory and it was surely hard fought as Sawyer Langenback continues to come into his own and gave the reigning champ all he could handle and even lead the race at one point until being passed by Aldrich to secure the victory and Langenback a very close second. Destry Tucker would join the podium again with a smile.

Pee Wee Girls was won by Isla Kastel with Sophia Teixeira second and Delaney Levesque third. Ben Silva won the Squirt division, Crue Hopkins took the Bantam class win and Hunter Aubin rode his Honda to the Trailrider win. 

The Super Mini Podium was topped by Ryan Amancio with Kamden Krause second and Colton McQuarrie rounding out the field. Luke Simpson was the Spectro Youth Award Winner while scoring the Mini B win and Addie Harris continued her dominance of the Girls class. DJ Leblanc got his first Mini A win and Ashtin Dumeer grabbed the win in Mini C.

Joseph Werner took his KTM to top Open C honors and won the C Class Overall for his very first win ever. Max Rivera took the win in 250 C and Devon LaRoche the 200 C. 

The Womens PRO Class saw the return of National Championship contender Korie Steede who loves to come J DAY racing and she set the bar for the rest of the class. Steede on the Trail Jesters KTM would battle her young Amateur teammate the “Rhode Island Rocket” Addie Harris early in the moto and even though the 14 year old Harris would finish second to Steede in the moto she would win the Womans Amateur class Overall and continue to show tremendous ability and continued promise on her KTM. Steede would win both motos and Ruby Fustini would finish second to her with Savanah Kipp third.

Super Senior Nate Martel aired it out over the Kenda Senda en route to another route of the class, Sean Bohan took a double moto win to the Masters class victory, C Vet was won by Pedro Lacerda on a Kawasaki and the C Senior win went to Paul Foti.

PRO 125 Class Red Bull Podium had the same faces as the Premier PRO Class just in a different order. Toby Cleveland was super fast on his Rock Star Energy Husqvarna TC 125 with both moto wins and healthy margins over Brandon Gregoire and Nick Kordana. 5 time PRO 125 Champion Kyle  “HoleShot” Hangos got some great starts on his Plaistow Power Sports / Factory Connection YZ and finished fourth overall with Nate Smith fifth.

A Junior win went to KTMs Ryan Amancio and Ryan would actually physically finish Fifth Overall in the PRO Class. What a ride by the personable young man from Connecticut and definitely one to watch in the future.

B Overall went to the 250 class winner Grady Kaminski who was impressive on his KTM coming home 14th overall against some very skilled and experienced PRO and A riders. Open B win went to Cohen Ayer and the 200 class was won by Robbie Webb on a Yamaha.

Senior A class had some great racing between Jon Gosselin on a Ronnie’s Cycle KTM and Will Hopkins on his Plaistow Power Sports YZ with the two trading moto wins and Gosselin winning the all important second moto for the overall win. Leo Silva, Steve Meacham and Grant Carter on the MotorBikes Plus / Bullit Racing entry rounded out the top five.

B Junior saw Jiggs Fustini conquer the class on his Trail Jesters KTM while B Vet saw Matt Gauffin pilot his YZ to the win and B Senior was Elias Roberto winning on a KTM.

In the last moto of the first and second half of the program there is some great racing going on inside the PRO moto with the A Vet class really shaping up to be very exciting racing with BJ Lanigan winning the first moto en route to 2nd overall and Dennis Baker solid in third it was Ryan Bliven winning the class with consistency on his Yamaha making the Hoot Owls proud.

A Class Overall winner as well as A Open was Corbin Owens to make a very successful day for the Plaistow Power Sports Blu Cru. Of special note is that Owens also beat some pretty heavy hitters to finish 14th Overall against the PRO Field.  Jake Desmarais took the A 250 win over NETRA regular Gavin Bacon and Van Gosselin and in A 200 Matt Webb beat Dan Desmairas and Jacob Pacheco.

A beautiful sunny day on Memorial Day Weekend in the Berkshires when we honor the memory of Steve “the Dozer “ Girroir proud Dad of Factory KTM rider Johhny , Stevie and Krista who still after 13 years is loved and missed by many. Steve enjoyed life and for sure was up there watching with a big smile on his face.
June 18th will see us return to picturesque Johnsonville NY and the Stateline GP. An area steeped in not only American History but J DAY Off Road History as well. Until then this is JJ saying “ See You at the Next J DAY “