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Quinn got such a jump on the field that
he had over a five-second lead at the end
of the first lap. But Jon Cornwell and
Southwest Motorsports Chris D'Aluisio
were just getting warmed up. On the second lap D'Aluisio moved up into second
place, cutting Quinn's lead to less than
three seconds and taking teammate Chris
Taylor in his draft. Then, a lap later
D'Aluisio took the lead, only to crash
when he lost the front end in the
International Horseshoe.
The lead went back to Quinn.
Cornwell was soon up to second, then
challenging for the lead before the end of
the fourth lap. He took it with a pass on
the tri-i)va! on the fifth lap, before Quinn
drafted by a lap later.
On the short straight run-up to the
infield exit, Cornwell weaved his way to
the front, the pair exited side-by-side,
with Cornwell holding the edge going
into the chicane. Coming out Cornwell
used a lapped rider to break the draft,
cutting through the air to win by .29!H>fa-second. Quinn was well in front of
Taylor with Southwest Motorsports
Danny Walker fourth.
"We had a radical re-think last night
and it definitely paid off," Cornwell said.
"We went back to some conservative settings. The wind makes it difficult to pick
gearing because whichever way you go,
you're off on the other side of the track.
"It's nice to win, but if Chris hadn't
crashed he would have been long gone.
This is a new bike and the settings that
worked last year, don't work this year:'
Cornwell said.
After pulling off during one of the earlier races, the track announcers were confident Thomas Stevens would do it again
in the Unlimited GP. But his bike was
legal this time, though he did make a bit
of a race of it.
While leading on the second lap he
waved a number of riders by on the
infield straight leading to the dogleg.
Most likely it was to size up the competition because he was back in front at the
end of the second lap, dropping his lap
times into the 1:55s and pulling away
from second place.
Stevens would win by 15.287 seconds,
averaging 109.943 mph for the seven-lap,
25-mile race that he completed in
13:38:217.
.
The race was for second, with Gardner
taking over on the fourth lap with a pass
of Ducati-mounted Pablo Real and ~
ing the spot. Real came under attack from
behind, but held off Eric Moe with
D'Aluisio moving up to fifth and challenging Moe, as the race wound down.
For Kent Wells, the first of his three
wins was the easiest. "Greg Cop builds a
fabulous motor which puts out a lot of
horsepower. 1 didn't think anybody could
come and get me. I knew the draft was
working good and once 1 broke away 1
just ran my own race. Basically, that's all
there was to it," Wells said of his
Amateur Solo GTU win on Friday.
Gerry Hasher was second and Mark
Coop third Coop and Hasher would finish first and second in the Amateur
Middleweight Supersport, but were disqualified for having illegal airbox modifications. Hasher was also disqualified
from the Amateur Heavyweight
Supersport after winning that, also. He
explained that he'd raced three races in a
row on the same machine, and didn't
have to go through a post-race tech
inspection until after the Amateur Solo
GTU which allows modifications.
Coop was legal in the Amateur
Middleweight GP, but didn't have
enough steam to keep up with Wells. The
Georgian beat Coop to the line by 3.689
seconds at the end of the seven-lap, 25mile race. The race might have been more
competitive, but Hasher was given a
stop-and-go penalty for jumping the start
and finished back in 31st place.
But both were up to speed in the
Amateur Middleweight Superbike, a race
the two made contact in more than once.
Hasher got the jump with Wells sec·
ond and Coop third. Wells ran down
Hasher in the chicane on the second lap
and took the low-side on the banking
making the run to the finish line. Hasher
used a late-braking maneuver to take it
back on the third lap, Hasher going back
in front on the west banking with Coop
third the whole time.
For the next four laps Hasher and
Wells would trade spots all over the track
leaving no doubt the race would be
decided at the flag. Wells appeared to
have the power on the banking with
Hasher scraping through the infield to
keep pace.
On the final lap, Wells held the lead
going up onto the banking and that
wasn't a good sign for Hasher. Wells
used his motor to pull away and used
some backmarkers to amass a 2.982-second lead at the end. Hasher held onto second, about seven seconds in front of
Coop.
"He could out-brake me and 1 could
out-accelerate and out-<:orner him," Wells
said. "1 could out-brake him in turn one
and the chicane. We touched once or
twice. He tried to come in too hard He
overshot one real bad once.
At the end, "slower riders really got in
the way. When 1 didn't see him beside me
in the chicane 1 knew 1 had it won," Wells
said just before driving back to Georgia.(1\'
Gerry Washer (118) leads eventual winner Kent Wells (100) in Amateur Solo GTU_
Results
AM SOLO GTU, I. Kvlt Wells (Hon); 2. Gerry
Hasher (Hon); 3. Mark Coop (lion); 4. Keith J