Although shorter the second day of this year’s VCGP was historic.
VIRGINIA CITY (April 30) – The annual Virginia City Grand Prix is divided into separate parts depending on which class a person races in. On the second day Novice, Women, Bombers and Vintage bikes take their turn on the course.
In order to make it a bit easier on those racing Vintage motorcycles they run a course that is just over 10-miles in length. The rest of the classes essentially race over the same 25-mile long course the Pros, Experts and Amateurs ran on Saturday.
Once again the race was blessed with great weather although it was a bit dusty for all concerned.
Each day’s races are timed events and on Sunday the checkered is shown three hours after the first rider is launched. Other than the two head start positions, one for two minutes and the other one minute, everyone is in a line of 10-riders so their corrected time is what gives a racer their final finishing position.
Up until two years ago there had never been a woman winning the overall on Sunday although some had been in the lead. This year, for the second time in its 46-year history, a racing mom, Heather Pickering not only won the Woman’s Class and was first overall at the end.
In order to do this, since she started in the fourth row Pickering had to over some a 4-minute, 15-second deficit after starting. So she was on a charge from start to finish.
On her way to finishing first overall, Heather Pickering round a corner while leaving Six Mile Canyon Road.
“My first goal was to get around as many people as I could before we came to any technical up hills, so it would be less people for me to have to deal with,” she said. “It worked out, it was really dusty, extremely rocky and I’m very thankful. We went down Sutro Canyon, it wasn’t bad but the road to there was rough, rocky and hard on the arms.
“And it just wore your arms out and as soon as you got into the canyon it was in the rocky stuff. It was rough because your arms were tired. I almost would have rather gone up.”
Then she thanked her father Joe Pickering, her husband A.J. Brumit, and her 14-month old son Caleb.
The two minute head start went to Nicole Collins who was number “0” and a minute behind her came Tim Gard riding as “00.” Sixty seconds later the field was released one row at a time with a 15-second delay.
The last lines were for the Vintage Bikes and once given the green they also headed downhill and toward the course.
By now Pickering was passing as many people as she could and had her sights set for Collins and the physical lead. She and all the riders had a long three-hour marathon ahead of them.
Collins, despite her head start wound up second in the Women’s Class and finished 17th overall.
After taking the checkered flag she said, “It was rocky, very rocky, it was pretty gnarly in some part of the track. They got me about three quarters on the first lap. I need to thank my parents, my Poppa, they do everything for me.”
Back in the Vintage ranks there was a slight bit of confusion as several riders missed the cut off and actually rode the entire course, including Sutro Canyon, for their first lap. Leading the first lap, and probably only having done the short course were Ted Elswick, in his first time here and Craig Milligan.
Part of the course is on paved roads and turning off 6 Mile Canyon onto R Street at the end of the first lap the first pair, after the two Vintage riders, were Tyler Brumit, who was unable to finish the race, and Collins.
At that time Pickering was actually eighth in the order but based on the corrected time would have already gained the lead. Behind her Chris Loer was heading for the lead and victory in the Vintage Class while Steven Godman would wind up as the Bomber winner.
Chris Loer on his way to winning the Vintage Class.
Ted Elswick, in his first ever VCGP was the Vintage runner-up.
“The race was pretty technical for a vintage bike but I had a lot of fun. It shows you don’t to have a lot of money to go get a bike and have fun out there,” he said. “I want to thank my Mom for showing up, my wife and my pit crew, my son came up from Santa Barbara.”
Out of the nine vintage bikes seven of them finished the race while in the Bomber class 12 started but only eight finished.
There was one rider that competed both days and that is Artichoke Joe Divecchio. He’s raced in every one of the VCGP events and on Saturday was 263rd overall but DNF’d on Sunday.
One of the oldest riders was Ultra Master winner Bill Craig, who is 77 years young who completed two full laps.
After the race he said, “This is like the old days in the mid-70’s, really rough. Down Sutro wasn’t bad, the bottle necks were bad.”
Then he thanked the Polka Dots motorcycle club as they help him at every race even though he’s not a member. And this year Craig is competing the nationals.
The race no matter what the conditions are is challenging both to the rider and their machines. On this day there were 403 entries lined up on C Street and at the end only 270 finished while 133 didn’t finish and a bunch of riders needed all three hours to complete one lap.
After the dust settled and most cleared out their pit area most riders moved up to the Ice House for the awards. And that’s where Pickering picked up her historic trophies.
After finishing first overall in Sunday’s VCGP, Heather Pickering holds her trophies.
Now the Comstock is quite again as Virginia City’s tourist season has officially begun. But at the end of next April hundreds of riders with all different skill levels will answer the siren call of the Virginia Grand Prix.
