Flinders Wins Big with a Hat-Trick at Thunderbolt Millville, NJ The story of the weekend was clearly that of 15-year-old Max Flinders as he swept the USGPRU podiums aboard a pair of HONDA Powered Moriwaki MD250H race bikes. The rain was a major factor though as Mother Nature unleashed her fury on the New Jersey Motorsports Park, Thunderbolt race track. The torrential rains came down, and caused flooding and road closures all around the area, but the track stayed clear enough to keep on racing. As the rains started to drizzle down, the REV’IT! Moriwaki MD250H Powered by HONDA class took to the track. The pole position was won by Casey Tobolewski over a field of fast kids looking to win their part of the $10k purse. Point’s leader, Xavier Zayat had a transponder fall off during qualifying, and consequently had to start from the back row of the grid. Right from the start, Max Flinders jumped out to the lead, and proceeded to walk away from the pack on a damp track. He went on to win the race in convincing fashion. The battle for second was closely contested as Casey Tobolewski and west-coaster, Ben Truslow, duked it out. On the last lap, Truslow crashed out of second place. Casey went on to claim second place, followed by Xavier Zayat in third. By the time the Pilot Moto3 race was ready to start, the skies had really opened up, and the track was completely soaked. Every racer was on full rain tires, and those without, didn’t dare take on the downpour of rain. Max Flinders again got a solid hole-shot, but this time aboard his heavily modified, hot-rod Moriwaki. His Honda CRF250R powered machine had the extra horsepower and torque needed to outrun the 2-stroke GP bikes off of the soaked corners. Flinders put on another outstanding display of wet-weather riding as he again walked away from the pack of experienced GP pilots to claim his second win of the weekend. The battle for second raged on behind Flinders as Casey Tobolewski held off the attack mounted by Reet Das and Alex Wisdom. Young Alex threw his Moriwaki down the track on lap 4 though and limped it back in to the pits. Zayat retired early with mechanical issues. On lap 5, Reet Das went down in turn 9, but remounted to finish in 5th. This handed the third place finish to the very surprised, Adrian Jasso, on his immaculately prepared Yamaha TZ125. The final USGPRU race of the very wet weekend was the Moto Liberty, RS-Taichi sponsored 250GP race. While the rain chased away some of the gentleman racers, the hardcore points-chasers stuck around to chase valuable championship points. Brian Surtees started the race on pole position. But at the drop of the green flag, it was Mike Aboyoun that led the drag race down into turn 1. Unfortunately for Mike, Max Flinders was right behind him. Mike was riding his venerable Honda RS250 GP bike, and Flinders was on the hot-rod Moriwaki again. The rain was truly the great equalizer as despite the large power deficit, Flinders made up the time through superior cornering speed and apparent lack of braking! Aboyoun held off Flinders for most of the first lap. Flinders squeezed by and put about 2 seconds gap on Aboyoun, which held for the rest of the race. Aboyoun made a late race charge as he got more accustomed to the traction in the rain, but it was too late as Flinders went on for his third victory of the weekend. Aboyoun took second, followed by Adrian Jasso on his Yamaha TZ250. Thanks to all of the USGPRU sponsors for your continued support. Motion Pro provided us with some great tools and handle bar grips to give away to our racers. And Rising Sun Cycles provided a cool 2-stroke piston clip installer tool that was won by Reet Das. REV’IT! provided some warm, dry racing socks for some of the younger competitors. And Pilot Leathers had certificates that were won by 3 of our Moto3 racers. HONDA provided an amazing $10,000 purse for the MD250H class. Finally, Moto Liberty and RS-Taichi provided the purse for the 250GP class. Thank you all for your contributions to the sport and the USGPRU racers! Many thanks to the NJMP and CCS race officials for working so hard to put on a quality event. And a special thanks to the corner workers and crews that stuck it out despite the miserable conditions. There were many crashes, but not one serious injury, thanks in no small part to your efforts! Full results as follows: Pilot Moto3 race: 1. Max Flinders (Mor) 2. Casey Tobolewski (Mor) 3. Adrian Jasso (Yam) 4. Aron Ahlstrom (Hon) 5. Reet Das (Hon) 6. Gavin Herrin (Mor) 7. Andrew Anderson (Hon) 8. Alex Wisdom (Mor) 9. Xavier Zayat (Hon) DNF 10. Nick Kosan (Mor) DNF 11. Chris Kosan DNS 12. Paul Nelson DNS 13. Joe Scanlon DNS 14. Dan Decker DNS Moto Liberty / RS-Taichi 250GP race: 1. Max Flinders (Mor) 2. Mike Aboyoun (Hon) 3. Adian Jasso (Yam) 4. Brian Surtees (Yam) 5. Eric Moore (Yam) 6. Jimmy Clark (Yam) – DNF 7. Bill Himmelsbach DNS 8. Dan Rios DNS 9. Gavin Herrin DNS 10. Paul Nelson – DNS 11. Dan Decker DNS 12. Jim Bonner DNS 13. Ian Kuivinen DNS REV’IT! Moriwaki MD250H Powered by HONDA race: 1. Max Flinders (Mor) 2. Casey Tobolewski (Mor) 3. Xavier Zayat (Mor) 4. Ben Truslow (Mor) 5. Gavin Herrin (Mor) 6. Nick Kosan (Mor) 7. Alex Wisdom – DNF 8. Chris Kosan DNS