2006 is having a hard time getting off the ground. Too much rain for these first two qualifiers at EHT! A massive threat of rain had all the riders up most of the evening Friday waiting for word from Janeen on whether or not the Egg Harbor wonderland got swamped over the evening. Well about 7:00 am on Saturday, word came across… the race was on! EHT was in killer shape as usual and everyone spent the morning looking up at the clouds and just hoping for the rain to stay up in the clouds till we were finished.
Practice went down without a hitch, but as the old men rolled onto the gate for 35 & over, the BMX gods decided to… well let’s just they decided to do something on our parade. By the time the 16 Ex-Nov class came along the track was getting a little too moist and Jeff Heath went for a mondo move in his moto which led to a gnarly crash and super hipper. Jeff was able to get back up and on the bike but the officials decided to chill the rest of the motos till they could figure out what to do.

For those of you who wonder what goes on behind the scenes when something like this occurs, it sorta goes like this. The race calendar is cracked open, dates are checked (and ladies and gents with all the regionals and nationals this isn’t easy), opinions are given, nails are bitten and people keep looking up in the sky and begging for the rain to stop. This time we got lucky and after about 20 minutes or so the rain stopped, the usual killer BMX attitude shown through again and all the volunteers and older riders busted out, gave Les a hand and the track was back in shape in no time at all. Check this slideshow for shots of all these unsung heroes of BMX who keep these tracks going when the sh**…rain hits the dirt.
After Jeff’s nailbiter wipeout, the rest of the races though crazy and radabonzical as par usual were a little more subdued. The Filippones tore it up in the younger guys cruiser classes. The old big wheeled bad boys were all once again freaking fast Farside with newbie oldie Pete “Wog” Wohlgemuth taking the deuce (actually first in the combined class) for the day. Jeff Heath was out working for the day so it was up to Ripping Rempkowski to let loose the geritol on the 45-49 class. Roll on maniacs!
Ladies? Neva the diva rocked the wee lasses, Carolan and Farside tore up the 9, 10-11 class, and Heather Haugh smokasized the 16 over ladies class. We used to call ’em powderpuffs, now they’re the future ladies pro classes.
Pletscher and Padilla percolated some great racing action in the 9 novice class with Pletscher coming out in the top spot this time. Radical Reszkowski got grouped with older riders this round but still stomped on ’em and did a cross up over every jump at the same time. Zarek Justis took the second behind Resz but first for his class. After tearing up the cruiser class, Paul Filippone tore up the 10 Ex-12 Nov class…yes ladies and berms, Paul boosted over lads two years his senior. Jones and Farro got the 2nd and 3rd which is 1st and 2nd for the 12 Nov class. 14 Novice full on massive BMX raceatude, Harrington and Pappas slipped through the moistness of the EHT berms and went 1-2 for the day. Vinnie Mannino tore up 16 Ex-Nov for the day, can anything stop that MASSIVE front sprocket? Vinnie tears it jumping as well as racing! Sean Hogan took the 3rd for the first in 16 Novice. The old men 20″ class huffed and puffed but they couldn’t blow down the house of Farside. Once again the machine trampled the rest of the NJ old dudes and rolled the first for the day. “Superclass” Craig Wilson followed in behind him with the rest of the class wondering what happened.
The littlest of little newbies 5 & under rookie were done in by Nicholas “Mackiddy” McDonald with Feinstein and Ditmire finishing out of alphabetical order for 2 and 3. The older rookies were taken by Ian Kulis in 11 rookie and Brandon Perez in 12-13 rookie, Amanda Robbins stepped up and rolled out with the guys this time around.
16 & Over open was taken in full force by Dan Smith, Tim Sullivan torqued in with enough points to take home the second place simoleans!
So far 1 rain out and another day with the threat of wetness playing with our minds all day. Up next…two days of BMX love in Flemington NJ at HCBMX for Qualifiers 3 and 4. Matt Danek and Raiden Hayden will be our hosts they have changed the layout this year and added some new racing radicalness. We’ve hit the track near A.C., now it’s up to the hills of Flemington and the downhill radness of HCBMX.
See you in the mountains, Brokenspokes.net and NJ BMX Szine.

