Season Review of the 2015 year in racing for this region.

With the year ending it’s time to take a look at this past season and set the stage for what is to come in the New Year.

As usual the desert racers in MRANN raised the curtain for racing in this region. It was the Dead Horse event that’s staged north of the Nightingale Exit on I-80.

MRANN racers take off to begins the 2015 season.

Veteran Reece Honea won the overall with Steve Garnett not that far behind. Further down the standings Kyle Townsend ended up fifth ahead of Dan Capparelli and, rookie to the expert division, Austin Serpa, who ended up eighth.

From that point on the season evolved as the battle for the overall points lead was between veteran Capparelli and the young lion Serpa. In fact at Toulon they ended up first and second with Serpa at the top of the standings.

And at the end there were only 46 points between first and second in the overall points race. So this season Serpa’s bike will have a white number “1” with a blue background while Capparelli’s will sport the “2”.

At the awards banquet he wasn’t quite sure if he’ll defend his title so his plans are up in the air right now.

In 2014 we almost lost motocross racing as all the fall races were cancelled. Layne Kolbet and the Over The Hill Gang decided to make sure there was at least one race and they held it at the Fernley Lion’s Motocross Track or as it’s better known, “The Sandbox.”

A start from the first Old Timer’s race of the year.

Earlier this year two veterans that no longer race, Jeff McCollum and Eric McElroy rolled up their sleeves and breathed new life into the Old Timers Club.

They partnered with the Over the Hill Gang and Tim O’Brien, who promotes Livfast Exit 28 Motocross Track, also joined the effort and there was a three-race series.

In addition to that trio of events the annual Sandbox Grand Prix was held at Fernley as were the Over The Hill Gang Nationals on Memorial Day and a round of the Old Timers Nationals was also held.

In the fall the club in Winnemucca, which had missed the spring races, joined and made it a four-race season. While not as many races as in the past at least, thanks to the two clubs and O’Brien motocross is still alive in our region.

Next year there also might be a motocross in Alturas, California as part of the spring series. And MRANN begins is 2016 season the weekend of February 12-14 at Nightingale with the 18th annual Hare and Hound Fireball Ridge 100.

The Northern Nevada Kart Club kicked off its 2015 season at Desert Park Raceway, the club’s home track. It all began with the annual practice race, then things got serious as points and championships are involved.

Three F-80 racers start on of the heats at a NNKC event.

There were a few close championship races and one of them was in Senior Clone where Burd and Alec Beaudoin, a father-son duo, raced to the final event to determine the winner.

In the end it was the senior Beaudoin that took home the championship trophy.

One sign of the health of NNKC is the Jr-1 Clone division that has a good field of youngsters. Here Chase Dulude won the tile ahead of Chase McGraw. And in Jr-2 LO06 Zachary Rivera won but drove a shifter kart in the season’s last race.

This year there is an evolving motor change for the Clone classes as they are switching over to a Briggs & Stratton 206 motor that, while a bit more expensive, is more durable than the Chinese build Clone motor.

Just before retiring, at least for a while, Brian Rivera won the TAG Masters while Dan Harris took the F-80 shifter.

The Stock Moto 125 division is healthy again and these fastest karts may gain a few more competitors in the coming season. This division had the closest points race of all with Steve Ryckebosch taking the title from last year’s champion Alex Grey by only one point.

So after a good season the club will begin to get ready to resume in 2016.

At least two of the oval tracks in this region begin their seasons with “play days,” in March. This is where a driver or rookie can come out and test their cars as well as brush the rust off before taking the green flag for real.

95A Speedway begins their IMCA feature races with a 4-wide salute to the fans.

Leading the pack are two tracks, Fernley 95A Speedway and Rattlesnake Raceway in Fallon. The first points race is usually at the end of March for 95A Speedway while Rattlesnake has been starting its season on the Saturday before Easter.

The IMCA field at Rattlesnake Speedway gets ready to start their race.

Then they are joined by Lovelock Speedway, American Valley Speedway in Quincy and Diamond Mountain Speedway in Susanville.

A large field of IMCA racers does a 3-wide salute to the fans at Lovelock Speedway prior to starting their race.

