abl e to make up the lost laps, but I'd
love to see us on th e box, co nside ring
the effort that everyone has put in to get
us back in contention:'
Saylor did not bring the team back by
himself, however.
.
"We have fou r very con sistent riders," Nielsen Racing' s Gordon Lund y
sa id . "Ma rk Junge, Darryl Saylor and
Greg Myer are familiar with this track,
and we all go fast here. We have four
fast gu ys that are all turning the sam e
lap times. A ll four o f u s turning the
same lap times, plus our pit stop being
held to 30 seconds helped us sta y in the
hunt."
Team Fast Forw ard took fifth place at
the conclusion of the ei g h t hours,
thou gh not without a little help.
"We've had probl ems getting parts to
fix th e Fas t Froward Su zuki: ' team
owner / rid er Philip Caud ill sai d . "We
ha d a co u p le of cra shes th e last tw o
rounds and had to borrow pa rts from
Thunder Racing just to get the bike runni ng. Rig ht now parts availa bility is
scarce, but I have to thank everyone at
Thunder Racing for helping us . The reason we finished in fifth is because my
teammate Phil Schilling is.ba ck. He' s
comfortable with the Suz uki and knows
this track very well."
'"
Grattan Raceway
Grattan, Michigan
Results: J uly 5, 1997 (Round 6 01 10)
O /A:. I . Tea m Suzuki End u rance (Suz); 2. Arch ght
Suzuki (Suz); 3. TKO Ractn g (Suz ); 4. N ielsen R.1cng
Suzuki (Suz); 5. Tea m Fast Forward (Suz); 6. Arm y of
Darkness (5uz); 7. Perfo rma nce Motorsports (Ho n); 8.
Rotiwt>ll ~cing (Suz); 10. Team Crw.t uk.es (~w); 11.
Ta pe worb Racing II (5uz); 12. Cycl e Speed Racin g
(Suz); 13. Thunder RAcing (Kaw); 14. Canl Am RAcing
CHon ); 15. Wing Ridt"f'!O (Hon); 16. MR R.King (Suz); 17.
Team Chi ca go (Yam); 18. EYan~ Moton pom
;
19 . Curti ss Racin g (259 .05); 20. C a n to n Ra cing
End urance (256.05).
Upcoming Rounds :
Round 7 . Summit Point, WV, August 2
Round 8 . Millington. TN, september 6
WERA National Sprint Series
Round 6:Grattan Raceway
oie eee
neeD
By Aaron Mintz
Photos by And y Chadwell
GRAITAN, MI,JULY 6
t was something old , something new
at rou nd six of the WERA National
Sprint Series . The "new" were a pai r
of GLRRA riders, Larry Denning and
Brian Gibson, who came to their first
WERA event this year and dominated
the podium in the Formula II dass and
the 600cc Superstock class .
The "old " were the regular front-runners of the series, su ch as Joe Prussiano
III, wh o blew away the field in the 750cc
Superstock race to win by four seconds .
Greg Leffler d emonstra ted his determinatio n as he won the 1100 Supers tock
dass on his Suzuki GSXR750. Finally, it
was Mr. Co n si stency hi mself, Tray
, Batey, winning the Formula One Class.
William Himmelsb a ch wo n th e 125cc
I
(Left) Joe Prusslano III
(2) leads Mark J unge
(57) in the 750c c
SUpers tock final.
Prussiano w on , with
Junge second.
(Below) Tray Batey
pUlled away lrom the
Formula One field to
win by a wide margin.
Grand Prix class after Chris Ul ri ch
threw d own h is Kids: Don't Smoke!
Honda RSl 25.
Denning, from Olath, Kansas, sta rted
his day out by winning the 600cc Superstock race, lead ing a freigh t tra in of five
riders for most of the race as they carved
around the hilly, 2-mile Grattan circuit.
Denning led the wa y as Gibson, Mark
Junge, Brian Lantz and Josh Hayes all
pulled away from th e rest of the field .
The lead changed hands man y tim es as
the quin tet carved its way thr ough tra ffic, - traffic that would ultimately play a
heavy hand in deciding the race's ou tcome.
Midway throu gh the ra ce, Denning
a n d Jung e were a ble to sli p under a
lapped rid er while Gibso n, La ntz and
Hayes a ll go t hung up. Gi bson broke
free to ca tch and pass Jun ge on lap 10 of
12, but was not able to catch Denning,
"The lapper stood it up as Denning
went under and pushed him on top on
of me: ' Gibson said . '1 got on the brakes
hard and stood the bike up. This cost
me, as Junge and Denning pulled away
from me, Lantz and Hayes. Fortunately,
I was able to catch Junge again going
into (tum ) one to take second, but Denning was gone and I cou ldn't catch him,
so 1settled for second."