Results:

16 & Over Open
Daniel Smith 16 1
Timmy Sullivan 20 2
Christopher Haugh 22 3
Rich Carolan 36 4
9 & Under, 10-11 Cruiser
Paul Filippone 10 1
Michael Gelsomine 9 1
12-13,14-15, 16-17 Cruiser
Luke Filippone 14 1
Victor Behm 12 1
Tom Martin 17 1
22-29, 30-34 Cruiser
William Groen 28 1
Chris Vliet 33 1
Chris Gulich 32 2
35-39, 40-44 Cruiser
Rich Farside 40 1
Chris Wiley 37 1
Peter Wohlgemuth 37 2
Niall Bridgeman 37 3
Craig Wilson 38 4
45-49 Cruiser
James Rempkowski 47 1
Mark Pletscher 48 2
6-7 Girls
Neva Warren 7 1
Cheyenne Godino 6 2
8-9, 10-11 Girls
Taylor Farside 10 1
Whitney Kowski 11 2
Alana Carolan 9 1
16 & Over Girls
Heather Haugh 17 1
Sarah Welsh 17 2
5 & Under, 8 Novice
Joseph Krause 5 1
Lenny Hicks 8 1
Michael Gelsomine 8 2
8 Expert
Christopher Koval 8 1
Kyle Dulock 8 2
Matthew Cranmer 8 3
9 Novice
Jake Pletscher 9 1
Austin Padilla 9 2
Tyler Warner 9 3
9 Expert, 10 Novice
Michael Reszkowski 9 1
Zarek Justis 10 1
Brandon Brown 10 2
RJ Godino 10 3
Christopher Whiley 10 4
Ryan Anderson 10 5
10 Expert, 12 Novice
Paul Filippone 10 1
Nicholas Jones 12 1
Brian Farro 12 2
Trevor Justis 12 3
Adam Kulis 12 4
Kyle Glenn 12 5
12 Expert, 13 Novice
Victor Behm 12 1
Steven Dulock 12 2
Dakota Caulfield 13 1
14 Novice
Justin Harrington 14 1
Tyler Pappas 14 2
Gary Transue 14 3
Christopher Opitz 14 4
Shannon Walsh 14 5
14 Expert, 15 Novice
Shawn Lloyd 14 1
Luke Filippone 14 2
Glenn Scoggins 15 1
Thomas Rinck 15 2
16 Expert, 16 Novice
Vincent Mannino 16E 1
Daniel Smith III 16E 2
Sean Hogan 16N 1
Jeffery Heath 16N 2
17 Expert, 17 Novice
Tom Martin 17E 1
Kenny Meleta 17N 1
Stephen Moritz 17N 2
18-21 Novice, Expert, 22-29 Ex.
Carl Risley 21N 1
Christopher Haugh 22E 1
Timmy Sullivan 20E 1
35&Over Expert, Novice
Rich Farside 40E 1
Robert Bennett 37E 2
Craig Wilson 38N 1
Brett Middaugh 40N 2
Paul Carroll 38N 3
Peter Wohlgemuth 37N 4
James Rempkowski 47N 5
5&Under Rookie
Nicholas McDonald 5 1
Anthony Feinstein 5 2
Kevin Ditmire 5 3
Phoenix Crager 4 4
6 Rookie, 7 Rookie
Garrett Vliet 6 1
Eric Matos 7 1
Nathan Grabel 7 2
Ryan Yuhas 7 3
Alexander Kowski 7 4
9 Rookie, 10 Rookie
Colin Grabel 10 1
Ryan Cohen 9 1
11 Rookie
Ian Kulis 11 1
Ryan Pappas 11 2
Erik Robbins 11 3
12 Rookie, 13 Rookie
Brandon Perez 12 1
Thomas Lockard 12 2
Amanda Robbins 13 1
15 Rookie, 17 & Over Rookie
Karl Greis 20 1
Kyle Lockard 15 1
Lee Matos 15 2

Photos: