Area51 Motocross in Batavia, NY set a new “track record” by all standard’s this past week-end for their 8th Annual Can / Am AIR event with some 730 entries! At the end of the day it was USA 28 Canada 7… BUT, while there were a ton of riders from Ontario, Canada, Team USA / WNYRacing had likewise a ton of rider support from states like Ohio, PA, New Hampshire and even Massachusetts! Congratulations to all the competitors on an awesome day of racing and a big shout out to the Class Overall Winners from Team Canada: Luke Tricco (50cc Sr. 6-8 & 60 – 65cc 7-9), Tanner Scott (50cc 4-8 Inter.), Adam Burk (250cc Beginner with 38 entries & Open Beginner with 36 entries), Scott Cameron (Open Novive) and Martin Harant (+30A).

The Supercross race on the Dunlop Tires Mini Track had well over 200 entries!

Ron Nye Annual Grass Race itself had OVER 100 entries! This is a very special event to WNY motocross riders and families and is a way to Honor our friend and mentor who was sadly taken from all of us by the horrible disease ALS. (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis), also known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease, is an incurable fatal neuromuscular disease characterized by progressive muscle weakness, resulting in paralysis. The disease attacks nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord. http://www.alsa.org/

If you want to hear some of greatest motocross stories of all times, just ask guys like Ron Lechien, Frank or Andy Stacy, Gary Latimer @ Race Tools, Bart Lucas or other cool guys from the 70′s, and 80′s about Ron Nye! The motocross story here today is another special Ron Nye story. About 8 or 9 years ago Ron was talking to Chris Moser and Corey Kandefer, Area51 Motocross Co-Owners and promoters when the subject of growing the competition for the riders came up. Ron’s idea was to reach out to the many Canadian riders that were already making the trip south across the Peace Bridge to compete at their events, and to give them a special reason to recruit their racing friends and families to come represent Canada, mx style. And, its grow by leaps and bounds! Ron after all had been to many Canadian tracks to either compete or wrench or both and had many Canadian friends as a result.

Winners of the Annual Ron Nye Hard Charger Award:
American- Matt Toth /Canadian- Steve Azarkawitz

A 2nd Ron Nye story for today: Canadian mx rider Pauly Plewa, inspired by Ron Nye’s life story adopted his #711 racing # several years ago. About a year ago Pauly suffered devastating injuries during practice leaving his family facing financial difficulties as it would most any family. The local WNYRacing Series and ALL their volunteers as well Chris & Corey at Area51, Don George of Don Georges of course and many other mx families hosted a variety of events and raised over $4,200.00 to help the Plewa family out! I think Pauly will be hanging this #711 jersey autographed by everyone at the track right next to the #5 jersey that Ryan Dungey personally sent to him!