Sara Continues Unbeaten Streak
C.W. Shares Pro Stock Lead with Malone R/up

1•5•08 With the blizzard and the holidays behind us our focus is back on the Rock Maple Racing snocross tracks and our sights set on bringing championships to the HMS team and our sponsors. Bringing in the new year was the third, full RMR Central event held at the Franklin County Fairgrounds in Malone, NY. Blessed with early snowfall this year, the Malone track featured a monster triple on the back stretch, and it's usual technical, minefield sections to test man and machine. A few times the track won out!

Sara Harrison led our team with our only win of the weekend in Jr. Girls 600 Fan final on Sunday. Sara's record remains unblemished this season in qualifying and final rounds. It's not like she hasn't been pressured as both sister, Jordan and Sara Acker have been running extremely well, but Sara hasn't buckled under their pressure. Jordy made a great run at Sara in their first qualifier, but fell just short of spoiling Sara's record.

In the final, Sara led flag-to-flag for her third win of the season. Jordy had to settle for a third place finish when she apparently had Sara Acker beat across the top of the table top for a second place finish. But she was denied as the official finishline was at the base of the table where the transponder line crosses under the track.

Our Semi Pro rider Shaun St.Onge by far had his best weekend of the season so far with one runner-up finish and was on his way to a win before mechanical gremlins knocked him out of the Stock 600 lead with two laps to go. Shaun opened up Sunday's finals in the Semi Pro Open class where he scored a runner-up finish. Clearly the hard-charger of the race, Shaun had to battle through the field after getting caught behind 1st lap melees. Shaun was tripling the back stretch monster and doubling through the minefields picking off riders along the way. With three laps to go, Shaun pressured second place Robert Graeber and capitalized on Robert's turn two bobble for the hard-fought runner-up finish.

In the Semi Pro Stock final, Shaun took over the lead a quarter way through and was looking to be on his way to his second HMS Semi Pro win before suspension breakage knocked him out of the lead with two to go. Shaun still managed to finish 10th in the race. Along with his strong final showings, Shaun scored one win and three runner-ups in qualifying action. The mechanical breakage cost Shaun a potential 14 points which would have placed him into second place in the Semi Pro Stock 600 point chase.

C.W. Sirjane posted another podium finish in the Pro Stock final. His runner-up finish to WPSA Pro rider Dave Allard helped move "Dub" into a first place tie with Danny Piorier in Pro Stock points. Chris got the holeshot and rocketed out to a sizeable lead, a lead he head til Allard passed him with four laps left in the race. The only other rider who was able to keep pace with C.W. was teammate Darrin Mees who took the final podium position. Darrin really picked up his Stock performance at Malone scoring three runner-ups in qualifying and the third in the final.

In the Pro Open final, C.W. Sirjane again shot out to the early lead and held on for about 5 laps before a heel injury from Saturday hampered his efforts. C.W. settled in for a fourth place finish and stretched his Open class point lead to 11 points over Jason Boron. Darrin Mees had to use the back door to get into the Pro Open final as he had to run the LCQ on Sunday (which he won), due to a DQ in round 2 because of a broken tether. Darrin followed C.W. across the finishline in the final for a fifth place finish.

Garret Mees currently sits in first place in two of his three Sport classes and continues his strong performances on the track. Garret's only blemish in qualifying came when a hard landing from the monster triple broke his shocks in the second round of Super Stock on Saturday. Five qualifying wins at 10 points each! The kid is a point hog! Garret finished fourth in the Saturday Super Stock final, then went on to podium in both his finals on Sunday. A second in Super Stock and a third in Stock 600 adds his two cents to the HMS Podium Scorecard!

Once again, the Malone track took it's toll on equipment, but it is no match for our Top Gun crew. Even Jordy dove in to help out with the wrench turning, a total team effort! Keith "Wrench," Scanner, Sebastien, Gus, Doug, Oscar and Jordan, bust their butts to stay ahead of the abuse these machines take.

Nate Loschiavo absorbed a hard landing Saturday morning and docotrs orders had him sitting out the weekend. January 12 & 13 was an off week for our team which gave us time heal and repair. Nate will be in the lineup for the Pit-X race in Verona, NY. This race is a RMR West race, but a points race for our Pro and Semi Pro riders.

Snocross is a tough sport on both racers and equipment. Sponsors like Scott Goggles, Scorpion helmets and HMK boots help to protect our riders; and Woody's, C&A Pro skis, Crank Shop, Powermadd, Camoplast and VForce reeds providing top notch components to keep the Ski-doo Rev XPs in peak performance, we truly have a great support team. Progressive Motorsports, New England Race Fuels, Mars Insurance, Wing, That's Great News, and Sledwraps.com all provide immeasurable support to our team effort.

Jeff and Colleen