Bite The Bullet Snowmobile Hillclimb Results

Episode 98

March 20, 2016

"King of the Mountain" Fort Kent's Joe Pelletier won the 500, 600,  Open Class, and finished third in the 800cc class. Photo courtesy Last Chance Motorsports

“King of the Mountain” Fort Kent’s Joe Pelletier won the 500, 600, Open Class, and finished third in the 800cc class. Photo courtesy Last Chance Motorsports

Bite the Bullet & Battle Big Rock Hillclimb Results

My junior reporter Jere Humphrey organized last Saturday’s hillclimb and provided me with results and photos of some of the race winners. His report follows:

Regardless of the outside temperatures, which turned out to be a little less than desirable, wasn’t enough to hold back the more than 1,673 excited spectators that ventured out to support the highly anticipated Bite the Bullet & Battle Big Rock Hillclimb, the first in many years.
The snowmobile racing event was dedicated to lifelong friend and fellow competitor, Dustin McCrum who passed away due to Marfan Syndrome was looking down on the 152 racers that came out to support such a great cause and accept the challenge of the hillclimb course.Tyler and  Gage McCrum (sons of Dustin) were a part of this special snowmobile event and competed in the Kids 120cc races, along with cousin Victoria McCrum.
 

The snowmobile hillclimb event featured nine classes with 274 qualifying single elimination heats maneuvering from the hole shot position and around 4 sets of gates set randomly on the mountain, before the checkered flag was waved.

Joe Pelletier of Fort Kent, Maine captured the “King of the Mountain” as he captured the title in 3 out of the 5 classes entered and finished on the podium in one of the other divisions. Pelletier was so dominating that the other competitors tried to avoid the match up of his 2015 Ski-Doo.

Despite the success of individual racers, Arctic Cat once again prevailed with the majority of podium finishes with 11 (eleven).Ski-Doo & Polaris were tied with 6 (six) and the Savage boys kept Yamaha in the hunt with 4.


The 800cc Class which was an addition to the original snowmobile program by the race committee, seemed to be great decision,as the 800 division was the largest with 74 different entries.

In the

Winner of the 120 cc Stock class Evan Witham, Hermon in center, 2nd place Dayton Taylor, Mars Hill on left, and 3rd place Gage Theriault, Limestone. Last Chance Motorsports photo

The Kids 120cc classes proved that their will be another generation of racers to keep the sport alive with 29 young racers strapping on the helmet and swapping several positions through the 5 lap qualifiers & 10 lap feature events.


The unofficial class results are as follows:
Kids 120cc Stock–
1st Evan Witham Hermon, Maine
2nd Dayton Taylor Mars Hill, Maine
3rd Gage Theriault Limestone, Maine
Kids 120cc Modified —
1st Carter Wiggin Carmel, Maine
2nd Austin Witham Hermon, Maine
3rd Noah Willette Presque Isle, Maine

Winner of the Women's Open Class was Serena Collins of Portage. Last Chance Motorsports photo

Winner of the Women’s Open Class was Serena Collins of Portage. Last Chance Motorsports photo


Women’s Open Class–
1st Serena Collins Portage, Maine
2nd Jessica Currier Mapleton, Maine
3rd Ashley Case Blaine, Maine
Teen’s Open Class– {ages 11-15 yrs.}
1st Tyler Brewer Blaine, Maine
500cc Class==
1st Joe Pelletier Ft Kent, Maine
2nd Brandon Ouellette Ft Kent, Maine
3rd Tadia Jobin Centerville, NB
4th Ross Grass Mars Hill, Maine
600cc Class–
1st Joe Pelletier Ft Kent, Maine
2nd Erik St Peter Mapleton, Maine
3rd Casey Savage Sherman, Maine
4th Tadia Jobin Centerville, NB
5th Mickey Savage Sherman, Maine
700cc Class —
1st Casey Savage Sherman, Maine
2nd Mickey Savage Sherman, Maine
3rd Sam Heckman Plaistow, NH
4th Chris Piper Centerville, NB
5th Matthew Simonson Greenville, NB
800cc Class–
1st Casey Savage Sherman, Maine
2nd Matt Reynolds Presque Isle, Maine
3rd Joe Pelletier Ft Kent, Maine
4th Tom Smith New Canada, Maine
5th Brent Grass Blaine, Maine
Open Class–
1st Joe Pelletier Ft Kent, Maine
2nd Matt Reynolds Presque Isle, Maine
3rd Matt Simonson Greenville, NB
4th Dylan Pelletier St John, Maine
5th Sam Heckman Plaistow, NH


The #66 Ford GT wrecked out early in the 12 Hours of Sebring. Photo courtesy Marshall Pruett RACER.com

The #66 Ford GT wrecked out early just before the red flag which lasted 2 hours and 45 minutes in mid-afternoon due to thunderstorms and lightning during the 12 Hours of Sebring. Despite all the crash damage the team was able to put the car back together and finish nine laps down. Photo courtesy Marshall Pruett RACER.com

Honda HPD Ligier and Corvette Win 36 Hours of Florida

Earlier this year I had the opportunity to cover the 24 Hours of Daytona and enjoyed it. It gave me insight into some of the teams that raced in the 12 Hours of Sebring Saturday.

