VIRGINIA CITY, NV (April 28) – Saturday at the Virginia City Grand Prix (VCGP) presented by Rhyno Built Welding is when the pros, in the Cash Class, Experts and Amateurs race. This year, according to Race Director Donnie Bird there were 503 riders ready to challenge the tough 26-mile course
The VCGP is known for testing man, woman and machine to their limits and this time would be no exception.
Ross Neely heads for the pits as he finishes the first lap. He would win his fifth VCGP when the race ended.
While everyone wants to win this race, or at least their class it’s a chosen few that have. This race pitted last year’s champion against a former one coming out of retirement that had four overall victories under his belt.
“It’s been a four years so might as well come out here and do it,” winner Ross Neely said on the podium. “The course was brutal, the gnarliest I’ve seen in years so it was awesome I thought. Lappers were not so much in the way so there were plenty of lines to pick, I’m dusty and tired but the training pays off.”
Then with a laugh he thanked his bank account that funded his trip, his father that got the bike ready to go and all the people that pitted for him.
As usual there are two “head start” positions auctioned before each race to help local charities. This time Keith Lovejoy got the 2-minute one while Nevada racer Sean Berryman got the 1-minute jump
Keith Lovejoy got the 2-minute head start at the pre-race auction.
After the head start riders start the rest of the field is lined up in rows of 10 on the main street. The Cash Class is in front and each row is launched 15 seconds apart.
Last year’s champion Ty Tremain was sporting the #1 blue plate and made a rocket start down the hill and onto a dirt section. From that point there was a near constant stream of riders getting going.
Last year’s champion had a blazing start but wound up second at the end of the day.
One interesting entry was VC rider Kiegan McIntier, who was riding a modified Harley. Seems he wanted to see if he could make it last but unfortunately it didn’t.
VC Kiegan McIntier decided to try something different so he rode a Harley in the VCGP. Didn’t work but he tried.
Up front it appeared that Tremaine just might make it two in row but Needly and Ryan Smith had other ideas and gave chase.
Tremaine’s did his first lap right around 50 minutes and was well ahead of anyone as he headed into the pits for gas. Behind him there was a bunch of hard racing going on as well as the usual bottlenecks as the field worked its way up and down some gnarly hills.
At one part of the course there is a by pass road that goes around a hard up hill. While it is longer this easier route actually took more time.
That’s the break Neely and Smith needed as they closed the time gap. As the laps progressed the situation up front changed and at one time Neely and Smith were in front of Termaine, at least on time.
In the end it may have been the closest finish in the history of the 47-year event.
When the dust settled 13 riders completed five laps on the dusty and rocky course but the top three were seven minutes ahead of fourth place J.T. Baker. The first nine places were taken up by Cash Class riders
First expert to finish was Matt Veerkamp, who won the 30+ Expert division with a 10th place finish. First amateur, in the 250cc class was 25th place finisher Keith Lovejoy, who had the 2-minute head start.
Matt Veerkamp, who won the 30+ Expert class, was the first rider not in the Cash Class to finish the race. He wound up 10th overall for the day.
Up front Neely’s elapsed time was 4:32:01.283. Close behind was Neely with a time of 4:32:26.653 followed by Smith whose time was 4:32:34.343. So the top three finishers were separated by only a bit more than 33 seconds on their corrected time.
At VCGP it’s a rider’s corrected time that really counts but still the margin of victory was razor thin for this type of racing.
During his time on the podium Termaine said, “I was probably losing a minute as I was going around that whole mountain as I didn’t know it was an option.”
Then he thanked CMS, CC Coffee, Rhyno Built Welding, his family, girl friend and those that helped him.
Smith, who ended up a very close third in his first VCGP attempt said, “I started in the fourth line so I had to follow through a lot of dust to get up to those guys. There are rocks everywhere and I like rocks so I guess the whole thing I had fun the whole time. It was like a sprint trying to keep up with Ross, I crashed a few times, got ahead of him crashed, it was crazy out there.”
In his very first VCGP Ryan Smith finished third overall.
Then he thanked Husqvarna, Team SRT, O’Niel Gear, Fast Company as well as others.
Behind the leaders there was an incident that brought the race to a close sooner than expected. A fire in Sutro Canyon, where the course ran down hill, started so the fire fighters had to shut down the race.
The timing crew that handles VCGP has a procedure developed from them handling scoring at desert races. So the results were complied and printed.
While this report has only partial results the full list can be found at www.vcgp.com.
Now it’s quiet on the Comstock but next April the VCGP will sing its siren song and bring riders from all across the west to face the challenge of this classic race.
REPORTER’S NOTE: There is a photo gallery after the results.
OTHER RACING NEWS:
- Remember Tuesday is the day for the Teresa’s Garage Radio Show, which covers all things automotive. The show runs from 2 until 3 p.m. and my racing preview part is around 2:15, hope you’ll give us a listen.
Teresa’s Garage Radio Show graphic.
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RESULTS
Virginia City Grand Prix – Saturday, April 28
Overall: 1. Ross Neely, 2. Ty Tremaine, 3. Ryan Smith, 4. J.T. Baker, 5. Sean Berryman, 6.Ryan Wells, 7. Drew Chattin, 8. Calum Campbell, 9. Sean Jones, 10.Matt Veerkamp, 11. Coonor Nejedly, 12. Stephen Helms, 13. Zach Fiteh, (The rest only completed 4-Laps),14. Dylan Galliett, 15. Dan Capperelli, 16. James Flynn, 17. Shawn Hale, 18 Joe Shipman, 19. Reece Honea, 20. Austin Sanguinetti, 21. Austin Wilson, 22. Willy Heiss, 23. Jimmy Dowden, 24. Austin Tavares, 25. Keith Lovejoy.
Class Winners:
+ Cash & Expert: Ross Neely (Cash), James Flynn (Exp. Open), Zach Fitch (Exp. 250cc), Matt Veerkamp (Exp. 30+), Dan Capperilli (Exp. 40+), Robert Brumit (Exp. 50+).
+ Amateur: Chris Martin, (Open), Keith Lovejoy (250cc), Joe Machi (125cc), Frederick Dexter (30+), Paul Bergstrom (40+), Adam Thevenin (50+).
PHOTO GALLERY:
