Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

CMA Winter MX Series Round 1: Hanford Fairgrounds (Left) Polini-mounted Elric Flory dominated most of the 50cc action at the opening round of the CMA Winter MX Series at the Hanford Fairgrounds. (Right) The Sportsman X class featured good match-ups throughout the pack, like this one between Jason Gaines (76) and Greg Douglas (197). The most dominant performance of the day was given by another 50cc rider. Elric Flory made the three-hour drive down from Tracy worthwhile by sweeping the 50cc (7-8) Beginner and Open classes aboard a wellprepped Polini, despite some fast competition. Tulare's Landon Sullivan is always up front on his KTM, but he suffered some mechanical failures that kept him out of contention. Jesse Janco and Nathaniel Rodriguez were there in the Open class to keep Flory honest. Janco appeared to grow more comfortable with the track as the day wore on, STORY AND PHOTOS BY EDDIE G RA VELI N E/WWW.MOTOPRESS.NET HANFORD, CA, JAN. 12 or amateur motocross racers, the first race of a new year is always exciting. It's a chance to start fresh, set new goals, and show off all of the new parts and gear that they got for Christmas. The moto year got rolling in central California with the start of the CMA Winter Series. The action took place at the popular Hanford Fairgrounds track, which had received a facelift of its own for Christmas. No one gets more fired up for a race than the 50cc riders, and there was a multitude of them in Hanford. Cobra-mounted Travis Burrough must have asked Santa for some extra speed, because he was hauling! The bright yellow machine was in rare form as Burrough guided it through the turns. One of Hanford's most distinct characteristics is its whoops: They are deep, widely spaced and long. In the Mini classes, more often than not the races are won or lost in the whoops. Burrough seemed to be riding with newfound confidence, and it showed in his results. He swept the two-moto 50cc (0-6) Beginner class. Behind him, a pretty evenly matched duo fought for runner-up honors. Cody Fendley and Nathaniel Rodriguez traded secondand third-place finishes. Rodriguez got the nod because of his better finish in the second and final moto. r:n 30 FEBRUARY 12. 2003' cue going 3-2 for second overall, but it just wasn't enough to stop the steamrolling Flory. As if his 50cc exploits weren't convincing enough, Flory got on his KX65 and continued to impress. He and Sullivan battled in the 65cc (0-8) Beginner division. Despite having just recently started to ride a 65cc machine, Sullivan gave it everything he had. Flory proved to be too much, though, and won both motos ahead of the local boy. Flory finished the day off with an impressive third in the 65cc X class, in which he raced against a few Novice riders. The lines were clearly drawn in the 85cc Beginner ranks. Dalton Jones and his Kawasaki were the team to beat. The Clovis rider made a statement by going out and winning both The 85cc Intermediate class in Hanford, California, featured the fastest Mini riders, including Preston Mull (265). I e n e vv s motos. He had very qualified competition, such as Dustin Moody (2-2) and Jerry Cox Jr. (3-3), who took second and third place overall, respectively. All three were impressive and promise to provide lots of good racing action in the future. The prestigious Supermini title was taken by Nick Baker, with a 1-1 showing. Baker has established himself as one of the fastest 12-year-olds around. Not too far behind him on this day were Preston Mull and Dalton Jones. Cox got off to a good start by taking third in the first race and looked like he might get revenge on Jones for his Beginner-class win, but he fell to fifth in the final outing. Jones stayed consistent with 4-4 finishes and took third overall in a tie breaker. The big bikes provided plenty of action as well. One of the day's fastest riders was Coarsegold's Matt Gaines, who won the 250cc Intermediate class aboard a Honda. Gaines was in fast company with secondand third-place finishers Scotty Alves and Adam Hensley, but he managed to stay out front in both motos. The 250cc Pro class was on the track at the same time, and Oakley, California, resident Dustin Bloomfield found himself sandwiched between two brothers. Paul Temmerman won both motos and was followed by Bloomfield and Paul's younger brother Simon in each. Alves jumped out front in the single-moto Sportsman X class, but he ran into trouble near the midpoint of the race. That opened the door for Dustin Somogyi, who is a regular in the 125cc Intermediate class. Keeping his VZ pinned, Somogyi managed to hold off a pack of fast riders some of them on 250s - to win the

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