I noticed the effort of the Ford team with it’s legions of support personnel. That team will be successful despite their Daytona debut and Sebring loss. The team was able to do remarkable things in the garage to repair race damage, however, they finished 15th overall.

Winner of the 12 Hours of Sebring Photo courtesy Honda Racing

Winner of the 12 Hours of Sebring Pipo Derani in the Honda HPD Ligier. The team also won the 24 Hours of Daytona which I covered in January. Photo courtesy Honda Racing

 

According to Honda Racing’s report: “The star of the Daytona race, 22-year-old Pipo Derani, again delivered in the final hours Saturday night at Sebring. Emerging in fifth place following the final round of pit stops, and with just over 40 minutes of racing remaining, Derani took his Ligier JSP2 Honda past the similar Michael Shank Racing Ligier Honda of Olivier Pla, then moved into third ahead of the DragonSpeed racing machine of Nicolas Lapierre.”

“A final, brief caution period then set up a 12-minute dash to the checkers, with Derani getting a strong restart to pass first the Action Express car of Felipe Albuquerque, then Dane Cameron’s race-leading Action Express machine. Derani then opened up a narrow, but solid 2.92-second lead to take the victory, which he shared with co-drivers Scott Sharp, Johannes van Overbeek and Ed Brown.”

“The win saw Honda and ESM go back-to-back in the opening two races of the 2016 WeatherTech SportsCar Championship – Daytona and Sebring – giving Honda its first overall race victories at both classic sports car endurance racing events.”

Race winner Derani said, “When I saw I was in fifth place [after the last round of pit stops], it was tough. I had to make some really big moves, in a very short period of time. But I thought to myself, ‘You have to go for it. Who knows when you will be in this position [able to win the race] again?’ In the end, it all worked out. The other guys fought hard, but with respect, and that was really nice. To have a race like that, at the end of a very long day and night, was very special.”

The Corvette C7.R driven by Oliver Gavin, Tommy Milner, and Marcel Fassler won the GTLM class and finished 11th overall in the 12 Hours of Sebring. Photo courtesy Chevrolet Racing

The Corvette C7.R driven by Oliver Gavin, Tommy Milner, and Marcel Fassler won the GTLM class and finished 11th overall in the 12 Hours of Sebring. Photo courtesy Chevrolet Racing

Deja Vue with Alex Barron

Alex Barron wins the Formula F class at the SCCA majors held at Road Atlanta on Saturday. Photo courtesy Clark McInnis

Alex Barron wins the Formula F class at the SCCA Majors held at Road Atlanta on Saturday. Photo courtesy Clark McInnis Motorsports Photography

I was thinking just last week “I wonder what become of Alex Barron?’ I still have a poster of a much younger Barron from when he raced in Formula Atlantic several moons ago.

He surfaced at the Sports Car Club of America’s Southwest Conference U.S. Majors Tour race at Road Atlanta. He was there to coach Formula Atlantic driver Keith Grant who won his race race.

Barron had not pre-registered, was not on the entry list, had no practice laps, and had not qualified when he decided to enter the Formula F race.

He had to start at the back of the field, which in Formula F is tightly packed in relation to speed differential. Barron raced his Van Diemen RF 00 to the lead and held it.

He must still have some of that talent that propelled him to the top in the Championship Auto Racing Team (CART) and Indy Racing League (IRL). I remember him racing the Indy 500 as well as all the tracks that CART and IRL raced in those days.

I am a huge Dan Gurney fan and remember Barron racing for the relatively non-competitive All American racer team owned by Gurney in the mid to late 1990’s. One memory in particular was of Barron upside down in the Gurney Eagle Toyota Indy Car at Long Beach during the Long Beach Grand Prix. Fortunately he emerged from that incident unscathed.

Safety of Formula One Cars Proven In Australian Grand Prix

McLaren Honda’s Fernando Alonso walked away from a very hard crash with Haas F1’s Estebon Gutierrez on lap 19 in the inaugural Formula 1 race of the 2016 season in Melbourne, Australia.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQhyHuWLJMI

The other Haas F1 car driven by Romain Grosjean remarkably finished its first race in the points with a sixth place. The race was won by Mercedes’ Nico Rosberg

Wanted

I want to remind everyone of a couple opportunities to get involved in racing in 2016. I still need a couple of pit crew members to help out with my kart racing team this summer. Need someone with an enthusiastic attitude and prefer some mechanical skills although you will learn as we progress through the season.

I also have room for another sponsor. Send me an email at thale@reagan.com for details. I would like to discuss how we can work together to help your business in 2016. I hope to have all sponsorships in place before the Northern Maine Karting Association display on April 2nd at the Aroostook Center Mall from 10:00 am to 2 pm. I hope to see you there.

Take the time to reflect on Holy Week and what it means.

Let’s go racing (after Easter),

Tom Hale

Soli Deo Gloria

Tom Hale

About Tom Hale

Tom wrote 14 years as freelancer for the Bangor Daily Sports covering motorsports in Maine. Now blogging and concentrating on human interest stories about people and places in racing. He races Champ Karts and owns HTF Motorsports in remote Westmanland, Maine