CMRA Visits MSR-Houston in Angleton for Round 1 for some great motorcycle racing.

The CMRA kicked off there weekend in Angleton, Texas this past weekend at MSR-Houston. This is only the second time CMRA has raced at MSRH and the first since July 4th weekend, 2008. Congrats to CMRA for stepping up and giving the members what they wanted and that was a race closer to the Houston member base. I don't have any stats or know anyone who would share that info with me anyway, but it appeared to be a success based off of the large grid sizes.

I didn't race, just went out to show some support to my sponsors and some of their other sponsored riders, as well as some really good friends. It was a bit strange seeing MSR hosting a race weekend, and people were spread all over. I still never found some people I was looking for.  LOL

I found myself missing some of the components that I have grown accustomed to at a race weekend like my bike, my girl, Ty Howard on Dunlops, Derek Wagnon chasing Ty on his 750, etc. it took me a second to recognize the riders in their new gear, new bikes, and new numbers. The racing was quick to grab my attention as I watched Carlos Lescale beat Derek Wagnon by 0.351.  Alonzo Contreras and Dustin Dominguez battled for third with Dustin narrowly edging Alonzo. I think both were on borrowed bikes.

C Superstock Novice was a good race to watch as Jose Silva beat a fash approaching Jason Hanning. The real difference in this race was Jason's 1:53 second out lap. The A Superstock Ex/Nov race was another awesome race because you had two waves of good racing action. Ty Howard ran the best time of the day 1:34xx but that was 2 seconds of his track record set in 2008. Another milestone in this race is Brandt Dillon getting the holeshot and leading Ty on lap 1, but he didn't have the pace to run with Tyhut he did beat Ricky Parker. In the Novice class Wil Zamora won his first ever race with his prov nov jersey on. Wil rode a crazy fast pace and both he and Jose Silva ran a 1:40.2xx Those guys were in a class of their own. In fact, Will won all three of his races.

Rookie Expert was the funnest class to watch in it's rookie year in 2010. The class of 2011 looks like it could be another race to keep you eye on. Eddie Thornton, Zeb Harris, and John Keene were top three most of the race with Thierry Bareille sneaking into third place on the last lap. Missing from the line up at MSRH was Derek Steptoe.

Brandt Dillon got 3 holeshots, and lead over Ty Howard for a brief time. It was impressive and Brandt wasn't that easy to pass. Now if he would get traction control and a few other trick parts he could keep the pace. lol

All in all, I was excited to be back at the track and see some friends I hadn't seen in awhile. I had some interesting conversations with Ty Howard, Brandon Spradling, Joe Prussiano and it was good to see everyone have a successful weekend.

I added a poll to vote on who you thought was the most impressive out there yesterday. I almost added Ty Howards name to the list also because he had to start from pitrow of one race after the Novice wave. he finished 6th and I thought that was pretty impressive because of the head start the other guys had.



Me asking Ty, "When you going to let me ride that KTM?

Dean Dufrene is a WERA National rider sponsored by Apex Road Racing, Track Junkie Racing. HPC Decals, Vortex, EBC Brakes, Dunlop

Next Moto Champion-Could it be someone you know?

Every time I go to the track I am amazed at the youth and how fast they are. I was listening to a favorite radio station of mine and they were releasing the next moto champion for 2011 and giving away custom pilot leathers/boots and a 4 day pass to Collin Edwards' bootcamp.

I was surprised to hear Austin Gore (CMRA #69) was runner-up for the second year in a row for 150cc 4 stroke/85cc 2 stroke class. When it came down ot it, the reason Aaron didn't win it was because his competition also raced another organization against another talented rider that the company had been watching.

All of this talk made me think of a good friend and a very young and talented rider-Jose Silva. Jose is 17 and very fast. He was bumped to expert after his first year of racing but decided to protest and stay novice. While I respect his decision, I know Jose has aspirations to be much more than a club racer, and hope he choses not to stay novice for very long. He has the talent to move up to expert and get the much needed attention and face time so he can start to gain the sponsors needed to help him acheive his dreams of being 'thenextrossi'

He started his 2011 season by going to Las Vegas and racing with WERA West. Jose walked away with three victories-Mediumweight Solo, C Superstock and B Superstock. He intends to continue his success the weekend of February18-20 at The Mercedes Benz Course of Sugarland, better known as MSR-H in Angleton, Texas for the CMRA 2011 Season opener.

So here's to Jose and his awesome start to a young racing career where the sky is the limit! Go get em Jose!