1•27•08 Stop number 6 on the 2007-2008 Rock Maple Racing tour landed in Essex Junction, VT at the Champlain Valley Expo Center. The temperatures were warmer than last year's race and the HMS Team turned the heat up and returned to the winner's circle three more times. Leading the podium visits was Darrin Mees with his two Pro wins on Sunday. Darrin has been a machine lately, but some bad luck tainted what was an otherwise brilliant performance at the Pit-X race. Also bringing in a top spot finish was Shaun St. Onge when he scored the SemiPro Open final win in convincing fashion.

This weekend also featured RMR's Marquee event for SemiPro racers, the 2nd Annual Go Big or Go Home SemiPro Shootout sponsored by the Vermont Army National Guard. With over $10,000 in payouts, this year's event eclipsed last year's shootout as the richest SemiPro event in the country. HMS teammate Doug Decoigne scored that win last year.

HMS teammates Nathan Loschiavo and Shaun St. Onge put their Ski-doo/XPS Rev XPs into the first two spots on the front row when both racers swept their qualifying rounds. Nate beat out Shaun for the #1 Qualifier money by thousandths of a second. Nate also grabbed the Holeshot Award money when he edged out Derek Graham to the cones. Bad luck struck in the 1st corner again as Shaun got tangled up and went over on his side. Our guys didn't win the race, but Shaun put some cash in his pocket by winning the Hard-Charger award by fighting back to an 8th place finish. Nate stayed in the hunt and finished fourth.

Darrin "Rhino" Mees is living up to the nickname he earned last week as he rocketed to the Pro Class sweep in Vermont. The first final was the Pro Open final where C.W. Sirjane went 2, 1, 2 in qualifying and carried that momentum into the final. Danny Poirier got the early lead with Dub hounding him for a few laps, until he took over the lead around lap 4. Meanwhile, Darrin was charging towards the front at a blistering pace. Darrin's sled looked like a stone skipping acrossed a pond in the rhythm section along the back stretch. The sled was set up beautifully as doubled and tripled his way past Poirier's Polaris. Darrin quickly caught C.W. and the two HMS teammates finished the race off with a tail whip from Darrin and a heelclicker from Dubber! Darrin swept his Open qualifiers as well which vaulted him up to 3rd in Open points on the season. Thank you Keith and Scanner, you're hard work is paying off!

The Pro Stock final got started off badly when again, a first turn wreck collected C.W. Sirjane. Unable to get the sled off him until a corner worker got to him, Chris was dead last after the first lap. Like Darrin's charge last week at Pit-X, C.W. channelled the anger and frustration and turned it into some blistering laps as he picked off racers to earn a hard-fought, but frustrating 6th place finish.

Darrin had to work his way past the Cycle Worx racers of Poirier and Alex Moreau who got the early lead. By that time Jason Boron made his way to the front, a position he doesn't give up easily. But Darrin caught Boron by again skipping acrossed the minefield sections and taking the win for the well-earned Pro Class sweep. Darrin's drive to the front culminated from his focused effort and flawless sled prep from our mechanics.

Shaun St. Onge scored his first ever SemiPro win at the season-ending race at Windham last year. Filling in for the injured Doug Decoigne, Shaun scored the Open final win leading his HMS teammates to a podium sweep in that final. This year Shaun is running full-time for HMS and narrowly missed notching a couple more wins earlier this season. This time it was Shaun's turn in the SemiPro Open final. At the start, Aaron Pfeifer got the holeshot and held the lead for a few laps while Shaun waited for the right spot to pounce (must be from the old Cat days). By lap 4, Shaun took over the point and never looked back as he walked away with his first win of the season. It almost seems like Shaun prefers to start in the middle of the pack so he can pick off each racer! Nice job Shaun!

Nate Loschiavo scored two qualifying wins in Stock qualifying and finished with a 5th place finish. Nate had to run a Sunday LCQ on Sunday to make the Open final, but made the field and ran to an 8th place finish in the final. Still it was a great weekend for Nathan as he scored the #1 Qualifier and Holeshot awards in the Shootout race.

In the Girls 600 Fan final, Sara Harrison received the first blemish on her season when she scored the runner-up finish behind Sarah Acker. Sara continues to hold on to the points lead with a 19 point buffer between her and second place. Jordan Harrison had a tougher time in the final and scored a fifth place finish. The class was double the normal size and fighting through traffic got congested. Either the traffic or the huge turnout of 120 racers must have tired the girls! Both Sara and Jordan work with the RMR staff to help run the 120s program each race. With almost 200 entries for the weekend, the girls really got a workout this weekend.

Lastly, bad luck reared its ugly head one more time at Essex Junction when Garret Mees suffered a broken wrist in Saturday qualifying. Garret has been swapping the points lead all season in the Sport Super Stock class this year and was leading the Sport Stock 600 class heading into Essex. No surgery was required on his wrist, but he hope to have "our boy" get back in the saddle by the Barton, VT race in March. Garret has been a major producer of podium finishes for HMS these past two seasons and his input will be missed. At least we'll have his smiling mug to look at for the rest of the season. Heal quickly bro!

Jeff and Colleen