New faces for the dirt races

The Marianas Racing Association made the most of yesterday’s weather by holding its annual board of directors elections at the Cowtown Raceway Park in Marpi, but there was plenty of other action at the course as riders kicked up dust with several practice runs around the circuit.

As the top vote getters of 2005, Joe Flores, Eric Cruz, and Danny Camacho retained their seats on the board for another year, and Flores received good news as he was promoted from vice president to MRA president after all of the votes were in.

The trio will continue to push the association into the future with new vice president Greg Sablan, secretary Eleanor Cepeda, treasurer Pauline Berger, Steve Sablan, Chris Alepuyo, and Henry Camacho.

Cepeda, Henry Camacho, and both Greg and Steve Sablan earned a bonus year to their terms as the top vote getters for the 2006 elections. The remaining five board members will have their seats contested on Jan. 15, 2007.

“It feels good. It’s almost like the vice-president’s job, but there are more responsibilities. Now we have to oversee everything and the board members. As a vice president, you can always send people to confer with the president but now there’s no one else but me,” said Flores.

The new president said that the most important task for the new season is to bring more members into the association. In years past, the MRA boasted bigger numbers in its ranks, but Flores said that the membership has dwindled a bit, and that he intends to reverse the trend.

“We have to make sure that we bring more riders. We have to entice the community to come and join us. We used to have a lot of members riding and now we have to encourage them to come back and join the MRA again,” he said.

Flores said that one way to attract more people to the MRA is to hold more event and work hard to get the word out to the public that the MRA is ready to help them anyway it can.

“We need to have more races, membership meetings, and inform the riders when we’re having every race and if they need help we need to ask ourselves what we can do to help them,” he said.

The next points race is on Jan. 29 at the Marpi facility, and Flores said that he wants to get started as soon as possible.

“The race will start at 10am, because we want to start as early as possible and finish early. We have to get back to the season series. It’s free and open to the public,” he said.

While it doesn’t cost a dime to watch the race, Flores said that all riders must be members of the MRA if they plan to challenge the best of Saipan.

“Before they try riding here they have to be a member. There’s a $25 membership fee, and after that they can try to ride by themselves or we can have somebody coach them,” he said.

If all goes according to plan, Flores said that he wants to double the race schedule to two races per month to lure the public to the track. And for those still on the fence about starting something new, Flores said that the opportunity is there and that the MRA is willing to lend a hand to teach the community about motor sports in the Marianas.

“Don’t think twice. If you want to ride, then come down and try it out,” he said.