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Kenny Bartram (600) and Nick Metcalf (117) battle for 125cc honors during arenacross action in Hobbs, New Mexico. Bartram went on to claim the win, and the 250cc Pro win as well. AMA Checkered Flag Productions Arenacross series, Round 11 Bartram goes out ontop By Craig Cole HOBBS, NM, MAR. 6 enny Bartram put the WTaps on his reign as the Checkered Flag Productions Arenacross champion with two hard-fought wins in the 11th and final points-paying round of the season when the series rocked the Lea County Cultural Center. The KTM pilot had to deal with the Suzuki of Nick Metcalf in the 125cc main and his teammate Jon Hedden in the 250cc race before claiming the victories. It was Metcalf who got the holeshot in the 125cc race, with Bartram, Yamaha-mounted Shay Manney and Suzuki pilot Wes Hale close behind. The front four had settled into line as lap one came to an end, with Hedden running fifth and the Yamaha of Joey Pratt on his rear fender in sixth. Pratt made a move to go around Hedden in the whoops but could not complete the pass and ended up going down at the end of the rockers. Pratt left the race and did not return to compete in the 250cc feature, bringing his night to a premature end. The running order stayed the arne through the middle of the race, but with about four laps to go, Bartram turned up the wick and put his front wheel up beside Metcalf each chance he got. The two started the next lap side by side, but Metcalf was able to maintain the point with a better drive through the whoops and completed t~e lap still up front. Metcalf had his bike wash out from under him in the sweeping turn one as the ninth lap began and, with nowhere to go, Bartram ran into the downed rider's bike. Bartram was able to regain control and he took over the lead, with Hale, who had earlier gotten around. Manney, inheriting the second position. Manney was also able to move up one spot, to third, as Metcalf struggled to get back in the race. Metcalf's crash allowed Hedden to move up to challenge for the fourth K 40 pot, but with only one lap to go, the time to advance any further had run out. Bartram took the checkers ahead of Hale and Manney. A disappointed Metcalf, who had led most of the race, came across fourth, just ahead of Hedden. Bartram put his KTM out front at the start of the 250cc feature while Hedden, Manney and Hale fought over the second spot going through the whoop section. Hedden came away with the position, with Manney third and Hale fourth. Metcalf, meanwhile, was running dead last after suffering through a terrible first lap. Bartram continued to build his lead as the second lap progressed, because Hedden had to start riding defensively when Manney moved up right behind him. Just as it was starting to look like he was going to distance himself from the rest of the field, Bartram bobbled and dumped his bike in the last turn on lap two. Despite quickly remounting, Bertram lost the lead to Hedden, but he was able to get refired before Manney could take advantage of the situation. Bartram wasted no time running Hedden down,' and he caught him before the whoop section on lap three. Bringing the crowd to its feet, the two went through the rockers bar to bar, with Bartram coming out of the next turn with the lead. The following laps saw the running order remain the same, except Metcalf had managed to work his way up to fifth. With three laps to go, and with second-placed Hedden doing all he could to keep Manney behind him, Bartram kicked in the afterburners and started tripling the finish-line jump again, bringing the sellout crowd out of their seats. The final lap started with Bartram comfortably out front and Hedden engaged in a battle for second with Manney. Metcalf had dispatched Hale on the previous lap and now found himself in fourth. The la t lap was no kinder to Metcalf than the first had been, and all the ground he had spent the whole race making up was lost when he crashed at the end of the whoops. Hale moved back to fourth, and he soon found himself in third when Manney bobbled, letting Hedden off the hook. Bartram was still pulling away and still delighting the crowd over the triple at the flag ..Hedden took second, and Hale, who was fifth one lap earlier, came across third. Manney had to settle for fourth after running third and contending for second for most of the race. Although Josh Demuth did not attend this round of the series, his performances earlier in the season gave him enough points to claim the title that Bartram had carried throughout the year. Earl Kephart finished second in the 250cc class and third in the 125cc class. Joey Pratt and Adam Zarda also had good runs, with Pratt taking the third and fourth spots in the 250cc and 125cc divisions respectively, and Zarda taking the fourth and second. _ lea County Cultural Center Hobbs, New Mexico Results: March 6,1999 (Round 11 of 11) so: 1. Tyler Turner; 2. Dakota Owens; 3. Justin Perez; 4. Dustin Workman; 5. Dustin Engle. 