East Coast nationals race report

Filed under General on June 13, 2019 | Comment(s)

USA BMX National No. 15 - the East Coast Nationals, arrived at Chesapeake BMX,
located in Severn Maryland. With moto counts reaching right around the 200 mark and having
hot sunny days in the forecast we were guaranteed to have some great racing.
With the UCI BMX Supercross World Cup 2019 going down in St-Quentin-en-Yvelines
France and the Cactus Classic Nationals in BC all on the same weekend as the East Coast
Nationals there were only a handful of Pros racing in the Pro Open this weekend. There were 5
riders for Saturdays Pro Open and they finished in this order, Olijuwon Davis, Nick (Nicky D)
Dawson, Paul Filippone, Curtis Sykes III, and Brandon Propheter.

11-12 Girls Cruiser was easily led by Kylee Niederberger all three days, the close race
was for second place by the same two girls, Kiera Amaris only won that fight on Friday, on
Saturday and Sunday it was won by Allison Laughlin.

The 7 and Under Cruiser Main on Sunday was the one of the three days not to be
missed, day’s One and Two were single file racing, but not on the final day. Jacob (U Know)
Greenwell had already won both Friday and Saturday and was in the lead almost the whole lap
on Sunday, but Marshall Warner was coming for him. Warner was closing the gap between
them, even while jumping multiple obstacles on the second straight, it came down to the last
couple feet of racing surface and Warner edged by Greenwell right at the line.
Tommy Bruney won two out of the three days in 10 Cruiser, he finished out front
Saturday and Sunday. Friday William Edmonds won by a small margin at the line, Edmonds was
able to get the early lead and even though Bruney was right there with him he was unable to
complete the pass on him. Chris Felker was also right there fighting to get in first, but he was
only able to come away with two seconds and a third.
11 Cruiser has similar results to 10 Cruiser, Brady Oneil won both Saturday and Sunday,
but Jason Linville managed to steal Friday’s win from him right at the line. Linville’s teammate
Cohen Bundy was right there with them each day and managed to get two thirds and a second
respectively.
While Parker Respass might not have been the first 12 Cruiser out of the gate each day,
he was easily the winner of every main. Parker pulled a six-bike lead on Joe Martin by the end
of the second straight every time, and Martin did the same to Mason Bruns, and they finished
in that order every main moto. Parker was also able to do the same in the 12 Expert class giving
him six wins for the weekend.

Louis Kaminski won all three days in 17-20 Cruiser, Saturday Michael Lane was
able to pull an early lead on Louis, but he was unable to hold that lead, Kaminski pedaled past
Lane on the third straight.

The 12 Expert Girls turned up the excitement level every time they were on the track, it
was one of the moto’s that never disappoints, and you never knew what the finishing order
would be. Kylee Neiderberger was on a mission to win, you could just tell, and there was more
of the bumping and crashing that is brought on by this group of girl’s desire to get to the top
spot. Kylee managed to pull off two wins, but just like in NASCAR at Daytona you can only bump
so many racers before the big one happens, and that was what happened on Saturday night at
the end of the first straight. Just like the other days Avery Chartrand took the early lead, but
only by a few inches, and this time when Kylee went to pressure her from the outside she was
bumped off her bike in mid-air and Avery went on to get the win. Unfortunately, just like in
NASCAR there are always riders that get caught up in the crash or slowed down by it, but
somehow Danica Bailey swerved to the outside and narrowly missed the carnage that
happened inches in front of her, which made Saturday Danica’s best finish of the weekend with
a second place.
The energy continued into 13 Expert Girls where home track rider Addison Shreve was
unseated from her first place position on the last straight the first two days by Isabella Nelson,
but not on the last day, Shreve summoned some last straight power and pulled away with a ten
bike lead to grab the win the final day.
Jena Sagendorf used her fast gates and defensive riding skills to initially fight off the
charging passes of Ashlee Hill Pattenelli in 21-30 Expert Women Friday and Saturday, but let’s
face it if Ashlee wants to get by you it is hard to hold her off for too long. That’s exactly what
happened those days, Jena’s defense only lasted so long, and Ashlee eventually pushed past
her towards the end of the moto’s and took those two wins with Jena coming in second.
Sunday would be different though, and just like Kylee in the 12 Expert Girls class Ashlee pushed
from the outside on Jena to try to get the early lead at the end of the first straight and seemed
to take herself out, leaving defending Jena to finally get the win she fought all weekend for.
Patrick O’Brian has been in fire this year, and once he gets out front he is hard to get
past. O’Brian beat out Cutter Williams and Blake Powell Friday and Saturday in 14 Expert, but
on Sunday just when he was getting up to speed he unclipped and lost the lead to Cutter.
Leaving the finishing order Cutter, Powell, and Nicholas Barone in third on the final day.
Drew Polk won both Friday and Saturday in the 15 Expert class, but Sunday ended
differently, Nolan Cardwell took the early lead on the first straight and was not easy to get by.
Cole Zufelt was there in third trying but he had his hands full with Weston Merlot, it would
seem that they still had an ongoing battle brought over from last weekend’s Limestone City
Nationals and were really racing each other in the third and fourth positions. Drew Polk wanted
to keep his streak going and win all three days and finally made his move on Cardwell in the
final turn. Polk dove under Cardwell and applied some pressure to try and slow him, however
since the last turn is crazy sharp Polk couldn’t advance his position, leaving them two-wide out
of the turn and down the final straight. At the same time Zufelt freed himself of Merlot and
instantly was there to also try and take the lead, they fought almost three-wide down the final
straight and right to the line, leaving the finishing order Cardwell, Polk, Zufelt.

Watching Sunday’s 26-35 Expert class you would almost think that it was the 26-35
Novice class with the amount of crashing and bonking going on. There was some super tight
racing which compounded the wreck that started it all at the end of the first straight. The
craziness started when Nicholas Stodolski seemed to land right foot first rather than on his
tires, and that took out Jefferson Oliveira, and at the same time caused Scott Doland to hit his
brakes and almost stop. Juan Camilo Rodriguez simultaneously bonked the same jump and was
thrown sideways to the right taking out Drew Merkle. All of that suddenly put fifth, sixth, and
seventh place riders Rolando Camacho, Wanderglaby Freitas, and Anthony Villanuava into the
first through third spots respectively and caused them to fight for first the rest of the way
around the track, however even with all three of them racing hard they still finished in that
order.
Whew that’s it from Chesapeake BMX, see you at Rockford.