REPORTER’S NOTE: There is a photo gallery after the results.
If you enjoyed this article please “like,” and share it as widely as possible. Comments are welcome.
Subscribers have articles posted to their inbox as soon as they are on the site.
We now have four very appreciated sponsors that are helping support this site.
The newest is familiar to anyone in the riding lifestyle. It’s PJ & Co Restaurant and Saloon located at 1590 Wells Avenue in Reno.
Good food, great place and they have Bike Night every Wednesday. For further information please check their website at, www.pjandco.net.
Concours Body Shop, owned by racer and race supporter Gil Grieve, is a business doing quality repair work on cars and trucks.
The business is located at 240 Telegraph Street in Reno and their website is, www.concoursbodyshop.net.
If you are into karting or want the most cost effective way to start racing then check out Nevada Kart Sport, our only full service kart shop in this region.
They are located at 1220 E. Greg Street in Sparks and their website is, www.nevadakartsport.com.
Into riding or racing a motorcycle? If so Reno Motorsports is for you as they have a full service shop as well as about anything a rider could want.
They are located at 964 Terminal way, by Mill Street and their website is, www.rms-renomotorsports.com.
Have a business targeted toward the motorcycle, motorsport or off road demographic? Well we are looking for more sponsors.
You can contact us either through the comment section of the site or our Face Book page.
OTHER RACING NEWS:
- This Saturday Reno Motorsports (RMS) is celebrating 21 years of being in business. There will be many discounts as well as a BBQ from 11 a.m. until 2 p.m.
RMS Poster.
RESULTS*
VIRGINIA CITY GRAND PRIX – APRIL 30
+Overall: 1. Heather Pickering, 2. Dean Mosser, 3. Chase Rosenquist, 4. Keith Lovejoy, 5. Joe Webb, 6. Steven Godman, 7.Mark Debibo, 8. Steve Walkiewicz, 9. Steven Leutz, 10. Nick Risner, 11. Andrew Robinson, 12. Dan Delgadillo, 13. Bryan Mutoza, 14. Tyler Sanders, 15. Robert Walden, 16.Jeremy Zimmerman, 17. Nicole Collins, 18. Kevin Mundt, 19. Adam Thevenin, 20. Nick Cusato.
+ Novice:
– 125cc: 1. Jeffery Boughn, 2. Joshua Dufresne, 3. Austin Sanguinetti, 4. Will Cann, 5. Alex Laningham.
– 250cc: 1. Keith Lovejoy, 2. Nick Risner, 3. Dan Delgadillo, 4. Tyler Sanders, 5. Jordan Brown.
– Open: 1. Chase Rosenquist, 2. Joe Webb, 3. Robert Walden, 4. Jeremy Zimmerma, 5. Nick Cusato.
– 30+: 1. Andres Robinson, 2. Bryan Mutoza, 3. Kevin Mundt, 4. David Brent, 5. Kris Johnson.
– 40+: 1. Steven Leutz, 2. Eddie Luke, 3. Jason Jeffery, 4. Ron Turner, 5. David Klingman.
– 50+: 1. Dean Mosser, 2. Daron Jaco, 3. Eddie Valencia, 4. Brad Moore, 5. Nick Dragovich.
– Masters: 1. Brian Spiersch, 2. Ron Burns, 3. Dean Taylor, 4. Mark Foster, 5. Pete Prichard.
– Ultra Master: 1. Bill Craig, 2. Roy Watson.
+ Women: 1. Heather Pickering, 2. Nicole Collins, 3. Katie Pond, 4. Paisley Ornellas, 5. Alexina Arth.
+ Bomber: 1. Steve Godman, 2.Mark Debibo, 3. Steve Walkiewicz, 4. Adam Thevenin, 5. Jason Frey.
+ Vintage: 1. Chris Loer, 2. Ted Elswick, 3. Rick Parker, 4. Bill Teal, 5. Michael Dixon.
* – For the full results please go to, www.vcgp.com.
PHOTO GALLERY:
Evan #333 raced on Saturday with his brother #334 and his Dad #335. On Saturday second lap Evan crashed and lost his Hero 2 GoPro video camera. His brother crashed really bad also, and won’t be able to race again. All we have is memories on the SD card from the race. Help us find Evans GoPro video camera. There is a $50 reward for return of the GoPro and the SD card.
Manny, 775-240-1262
You need to check with VCGP as they had at least one Go Pro camera that had been found
and after the clean up might have found another. Don’t know however so that would be
the place to check. HOpe you find it and sorry to hear about his brother.