Down in Quincy, California this year’s track and IMCA champion was Chase Nieman while Joe Blackwell was the Hobby Stock champion. Rather than having an awards banquet the promoters decided to buy several truck loads of fresh clay for the track so it should be faster next year.

The IMCA field is introduced prior to their race at American Valley Speedway in Quincy, California.

Over in Lovelock Robert Miller scored the first of his two track championships this year followed by Tony Taylor, who just beat out Dennis Beuhn for Hobby Stock honors and Loren Cooney was the 360 Sprint Car champ.

Even though he was out gunned Zach Cail earned track champion honors at Rattlesnake Raceway. Spurred on by the birth of his son David Ausano was the Hobby Stock champion, and Lee Ketten Jr. was the Mini Stock champion.

Robert Miller won his other track championship and IMCA title at 95A Speedway. For a while Jake Holland gave him a run for his money until he began to race out at events out of the area.

So in the end Miller earned the title. The closest battle, which went down to the final race was in Super Stock 4 where Dennis Crook bested Danielle Paine by only three points.

Gary Nevers was the Pro Stock champion while Dwight Bolton took Street Stock honors. Joe Frock dominated the Dwarf Car division as did Rich Innis in Pure Stocks.

In the new year another track will be added as the oval in Hawthorne will start up after being dark for several years.

American Valley, 95A Speedway and Rattlesnake have an Outlaw Kart program. These karts have wings, roll cages and are designed for the small dirt ovals.

It’s a great way for youngsters to earn their racing spurs before moving up into cars and competing on the big track. Only Rattlesnake has its Outlaw Kart track inside the big track and makes this division part of its regular show while the other two tracks run their kart races before the main show begins.

This past season the largest group was the beginner class at Fallon, which speaks well about the future for the karts and the next generation of drivers on the big track.

Prior to a restart the Outlaw Karts get in order. Their track is inside the big track at Rattlesnake Raceway.

East of Sparks is the Wild West Motorsports Park. For the past three years they have been visited first by the Lucas Oil Off Road series then two months later by the Ultra 4 series that begins its year with the King of the Hammers event in Southern California.

For the past two years the Ultra 4 series has ended its season at the Wild West Motorsports Park.

This year the facility hosted the first Silver State Rock Crawling Championship. It’s an event that plans to return next year.

The initial Silver State Rock Crawling Championships were a success and will return to Wild West Motorsports Park.

South of downtown Fallon is Top Gun Raceway, the only drag strip in the region. At the end of their season Lonnie Grace was the Super Pro champ while Kevin Morris topped the Pro class and Walt Stacey won the Sportsman crown.

A drag racer does his burnout prior to a run at Top Gun Raceway.

The track’s season begins in late spring.

For the Reno National Championship Air Races it’s a time of change. Although the Unlimiteds, which are the stars of the show, are fewer in numbers they still put on a great race for their championship.

Former Astronaut Robert “Hoot” Gibson flew Strega to the Gold championship and Dennis Buehn, from Fallon, flew to his fifth title, and third in a row victory in the T-6 division. In the Jets the oldest aircraft, A De Havilland Vampire, piloted by Pete Zaccagnino won that class championship.

Robert “Hoot” Gibson returns after winning the Unlimited Gold race at the Reno Air Races.

John Parker won the Sport Class Gold in a class that keeps growing with new entries. Once again Tom Aberle flew away to another Biplane title, his ninth so far.

This year the IF1 division also had an overseas component and pilots that raced both there and at Reno had a chance to win the first ever World Cup. Locally Steve Senegal won his sixth title but Tom Richard, after winning both European events earned the World Cup.

Tom Richard brings his If1 back to earth after placing well enough to earn the first ever World Cup in Formula One air races.

Currently the Reno Air Race Association is working on fund raising projects and trying to replace their long time title sponsor that left this year. It will be a challenging time for the unique event.

Now with New Year’s upon us racers are beginning to look ahead to the new season. And once again the two-wheeled crowd will start things rolling while schedules will be completed and posted for the other tracks and series.

And hopefully, a year from now we can look back on another great season of racing.

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