NMA Grand National Championships
Finals: Ponca City
after finishing second in the Super
Mini main on his Honda. New York's
Mitch Dougherty took home third in
the main, with California's Chris
Nihan coming in fourth. Another Californian, Cas Swift from Dulzura,
experienced some bad luck in his
first-division moto, but he pushed on,
IAbovel A.J. Catanzaro rode his Pollnls
to first In the Pee Wee Modified 17-81
class and second In the Pee Wee
Stock 17-81 event.
(RIght! Dominic lui 1341 took home
first-place trophies In the Junior Cycle
65cc Stock and Modified 19-111
classes, as well as the 85cc Modified
10-111 event. Trent Pugmire 1961 won
the &Scc Open and 85cc Stock 10-111
classes.
nabbing fourth in the run-off to claim
sixth overall.
The winning didn't stop at the
Super Mini class for Alessi, as he
topped both the 85cc Stock and Modified (12-13) classes over Zach
Osbourne and Villopoto, respectively.
Alessi's bid for a perfect week went
out the window in the 85cc Open
Modified class, where Villopoto got
his win after putting his Yamaha
ahead of Alessi's Honda in the overall
column.
Mike Alessi wasn't the only Alessi
that took home gold. Mike's brother
Jeff, aboard a Honda, came away
with a win in the 125cc Stock Novice
class over Kawasaki rider Kyle Foltz.
In the Modified class, though, Jeff
ended up fourth, while Suzuki rider
Michael LaPaglia came away with the
win. LaPaglia will no doubt being saying good-bye to the Novice class
soon, as he also went on to take top
honors in both the 250cc Stock and
Modified Novice divisions.
Despite finishing second to Mike
Alessi in Supermini, Joshua Grant
still came away with a couple of class
championships. Grant was unbeatable in both the 85cc Stock and Modified (14-16) classes.
In the packed 65cc Stock (9- 11)
24
AUGUST 28, 2002'
eye
•
class, three divisions were held to
narrow the 108-rider field to just 30.
It almost goes without saying that the
starts were wild and the racing action
was nothing less than super. The runoff pretty much boiled down to two
riders, Michigan's Dominic Izzi and
California's Trent Pugmire. The two
riders battled closely in the final perhaps too closely.
Izz; was leading until Pugmire went
to make a pass over the backside
doubles. Pugmire ended up getting
tangled with Izzi and went down after
getting hung up in Izzi's rear wheel.
Izzi got away and ran off with the race
win and the overall trophy, while Pugmire, who had won his two qualifier
motos, could only manage a 20th
after the get-together.
Ian Trettle, from Graham, North
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