Junge led the race for a lap until Denning got un derneath him and powered
out of tum one faster and ma de the pass
stick entering tum two on the last lap .
"1 got next to Junge in turn one and
got him on the drive:' Denni ng said. "I
wa nted to win a WERA Na tiona l, too."
Junge settled for third. Fou rth place
. we nt to Team Fury ' s Lantz, wh o diced
with th e fr ont p ack th e e n ti re race.
Va lv oline Em go Su zuki ride r Ha y es
topped out in fifth place as h e sha dowed the pack.
Denning went on to win the Formula
Two class on his 4&6 Racing Kawasaki
600. Denni ng won whe n he made a lastlap pa ss on friend and local racer Gibson.
" I passed Gibso n in o ne as I got
u nd er neat h hi m, " Den ning said. "Gt bson went wide exiting one; I dove
underneath him and got back on the gas
as quickly as I could. I really wanted to
win at this tra ck . I feel good here and
my bike runs grea t here."
Gibson made an attempt to sta y with
Denning, but it was no use .
"I called second good:' Gibson said.
'1 almost high-Sided in tum four trying
to chase after Denning. He was running
really good today and I wasn't going to
catch him."
Third place went to Joe Prussiano III.
''The bike ran great an d the MetzeIer
tires we re fanta stic. I simply got beat,"
Prussiano said . "Both of those guys are
really flying out there."
Lee Acree from North Ca roli na pu t
fort h a tre mendous effort as he also ran
with the top three un til he low-sided his
Honda RS250 in turn fou r. After Acree
took himself out , Scott Brown jump ed
into fou rth and William Himmelsbach
took fifth on his Yamaha TZ25O.
Prussian o may have been relegated
to third in the Formula Two class, but
there was no question about his superiority in the Michelin 750cc Superstock
race as he rode away to the win with a
4.74-second margin of victory.
'We m issed a little on setup earlie r,
and I wasn't up to speed either: ' Prusstano said. "I got pissed off at myself,
and I wasn't gonna get smoked all day.
So I p u t my h e ad d own a n d never
looked back."
Jun g e fi nis hed a di stan t secon d
behi nd Prussiano.
" I d id n 't ha ve an ything for Joe
today: ' Junge said . "I spent the entire
weekend focusing on the Nielsen Racing
Suzuki 600 and put in 10 laps on the 750
Suzuk i. It wasn't set up right."
Leffler, wi nne r of the 1l00cc Supe rstock cla ss, was th ird, r iding unchalle n ged for the entire race un til Tim
Bemisd erfer came up on th e last lap.
Leffler held his gro u nd , thou gh, a nd
beat Bemisderfer to the checkered flag.
Billy Eisenacher was fifth after d icin g
with Leffler early in the race, only to
have his axle bolt vibrate loose, causing
him to drop off the pace.
Sunday morni ng, Valvoline Emgo
Su z uki rid er Grant Lopez had his
sec on d cra s h in as man y w eeks a nd
w a s n ot abl e to compete i n the
l100cc Supersto ck class . H owever,
Leffler came prepared, and was ab le
to pull off a pass o n Arclight Ra cing's Prussia no to take th e victory.
"I got undeneath Prussiano in tum
four : ' Leffler said. "I made the pass and
I feel great." Prussiano he ld off Valvoline Emgo Suz uki rider Hayes to ta ke
second..
''The bike wa s once again perfect: '
Prussiano said . "Greg just beat me."
Following in third place was Hayes,
w ho was s tr uggling with a bike n ot
quite properly set up.
'1 tried to hang on and see if I could
d o battle with them:' Hay es said . "Both
of them were ri ding real w ell, a nd I
missed on the setup and was not able to
compe te with those guys." Fourth place
went to Bemisderfer, and Fritz Kling finished fifth. lt appeared Kling was suffer ing from bike problems, and he w as
lucky to hold onto fifth.
In 125cc GP racing, H im melsba ch
took the victory after Chris Ulrich threw
his bike down in tum five. Second place
went to John Ulrich . Larry Cohee finished third .
Batey won the Formula On e class
after not being abl e to com pe te in th e
last round due to mechani cal problems .
Howe ve r, Batey d emonstrated his total
domination by flyin g out to a 16-second
lead and taking the win with a spectacular wh eelie accross the finish line. Jeffery
Vos took second pla ce on his Yamaha
TZ250. Third place went to Gib son on
his Suz uki 600.
."
Gra tta n Raceway
Grattan, Michigan
Results: J uly 6, 1997 (Round 6 01 10)
1100 SlSTK: 1. GR"g Ldfl~ (Su z) ; 2. Ice Prussia no
UI (Suz); 3. Josh Hayn (Suz); 4. Tim Bemisderfer (Suz.);
5. Fritz Kllng (Yam).
600 PROD: t . Craig Working (I
