Gravity Alley Motocross Park

May 13, 2006

Story by Roy Jenkins

Breaux Bridge, La. – May 13, 2005

Qualifying races for the NMA’s version of the National Championship finally began in Louisiana after two rain-outs. Local hotshoes left little room for challengers to steal their thunder as they struck early and often on their Hondas.

In the first moto Dillon Van Way blew 6 months of dust and cobwebs off his Champion Cycle KTM with a holeshot over the 125 Intermediate class. Gregory "Tee" Hebert attempted to grab what is usually his (the lead), but went down in the first turn. Jardy Ordoyne got over-anxious and went off the track for the first of three times on the night, leaving Trenton Suire the opportunity to stick his D&G Yamaha underneath Van Way unsuccessfully a few times on the first lap. Soon Ordoyne tapped Suire on the shoulder to cut in on the Van Way dance. Ordoyne’s Cycle World of Houma Kawasaki pulled alongside Van Way a few times on lap two, but Van Way kept cutting off the lines and kept the lead. By lap three Ordoyne went in high and hot in the mechanic’s turn and opened a little space behind him on the back straight. Soon the "jaws" music started and everyone sensed the shark attack as Hebert brought his Honda of Lafayette up to the front for a bite of the lead. Ordoyne, with his fearless riding style wouldn’t relent as the two played chicken through the sweeper in the middle of the track. Hebert used an extreme outside line on the "highway straight-a-way" to overwhelm his prey as he blasted down the rim of the berm. Ordoyne overran the same turn on the last lap, but recovered in time to keep second as Hebert took earned the victory.

Tee Hebert won the second moto convincingly in front of Ordoyne, Suire and Van Way.

Tee won again in the first moto of the 250 Intermediate class while Van Way battled Ordoyne for second. Ordoyne overran a turn allowing Van Way to take second behind Hebert.

Wade Batchelor, Billy Baker and Gene Lipps were "representin’" for Honda of Lafayette in the Senior class. Batchelor got out early, but Mississippian Michael Shippey tried to pry the lead from his old, wrinkled hands – wait, that was a glove. Anyway Batchelor kept the lead as long as long as he could until Shippey sailed by at the halfway point. Bruce Bordelon kept third.

In the second moto the Honda of Lafayette "crips" gang squeezed together for a podium finish: Wade Batchelor, Billy Baker and Gene Lipps.

Hunter Hilton easily swept the 65 (6-8) class on his KTM, and then repeated in the 50 (7-8) class on a Cobra.

The Supermini class was the biggest class with the best pool of talent on the night. Again Honda of Lafayette "blinged" with their top riders. Only Kirby Dodd spoiled their domination with his Champion Cycle KTM. Shane Yongue had the quickest trigger-finger of the night scoring his first of several holeshots. Lance Vincent led the chase while his arch-rival Jeremey Domingue struggled from a mid-pack start. Dodd, Neil Begnaud and Corey Hilton pursued through the dusty carnage. Yongue was looking back over his shoulder on the finish line tabletop as Vincent crept up behind him. On lap two Yongue was still fending off Vincent’s unwanted advances, almost over-running the turn, while Domingue was making a pass in front of the tower into fourth while taking a tear-off and looking for the leaders. Vincent mirrored Yongue’s every move staying right on his shoulder around the track. Vincent finally out-flanked Yongue to take the lead, but Domingue was unable to move past Dodd in third and Yongue secured second.

In a "Domingue-less" second moto, it was Lance Vincent, Shane Yongue, Kirby Dodd and Neil Begnaud. The question now seemed to be, "who’s gonna finish behind the top three?" Does that sound familiar Supercross fans? Lee Slaughter was on the move through the pack as was Brett Bourg and Adam Cedillo. Begnaud kept Dodd in sight to finish fourth at the checkered.

Jeremey Domingue fired his Honda of Lafayette to the head of the Schoolboy class in front of Trenton Suire and Cody Cornell’s Yamahas. Dane Dumesnil was on the move through the pack with Kirby Dodd hanging on his coattails riding his little KTM against those mean 250f’s. Domingue outpaced Suire to the finish line with Dumesnil finishing a close third and Dodd in fourth. Fifth place was the most exciting race as Josh Slaughter slung his Honda around Cornell and beat him to the finish line by a hair.

In the "DL" second moto, Dumesnil got on fire early until he went down and surrendered spots to everyone in the class allowing Trenton Suire to lead for a while, a "mystery rider" #34 in second and Dodd, third, Cornell, fourth; and that’s where they finished.

Chandler Lebouef was looking serious this night as he won the first moto of the 50 Open on his Champion Cycle KTM. Dylan Dunford took second while saving a near loop on the finish line jump – twice. Cameron Breland finished third.

Honda of Lafayette teammates Tee Hebert and Ryan Breaux jumped out early in the 125 Open class, while Jay Cox held off Kamin Zerangue behind them. At the finish line it was Hebert, Breaux, Zerangue, Ordoyne, Jared Broussard and Jay Cox. Full Throttle/Switchin’ Gear rider Shaw Guillotte led early in the 65 Open class until Hunter Foreman took over and the two south Louisiana riders checked for good.

The second moto was "Deja-Vu" as Honda of Lafayette again had riders in front.

