Fox, Rinaldi Perfect at Hurricane Hills MX Opener

AMA District Six Points Race

By Jim P. Sanderson

CLIFFORD, PA, APRIL 7, 2007

Hurricane Hills, in its 25th year of operation, opened the 2007 season on Sunday, April 7th. Mother Nature provided a cold and windy day and threw in some snow flurries too boot. Track conditions started out wet and slippery but improved with each drop of the gate.

Charles Fox III and Mark Rinaldi topped their respective podiums, 125 B and over 30 B, respectively, each carding perfect
1-1’s and both riders smoked their competition. Fox finished his first moto with a considerable lead and then topped that but winning the second moto by an even larger margin. Rinaldi’s first outing was his better of the day, taking the win by a margin of 25-seconds but only by 19 in the final moto.

Chris Cheney, Fox, Jay Adamow, Jesse Deryke and Jimmy Doolittle led the start of the opening 125 B division moto. Cheney continued to hold the point at the start of the second lap with Fox two bike lengths behind. Half way into the lap, Adamow had spectacular over-the-bars endow on the downhill triple. Deryke inherited third, Doolittle fourth and Richard Walch fifth. Cheney started lap three with a four second lead but Fox dissolved it to zero by the end of the lap, making the pass in the rocker section to take the point. Fox quickly pulled away and had a four second advantage by lap five. Fox increased his lead to 11-seconds at the checkers. Cheney, Deryke, Doolittle and Rick Kithcart closed out the top five.  

Fox, Deryke, Matt Vacendak, Doolittle and Jason Galtieri led the pack out of the second turn in the final 125 B moto. By the fifth turn, Fox’s advantage was four seconds and increasing. Deryke, Doolittle, Galtieri and Walch rounded out the top five. Just after starting lap two, Doolittle made the pass for second by jumping the elevator when Deryke didn’t but Deryke’s more powerful thumper out powered Doolittle’s two-stroke on the following downhill ski jump and he re-took the position. Doolittle was relegated to third. Walch advanced to fourth dropping Galtieri to fifth and on the following lap Galtieri went down on the back tree-line section and Vacendak inherited fifth. Fox took the win with a 14-second lead. Deryke, Doolittle, Walch and Vacendak closed out the top five.

Fox (1-1) topped the 125 B podium. Deryke (3-2) took second and Doolittle (4-3) third.  

Marc Hoinsky, Rinaldi, Donald Hilstolsky, Mike Ballard and Tim Yadlosky led the pack out of the first turn in the opening over 30 B division’s first moto. Rinaldi took the lead by the second turn and never looked back. By the third lap his advantage was 13-seconds and by the checkered flag had ballooned to 25. Hoinsky, William Butkiewicz, Hilstolsky and Ballard closed out the top five.

Rinaldi and Hoinsky led the start of the final over 30 B moto with Butkiewicz, Yadlosky and Ballard in tow. Rinaldi, once again, checked out and had a seven second lead after two and a half laps. By lap three the top five finishing order looked to be set and remained unchanged to the finish. Rinaldi claimed another win, this time with a 19-second advantage. Hoinsky, Butkiewicz, Hilstolsky and Ballard completed the top five.

Rinaldi topped the podium with a perfect 1-1. Hoinsky’s consistent 2-2’s netted him runner-up and Butkiewicz closed out the podium with a 3-3 tally.