60: 1. Tyler Turner; 2. Aaron Emory; 3, Dakota Owens; 4. Tyler Copeland. . 80: 1. David Jense.n; 2. Austin Turner; 3. Taylor Smith; 4. Neil Dauphimais; 5. James Huggins. 125 C: 1. Ray Owens; 2. Jase Merritt; 3. K.C. Lane; 4. Michael Shannon; 5. Duane Fulgham. 125 B: 1. A.J. Lux; 2 Trent Huber; 3. Steven Ra I; 4. Josh Merritt; S. Sean Vilandry. US PRO: 1. Kenny Bartram (KTM); 2. Wes Hale (Suz); 3. Shay Manney (Yam); 4. Nick Metcalf (Suz). 250 C: 1. Chetl CoolI; 2. David Jordan; 3. Roy Dearing; 4. Brandon Hickman; 5. Shane Fielder. 250 B: 1. Roger Hum; 2. Wade Hoak; 3. David Metcalf; 4. Joe Bradley; S. Chad Bumpass. 250 PRO: 1. Kenny Bartram (KTM); 2. Jon Hedden (KTM); 3. Wes Hale (Suz); 4. Shay Manney (Yam). WERA Regional Sportsman series Road Atlanta Stokes on fire in rain By Drew Lincoln BRASELTO ,GA, MAR. 13ยท14 he WERA Motorcycle Road Racing Sportsman Series held a regional race for the southeast and northeast regions at the famed Road Atlanta road course, which will be the only regional event to be held at the track this year. The two remaining WERA Motorcycle Road Racing events scheduled for Road Atlanta will be the WERA ational Challenge and National Endurance races. Many riders made the trek in hopes of getting in some valuable testing and track time to help their cause when it comes time for the bigger events. Unfortunately for all involved, cold temperatures and steady rain, coupled with a large amount of oil on the race track, hal ted the weekend's schedule prematurely. The racers who braved the elements until the end of the event were given a credit and informed that a future Sportsman event in their home region would carry double points T for only those classes that had been canceled. One of the hottest topics circulating in the racing community during the offseason concerned the use of full racing rain slicks in Super Stock competition. With that in mind, this weekend was the first chance to see how riders would put this rule to the test in deplorable conditions. The conditions for Sunday'S money races included temperatures in the rnid-4Os and a steady-te-hard rain all day. . The first contingency-paying race of the day was the A Super Stock race. Several riders, such as Rob Palmieri of Team Extreme, did not make it around on the warmup lap, crashing on cold tires on an even colder race track. Other riders waited until the green flag to get in trouble, as there was a major collision at the start between two riders, but fortunately no one went down. By the end of the first lap, Chris Caylor, coming from the middle of the front row, was in the lead, followed by his Marietta Motorsports teamma te Brian Stokes-, both on Suzuki GSXR750s. Corning off a great weekend of racing at the WERA opener, Caylor was riding smoothly for such wet conditions, but he was losing ground to former motocros standout Stokes on the difficult and changing track. By the third lap, 15-year-old Roger Lee Hayden came from the sixth row up to third place. Stokes was slowly reeling in Caylor, and he took the lead on the white-flag lap. Hayden could only manage third, behind Caylor, while Stokes took the win. At the start of the C Super Stock race, Lee Acree jumped into the lead, only to be passed before the completion of the first lap by Roger Lee Hayden, who started from the fifth r.ow. Hayden remembered what he had learned from the race earlier in the day and passed 12 riders before the end of lap one, making the hair-raising pass for the lead in tricky turn 12. Hayden was not alone, because Georgia native Brian Gibbs followed him through the field and was third on the first lap. Gibbs, who had missed all of Saturday's practice and had only made two laps Sunday morning, was putting his knowledge of the local track to good use and passed Acree going into turn one at the beginning of the second lap.. At the end of the second lap, former Novice ational Champion Jep Palmour and Acree ended up in the new chicane-section gravel trap, in separate incidents, moving Brian Lantz up to third. On the fourth of six laps, word came in to the officials in the tower that Hayden had crashed by himself in th'e same area as Acree and Palmour, .who had both since reteched and returned to the race. This gave Gibb an insurmountable lead at the front, and on the last two laps he took the time to wave and wheelie in the rain for the fans and corner workers. Back in the pack, Lantz came under pressure from Jeff Kramer, who had worked his way up from the last row to challenge for second on the last lap. At the checkers it was Gibbs, Kramer and Lantz. The results did not stand, however, due to a yellow-flag foul. Before the race was_over, Acree crashed in turn 10, bringing out the yellow flag. Several riders informed officials tha t Kramer was using the waving yellow flags to make his passes, and after questioning all the riders involved, WERA officials penalized Kramer five positions on the track, moving him from second to seventh in the final resul ts. The last race that went off before