April 27-28, New Hampshire Motor Speedway
The first event of the 2024 NEMRR season featured beautiful New England Spring weather and a host of talented riders looking to prepare for the 101st running of the Loudon Classic in June.
Observers noted that that there were no less than five winners of MotoAmerica/AMA Superbike races in the paddock, including one member of the visiting contingent from
Canada. That notable rider was none other than two-time MotoAmerica Champion and former Canadian Superbike Champion Alex Dumas, who was riding both a Suzuki GSX-R600 and a Suzuki RM-Z450 motard bike throughout the weekend. As many other top riders did in 2023, Dumas was preparing to challenge for his share of the $250,000 purse for the 101st Loudon Class on June 7-9.
“I really love this track,” Dumas noted. “It’s a lot of fun on both of my motorcycles and I’m looking forward to coming back again next month.”
Dumas entered multiple events over the weekend, carding victories in both the Unlimited Supersport and Middleweight Supersport classes.
During the riders meeting on Saturday, another legendary rider was honored with a very special gift. Rick Doucette, who has won a record 104 NEMRR championships and is the 13-time #1 plate holder for the series, has been riding in Vanson leathers for 30 seasons. Rick, also known by the nickname “Elvis”, was presented with a beautiful custom suit fashioned to match his new Stars and Stripes-themed Yamaha R6, which carries with it the sense of the flair of his famed rock and roll icon namesake. Vanson is the longest standing supporter of the series, with the Fall River, MA company known throughout the world for their hand-crafted leather garments and racing suits.
Rick was deeply honored by the generous gesture, noting “I’ve been with Vanson for a number of years, and since I’m not a small guy that’s a lot of leather! This is an incredible honor and those of us around here know that there’s no suit you can buy that will last longer than a Vanson. This thing is awesome!”
On the track, the action was fast and furious as cool mornings (and a bit of moisture on Sunday morning) gave way to beautiful sunshine each afternoon. Standouts for the weekend, included winners of three or more races, were Micheal Zoner on his Kramer 690, Brett Guyer on his Aprilia RS 660, and Renee Franco on her Kawasaki Ninja 400.
The feature race of the weekend, the Seacoast Sport Cycle Dash for Cash, featured a stacked field of riders that had the paddock buzzing all weekend long. As NEMRR grids riders at the first event of the year by points from the previous season 2023 Champion Eli Block was starting from pole position, but stacked up at the back of the field were a group of contenders including recent MotoAmerica stars like Dumas, Teagg Hobbs, and Ben Gloddy, plus the talented Tyler Sweeney (who had bested Block in a previous race) multi 2023 winner Ian Beam and the fastest grandfather in the paddock, Eric Wood.
At the drop of the flag, Block took off like a rocket, and the chase was on. Of the riders gridded at the back row, Wood got the best launch, coming around the first lap in fifth place. Hobbs found himself in eighth, followed by Dumas, Sweeney and Gloddy in
10th-12th. By the end of lap two, Wood had moved past the likes of Doucette, Paul Duval and Beam into second place and set his sights on Block, who had already stretched out a good sized gap on the field.
While Wood set after Block, Sweeney was making big progress charging through the field. By lap five Wood has closed up to the back tire of Block, and Sweeney made the pass on the Triumph of Beam to move onto the podium. Wood spent a few laps sizing up Block before making a run up the inside of Turn Two as Block ran wide on the exit on lap seven. The lead pair extended their gap on the rest of the field in the closing laps, finishing with only five bike lengths between them and 11 seconds clear of the field.
Wood had spent the last eight seasons on 1000cc motorcycles, and as such was thrilled to win his first Dash for Cash back after a nine-year hiatus from the feature race of the NEMRR weekends.
“I didn’t know if we were going to be able to pull this off,” Wood noted on the podium. “We had a great motorcycle and our Dunlop tires worked fantastic from start to finish, but we were met with some challenges all weekend and had a lot of help along the way. This field was stacked and it felt really good to get this win.”
In addition to his win in the feature race, Wood took his Demsomaniacs-powered Ducati 848 to victory in all of his other classes throughout the weekend, amassing five wins in total. Wood, along with all the other top riders in the field, are all looking forward to competing in the 101st Loudon Classic June 7-9. The event will not only feature a record breaking $250,000 purse and a field of top Moto America riders in 2024, but this year’s event will also showcase a $50,000 ASRA Outlaw Bagger class for the scores of American-made motorcycle fans attending the historic Laconia Bike week to enjoy as well.
Round 2 of the NEMRR series will take place at New Hampshire Motor Speedway on May 18-19, and tickets for the 101st running of the Loudon Classic are available at the Eventbrite link here:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/nemrr-101st-loudon-classic-tickets-862612004727?aff=oddtdtcreator
