The 2026 NEMRR season fired up under challenging conditions at New Hampshire Motor Speedway on May 2-3. Saturday’s morning races went green in the dry, but with temperatures stuck below 50 degrees F the paddock was anything but comfortable. By the afternoon the rain arrived, and it stayed for the rest of the day — rewriting the script for everything that followed, including the headline Dash for Cash. Sunday brought clear skies but kept the chill, with highs only reaching the low 50s. Welcome back to spring in New England!
The Seacoast Sport Cycle / Dunlop Dash for Cash (Heavyweight Grand Prix) delivered the storyline of the weekend. Off the line it was Ian Beam scoring the holeshot on his Triumph, but a mistake in tire choice for the wet conditions caught up with him almost immediately — he got sideways through Turn 1a and again through Turn 2, opening the door for Eric Wood and Adam Guyer to slip past between Turns 2 and 3. From there, Guyer was gone. Riding his Seacoast Sport Cycle Ducati Streetfighter V2, Guyer set a blistering pace from the very first lap and stretched his lead to a several second margin by the halfway point. Wood, on his Yamaha R6, found another gear in the second half of the race and dropped his lap times into the low 1:21 range — fast enough to match Guyer pace-for-pace, but the gap had already been built and there was no clawing it back. Sam Martin recovered from a poor start to pick his way through the field on his own Yamaha R6, taking third to round out the podium.
For Guyer it was the perfect season debut. After taking the Amateur #1 plate in 2025, his graduation to the senior ranks was one of the storylines fans were watching for in 2026 — and he answered with the loudest possible statement. In addition to the Dash, Guyer collected wins in GTL, Lightweight Grand Prix, Lightweight Superbike and Thunderbike, splitting time between the Ducati and his Aprilia RS-660 in the smaller-displacement classes. He added a pair of wins in the combined Heavyweight Streetfighter and Supertwins classes for good measure. Eight wins in his first weekend as an Expert — and a clear early signal that the Streetfighter platform NEMRR has been building support for is genuinely competitive at the front of the field.
Eric Wood was the only rider in the paddock who came close to that pace, collecting four Expert wins of his own — Formula 40 Unlimited, Heavyweight Superbike, Unlimited Grand Prix and Unlimited Superbike — all on his Yamaha R6. The middleweight-versus-heavyweight equipment debate that emerged at the end of 2025 looks set to be a season-long theme, with Wood once again proving that a well-ridden 600cc machine can hold its own against bigger displacement bikes.
Other multi-win Experts included Brett Guyer (F40 Lightweight and Formula 50 Lightweight), Adam Muscaro (Motard and Ultra-lightweight Superbike), Jacob Crossman (Middleweight Superbike and Middleweight Supersport) and Fletcher Rood (500 Supersport and Moto 3). Notable single-class wins came from Justin Landry in F40 Middleweight, Jared Mileika in Heavyweight Supersport — picking up where his strong 2024 amateur season left off — and Ben Gloddy in Unlimited Supersport.
The standout of the Amateur ranks was Matthew Sweeney, and his weekend deserves a closer look. Sweeney won four Amateur classes — 500 Superbike, 500 Supersport, Moto 3 and Ultra-lightweight Superbike — but it was Sunday’s combined Expert/Amateur Moto 3 race that turned heads. Running from the Amateur wave, Sweeney’s pace was strong enough that he beat the entire Expert wave as well, effectively winning the Expert class from his Amateur grid spot. That kind of performance from an Amateur is the unmistakable signal of a rider headed for advancement — look for Sweeney to be tested at the Expert level very soon.
Christopher O’Shea matched Sweeney’s four-win tally with victories in F40 Lightweight, GTL, Lightweight Superbike and Thunderbike. In the Amateur Dash for Cash (Amateur Heavyweight Grand Prix), Thomas Dixon took the win and added the Amateur Heavyweight Superbike class for good measure — a strong opening weekend for the veteran.
The Novice ranks featured a pair of dominant performances. Jason Neuman swept all three Novice Lightweight Grand Prix waves, while Mark Roberto did the same in the Novice Middleweight Grand Prix waves — a clean three-for-three for each rider in their respective ladders. Both look like riders to keep an eye on as the season unfolds.
In Super Street, Derek Wood took both Lightweight rounds, while Stephen Holubiak picked up the Unlimited A win. As always, the NEMRR Super Street class is the perfect low-pressure entry into road racing, allowing track-day riders the chance to mix it up on the same weekend as the rest of the paddock.
Round 2 of the NEMRR series will be held May 27-28 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. Information is available at www.nemrr.com.