The money class again looked weak as only two riders showed up; Shaun and Corey Romero. They gated with the 250 Open class, allowing the B riders to measure themselves against the Experts. Michael Wagner took full advantage and blasted into the lead while Shaun was making mistakes and brother Corey got a poor start. By the last lap Shaun was able to get some of his timing and balance back, Corey was able to get past him for a shot at the leader, but it was too late as the 250 Open was flagged off on the fifth lap and Wagner punctuated his win with the night’s only heel-clicker over the finish line tabletop. Three Michaels finished behind the Romero brothers: Hebert, Haffner and Shippey.

Lance Vincent holeshotted the 85 (12-16) class first moto, followed in vain by Shane Yongue, Kirby Dodd and Jeremey Domingue. This time Domingue only took one lap to move up into challenging position behind Vincent and the two Honda riders held the crowd spellbound with their high-flying, tail-whipping antics. Dodd slipped into third in front of Yonge, Corey Hilton and Brandon Juneau. Somehow Domingue started losing control and went off the track and crashed, taking a spectator with him, who happened to be Vincent’s father. That was the last I heard of Jeremey the rest of the night. Lance won another race, his Dad suffered a cut hand and Kirby Dodd scored a second place with Shane Yongue third.

I finally got my camera fixed since Katrina broke it and managed a few shots (very few) of the race. I’ll make my first post-K post on my website at http://photos.2wheelcommunications.com. For Real photography from the race, check out motoxstudio.com or TSRMXracing.com.

Results:

50 OIL: 1. Taylor Doss (Yam); 2. Dayton Shirah (KTM); 3. Landon Van Way (KTM).

50 (4-6): 1. Nicholas Webre (Cob); 2. Ashton Castjohn (KTM).

50 (7-8): 1. Hunter Hilton (Cob); 2. Chandler Lebouef (KTM); 3. Cameron Breland (KTM); 4. Dylan Dunford (Suz); 5. John Murphy (KTM).

50 OPEN: 1. Chandler Lebouef (KTM); 2. Dylan Dunford (Suz); 3. Cameron Breland (KTM); 4. John Murphy (KTM); 5. Nicholas Webre (Cob).

65 (6-8): 1. Hunter Hilton (KTM); 2. Cameron Breland (KTM); 3. Zachary Brown (Kaw); 4. Chandler Lebouef (KTM); 5. John Murphy (KTM).

65 (9-11): 1. Hunter Foreman (KTM); 2. Shaw Guillotte (Yam); 3. Austin Badon (Kaw); 4. James Waldrop (Kaw); 5. Sagan Guillory (KTM).

65 OPEN: 1. Shaw Guillotte (Yam); 2. Hunter Foreman (KTM); 3. Austin Badon (Kaw); 4. Sagan Guillory (KTM); 5. Bronson Turner (Kaw).

85 (7-11): 1. Blake Mclaurin (Hon); 2. Jordan Giambelluca (Suz); 3. Mitchell Suire (Suz); 4. Adam Cedillo (Hon); 5. Hunter Foreman (KTM).

85 (12-16): 1. Lance Vincent (Hon); 2. Shane Yongue (Hon); 3. Kirby Dodd (KTM); 4. Neal Begnaud (Hon); 5. Brandon Juneau (Hon).

SPRMINI: 1. Lance Vincent (Hon); 2. Shane Yongue (Hon); 3. Kirby Dodd (KTM); 4. Lee Slaughter (Hon); 5. Dustin Badon (Hon).

SCLBOY: 1. Trenton Suire (Yam); 2. Kirby Dodd (KTM): 3. Justin Pittman (Yam); 4. Dane Dumesnil (Hon); 5. Cody Cornell (Yam).

125 BEG: 1. A.J. Perez (Suz); 2. Garrett Freeman (Suz); 3. Grant Bourgeois (Hon); 4. Travis Slaughter (Yam); 5. Garrett Airhart (Yam).

125 NOV: 1. Jay Cox (KTM); 2. Eliot Johnson (Hon); 3. Justin Pittman (Yam); 4. Jared Broussard (Hon); 5. Ryan Breaux (Hon).

125 INT: 1. Gregory Hebert (Hon); 2. Jardy Ordoyne (Kaw); 3. Trenton Suire (Yam); 4. Dillon Van Way (KTM); 5.

125 OPEN: 1. Gregory Hebert (Hon); 2. Ryan Breaux (Hon); 3. Kamin Zerangue (Hon); 4. Jay Cox (KTM); 5. Jared Broussard (Hon).

250 BEG: 1. Brennen Angelle (Hon); 2. Scott Norris (Kaw); 3. Jonathan Clark (Hon); 4. Paul Mouton (Hon).

250 NOV: 1. Kamin Zerangue (Hon); 2. Brandon Hargrave (Kaw); 3. Richard Langer (Hon); 4. Korey Miller (Yam); 5. Thomas Taylor (Yam)

250 INT: 1. Gregory Hebert (Hon); 2. Jardy Ordoyne (Suz); 3. Dillon Van Way (KTM); 4. Steven Cummings (Suz).

250 OPEN: 1. Michael Wagner (Hon); 2. Mike Hebert (Hon); 3. Steven Cummings (Suz); 4. Michael Shippey (Yam); 5. Cody Lopez (Yam).

250 PRO: 1. Corey Romero (Kaw); 2. Shaun Romero (Kaw).

SEN +30: 1. Wade Batchelor (Hon); 2. Michael Shippey (Hon); 3. Billy Baker (Hon); 4. Gene Lipps (Hon); 5. Shane Fontenot (Hon).

WOM OPEN: 1. Katy Jo Canon (KTM); 2. Nyree Simmonds (Kaw).