NEMRR: Ian Beam Wins Featured Dash for Cash At Loudon

The NorthEast Motorcycle Road Race (NEMRR) series ran the opening round of its 2025 series on April 26-27 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. There were several changes implemented for the 2025 season, including the inclusion of a Street Fighter class in the 2025 Loudon Classic that includes a big bonus for local riders–prompting several local Experts to build some new motorcycles.

In addition, NEMRR owner John Grush announced a change to the premier Seacoast Sport Cycle Dash for Cash feature race, with 2025 serving as a transition year that is bridging the class from its former structure as a Middleweight Grand Prix event to its future as a Heavyweight Grand Prix class. This reflects the changing motorcycle landscape with supersport bikes moving towards the “Gen 2” models that include the larger displacement bikes prevalent in MotoAmerica racing. For 2025, the Middleweight and Heavyweight divisions will run together but will have separate championships. The purse money will be awarded to the top 3 overall finishers, as well as the top 3 finishers in each division. The highly technical character of New Hampshire Motor Speedway is expected to allow riders both divisions to be able to compete for the overall win all season long.

When Saturday morning rolled around the paddock was met with mild temperatures and a forecast for rain. Soon after practice started the clouds rolled in and riders all switched over to their wet setups for the day. As with many clubs, there are a group of riders who excel in the rain, and the front runners from NEMRR showed their faces early. In the GT500 class, Trase Boudreau took a narrow victory over fellow young star Hendrix Woodman, with NEMRR’s youngest expert rider Nathan Bettencourt in 3rd place. The GTL division saw rain master Eli Block take a victory over the father/son duo of Brett and Adam Guyer–the three riders separated by less than two seconds at the finish. In the larger displacement divisions the winners both took victory in dominant fashion, with Goeffrey Bonnard and Michael Lee both taking the checkered flag with 20+ seconds in hand. The standout Amateur in the wet conditions was David Mink, who impressed not only in the GTU class but in several other races later in the day.

As the end of the day approached the paddock bristled with expectations for what would happen in the premier Dash for Cash classes. In addition to their support in the expert ranks, Seacoast Sport Cycle has also stepped up with support in the form of $500 in Dunlop money, awarded to winners regardless of the tires that they use. The Amateur Dash for cash was dominated by the Yamaha R6-mounted Charles Keighley who took the holeshot and never looked back, winning the feature by 17 seconds at the checkered flag over the Kawasaki ZX6-R of Tony Wells.

The new format for the Expert Dash for Cash showcased 19 of the top riders at NEMRR on a wide range of motorcycles across the Middleweight and Heavyweight divisions. At the launch, 2024 class champion Ian Beam grabbed the holeshot on his Triumph 675, followed by class newcomer Eric Wood on his newly acquired Yamaha R6. Beam set a blistering pace from the start, and Wood made a big mistake in the Turn 6 bowl on the initial lap, running extremely wide and letting by fellow Yamaha riders Paul Duval and Justin Landry to take advantage. As Beam began to stretch out a lead over the next few laps Eli Block, known to be an extremely strong rider in the rain, was storming though a tightly packed freight train of riders from positions 2-8, and by lap 3 had worked his way all the way up to 2nd place. Block was riding a newly acquired KTM 790 Street Fighter, and in the process of chasing down Beam dipped down into the 1:19 lap time range, a feat never before seen on a machine like this!

Just the race officially passed by the halfway point on lap 6, Block had overtaken Beam for the lead spot and Wood had passed Duval for 3rd and the red flag came out due to a motorcycle that had fallen and was in the line of traffic. The scoring reverted back one lap and Beam was awarded the win, with Block in the runner up spot and Duval securing the final podium spot. All three of the top finishers were in the Middleweight division, with overall 4th place finished Eric Wood taking the top spot in the Heavyweight GP ranks.

Round two of the NEMRR series will be running in two weeks time on May 10-11, and will feature all the NEMRR regulars as well as a host of riders preparing for the 2025 Loudon Classic. For information on how to participate, please visit www.NEMRR.com.

(Editorial note: According to NEMRR’s John Grush, results are not final but can be viewed on the Speedhive app. No results were provided with this press release.)

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