Atricle: Round 14

August 25, 2011

Dade City Motocross – 2011 Points Championship Series

August 20^th, 2011 – Round 14

Author:  Gifford Quast

The dog days of August are normally a time to rest up and avoid the motocross track, but not this last weekend at DCMX.  Dade City had a full weekend of events and racing, enough to make even the most heat resistant person begin to wither.  Saturday began with a practice session for the day race planned for Sunday, instead of the usual MX School.  Although hot, the weather conditions were great (since this time of year can be plagued with monsoons) and the track turned out to be just about perfect.  With a combination Points Championship and Summer series event as well as the Vortex Lites on hand the facility was packed full.

As always, practice began at 3:00 pm sharp, and with the huge number of riders on hand it would take the entire two hours to get the session in.  The top classes (Vortex Lites: 250’s and Sponsor’s Cup: 450’s) always have a timed practice session, and gate picks are determined by each riders’ fastest lap.  In the Lites class Cody Chisholm, fresh off a couple of top ten finished at Loretta Lynn’s, put in the best time of the session.  Jared Jackson was second fast followed by RJ Hampshire, Pup Whatley and Austin Diperna in fifth.

The Sponsor’s Cup class has had a number of riders show some dominance, only to have it be short lived.  Early on in the season Troy Adams appeared to be the man to beat.  Then Tyler Livesay went on a win streak, and lately mike Picone has gotten back to his winning ways of last year.  In timed qualifying Livesay showed he has the speed to get back on a win streak of his own, and laid down the the fast lap by over half a second.  Picone was second fastest followed by Kyle Keylon, Ricky Renner (on a break from racing all of the 250 nationals) and Ian Millett rounding out the top five.  Adams is still out of town dealing with some personal business, but we hope to see him back at DCMX soon.

Since the Vortex Lites class is run in a Supercross format heat races come first to determine the field and gate picks for the main event.  The first heat featured Chisholm, and he responded by coming across the stripe first to grab the holeshot.  Diperna, who always gets great starts on his 250 2-Stroke, was right on the rear fender of Chisholm.  Jack Sigismondi also got the power down and was in the third spot, while Hampshire was pretty far back.  Hampshire wasted no time, and by the first time across the finish line he was already up to fifth.  Up front Diperna was keeping pace with Chisholm while Hampshire sliced his way through the pack, by lap two he was already in third.  On lap four Hampshire made the pass on Diperna and took over the second spot, Chisholm had pulled a gap and had a 3-4 second lead.  Hampshire was clearly the fastest rider on the track, and on the final lap made a great pass to take over the lead and win the heat.

Heat number two began with a holeshot by Jackson, with Whatley in second.  Up front Jackson was pulling away, clearly the man to beat.  As the laps wore on Jackson continued to pull away from Whatley and the field.  Sean Sattanno was putting in a great effort in third and was followed closely by Rich Wilkes in fourth.  On the fifth lap Jackson went down in a corner, throwing away a huge lead and the heat race win.  Whatley took the point and led to the finish, with Sattanno second and Wilkes with an awesome third.

In 2010 Picone was the king of the holeshot, and when out front he almost always won, leading to a highly profitable championship.  For the first moto of the Sponsor’s Cup Picone, again showed everyone his backside at the stripe.  Picone was followed closely by Millett, Keylon, Livesay and Renner, kind of a who’s-who of DCMX Sponsor’s Cup over the last few years.  By lap one Livesay made a dramatic pass on Keylon to take over the third spot, while Picone was pulling away out front.  On lap four Renner moved past Keylon to take over the fourth spot, while Livesay was stalking Millett.  On lap five Livesay took second away from Millett and set his sights on the leader, Picone.  A couple laps later Renner moved into third, getting past Millett, but he was way back from Livesay.  The moto would end without any further drama, Picone winning, Livesay second and Renner rounding out the podium.

Main event time for the Vortex Lites class draws everyone to the fences, as the class has produced numerous winners and great racing so far this season.  At the drop of the gate the BPM power in Jackson’s Honda again got him out of the first turn ahead of the pack.  As usual, Diperna was right there with him in second and Cory Huberty got a great start in third.  Whatley came past the finish line for the first time in fourth and Sigismondi held the fifth spot.  Off the start Hampshire was again around midpack, with a lot of work to do and quite a few fast riders ahead of him.  Jackson, upset with his heat race mistake quickly gapped the field, while Diperna was pushing as hard as he could to keep him honest.  Whatley made quick work of Huberty and passed him on lap two while Hampshire was cutting through the pack and had already moved into the fifth position.  Up front Jackson looked fast and flawless, but he had also looked that way in the heat race.  By lap seven the hard charging Hampshire  had passed Whatley and was trying to close the gap on second place Diperna.  A big mistake by Hampshire on lap eight put an end to his forward progress, and he would have to settle for a hard fought third.  Diperna continues to impress with a very smart ride to finish second, and Jackson put it all together to win for the second time this season.  Huberty kept fighting all moto long and wound up with fourth followed by Whatley in fifth.

Second moto time for the Sponsor’s Cup came fairly late in the evening with all of the entries and classes on this busy night.  When the gate fell and Picone pulled yet another holeshot the feeling was that it would be another boring race.  On lap three Livesay again made a bold pass on Keylon to take over the second spot, but the lead Picone had already amassed looked to be insurmountable.  As the laps wore on and everyone held their positions it was clear that Livesay was the fastest rider on the track, but would he have enough time to catch and pass Picone.  By the start of the final lap Livesay was right on Picone, and he wasted no time in making an aggressive move to take the lead, on this night Livesay would not be denied.  Picone came home second with Keylon third, Renner fourth and Millett fifth.  Hampshire, doing double duty in Lites and Sponsor’s Cup finished a very respectable seventh overall on a 250F, and if there were one he would no doubt get the hard charger award for the night.  Overall results were as follows:  Livesay-1^st, Picone-2^nd, Renner-3^rd, Keylon-4^th, and Millett-5^th.

The points battle is heating up in both the Vortex Lites and the Sponsor’s Cup classes, with incredibly tight racing each week.  In Lites Whatley’s lead has been shrunk to only 10 points over round 14 winner Jackson, with the fast and consistent Diperna just behind them.  While in Sponsor’s Cup Livesay has tied Picone with his win.  Be sure to be at each and every remaining round, as there will be more excitement as we get closer to the final events.

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