REM Report: The Summer Season Has Begun

REM GLEN HELEN STARTS ITS SUMMER SERIES WITH A BANG

REM Glen Helen was back in action this weekend after a couple weeks off for Mammoth, the 12 Hours of Glen Helen and 4th of July weekend. This week’s race was marked by several interesting events

(1) It was the official start of the nine-race REM Summer Series and the beginning of a seven-straight weekend string of races (before the Labor Day break).

Mark Taylor is an REM local who was happy to receive $1500 for his college tuition thanks to the Whitney Murphy Scholarship Fund.

(2) The Whitney Murphy Foundation handed out scholarship checks to seven deserving college students. The Foundation, set up in the memory of REM racer Whitney Murphy, is funded by raffles, donations, the yearly “Whit’s Race” and a giveaway of a brand-new Yamaha YZ250F (donated by Yamaha). The scholarships go to racers and support staff of racers to help defray their college tuition.

Richie Leech gave Ben Evans chase, but never was able to beat him.

(3) As always, Glen Helen had its fair share of unique riders out for the day, including a group of riders from England, Ireland and Sweden racing out of the “MX Heaven” rig. The best known of the foreign riders was England’s Richie Leech, who led his pro motos for a long time, but was always run down by Idaho’s Ben Evan (who won both the 450 Pro and Open Expert classes). Dodger second baseman Jeff Kent came out to squeeze in some racing and Jeff holeshot the first moto of the Over-40 Novice class and held on for a fourth before heading to Dodger Stadium for a night game against the Florida Marlins.

Billy Musgrave carves a berms as he chases the lap times of his dad Willy.

(4) REM is a laid-back race with a friendly family atmosphere. That is made all the more evident by the number of father/son and father/daughter racing combos. The Tedder clan was out in force with dad Matt finishing second in the Over-40 Pro class behind Willy Musgrave. Matt’s kids, Dakota and Myles, raced against Willy’s son Billy in the 250 Intermediate class. Marc Prince was fourth in the Over-40 Intermediates, while daughter Alyssa was second in the 250 Beginners and son Kyle was eighth in 250 Novice. Bryan Pappalardo was eighth in the Over-40 Novice class while son Brad took sixth in the 250 Novices. Former AMA Mechanic of the Year Alan Olson won the Over-60 Experts, while his son Tim took the Vet Open win. Chuck Weedon was fifth in the Over-50 Intermediates and Chris Weedon took the win the Vet Novices. AMA Hall of Famer Chuck Minert was fourth in the Over-60 Exert class and his grandson, John was fifth in the 450 Intermediate class.

THE BIG WINNERS....

Boise’s Ben Evans won both the 450 Pro class and the Open Expert class (Open Pro is an extra class that REM allows Pro riders to race for free--in order to help them work on their fitness).

The Tedder boys, Dakota and Myles, went one-two in the 250 Intermediate class. Travis Bell bested Preston Tilford for the 450 Intermediate victory.

Dallas Leedom has made a successful transition to big bikes with a 1-1 score in a competitive 250 Novice class. John Basher won the 450 Novices in front of Leo Patterson.

Aussie Dan Alamangos was the class of the Over-40 Intermediates, using a CRF250 to beat a large field of 450 riders. Mark Dwyer used a RM250 two-stroke to take the Over-40 Expert win (not to be confused with the Over-40 Pro class) and Dirk Davidow’s 2-1 bested Gary Harada’s 1-4 for the Over-40 Novice title.

The Over-50 classes continue to draw a large turnout. Lightspeed’s Willie Amaradio went 1-1 to take the Experts. Randy Skinner went 1-1 to win the Over-50 Intermediates (and actually defeated all of the Experts in moto two). George Garcia’s 1-2 beat out Brian Martin’s 2-3 to win the Over-50 Novice class. The Over-60 Experts were on the same gate as the Over-50 Novices and Alan Olson, Jody Weisel and John Huegel easily left them in their dust to go one-two-three.