Events
•
Joe Prus s iano breaks away from the pack
at the WERA National Challenge Sprint
Se ries in Road Atlanta. He went on to take
the 750cc Super Stoc k victory.
cuit , se t off after Baumann and turned the
fas tes t la p of the ra ce . As Ra yborn ' s
Harley continued to fade, first Pither, and
the n Du tchmen De Ridd er and Slootjes,
bo th on Seeley G'5Os, wen t by. Rayborn
fina lly retired on the ninth lap. On the
fifth lap, Breez e w ok e up a nd pas sed
Siootjes and De Ridder. De Ridder retired
on the next lap. Duhamel finally started
to become co mforta ble w ith his bik e,
lea ving Canet behind and overtaking
Long, only to have his ignition fail on the
10th of 12 laps, se tting the finis h orde r.
Baumann took the chec kered , followed
by Pither and Breeze. First 500 was again
Slootjes, followed by Long and Can et,
Wh en the to ta l p oints w ere tall ied
and adjus ted, th e Brits extended th eir
score over th e Europeans 94 to 73, with
th e Am ericans corning in a t 64 points.
The ce le b ra ted Ha llwood Trophy for
individ ua l high -po ints score was handed over fro m p revious win ne r Vernon
Glashier back to Dave Pither, who had
held it twice befo re.
_
Circuit van Drenthe
Assen, Holland
Res ults: June 24-26
RACE 1: 1. Hasse G usta fson ( Due); 2. Dave Pithcr
(Tri ): 3. Co lin Breeze
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en
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44
By Drew Li ncoln
BRASELTON, GA. JULY11
ifteen-year-Old racing prodigy Ben
Spies won his first 12Sec Grand Prix
a t io na l C h a llenge r a ce fr om
F
equally sensational 16-year-old Jason
DiSalvo in a las t-lap bam -burn er.
The fifth round of the WERA arional Cha lle nge Sprint Series ran in co nju nction with the inaugu ral running of
the Dixie Cycle Ja m, a d o u b le- p o in t
Sportsma n Se ries event to ben e fit 'a ll
Mid - and Sou thern Sportsma n Regions.
The ational Ch allenge races we re ru n
in d ry , hot cond itio ns ea rly in th e d ay, .
and th en in a torrential downpour at the
end of the racing schedule.
Leading off the Formula classes was
th e WERA 125cc Gra nd Prix race, run
in co nju nctio n with the newl y formed
Gra nd Pri x Rid er s Associa tio n (GPRA),
for th e second GPRA East Coast ro u nd
of the HRC De aler s 125cc G ra nd Pri x
Nati on a l Cha mp ions hi p, sponsore d by
JT Mot orsports and Racin g, and Th ousa nd Oa ks Hond a /HRC. W ER A a n d
G P RA -Eas t 12 5cc G P p o in ts leader
Mich ael Himmelsb ach m issed th e sta rt
due to a brok en a n kle suffered in a
race earlier in th e day . Sta r ting from
the front row of the huge 29-rider field,
DiSalvo grabbed the lead into turn one
on his Alien Racing/ Applied Business
Sys tems Honda RSl 25, followed closely by bi rthd ay boy Ben Spies on the
Keit h Cherry Racing RS125. Sp ies led
the first la p across the line, but DiSalvo
p ulled even head in g for tu rn one , and
the tw o yo u ng lions we nt side by side
u p the h ill a n d in to t u rns tw o a nd
th ree . DiSalvo sli pped ahead and man aged to k e ep half a bike leng th
be tween them until the halfway flags,
w he n Spies tri ed .t h e a ll -i mpo rtan t
d raft s lingsho t on the bac k straight to
tak e ove r th e lead . Agai n, DiSal vo
pull ed his Todd .Bo w m a n - tu n ed
H ond a dead eve n wi t h t he Jo hn
Hod gk iss-b uilt RS125 of Spies on th e
front s tra ig h t, but a ba ck m a rker was
on th e racin g lin e in turn o ne. The two
t een a g ers s p li t the s lowe r r id er
"superbly and did not mi ss a be at. On
th e w h it e-fl a g la p , DiSalvo did n ot
w a n t th e point p ositi on o n th e ba ck
stra ig h ta w ay, so he did n 't sh ift fro m
fir s t exit ing tu rn seven, hoping Spies
w ould maintain race s peed a n d fl y
ri ght by. Spies w as ex pec t i ng thi s
savvy move and did likewise, and both
rid ers slo wed to a cra wl o n th e ba ck
straig ht, eac h wa iti ng for the o ther to
make t he move. DiSalvo took a long
look over hi s s hou lder to see w here
Spies an d thi r d-placed r id er C h ris
Pyles were, a n d he ran off the tra ck
briefly. Spies took th at o pport u n ity to
pin the throttl e o pen a n d m a ke t he
d ecisiv e break tha t w ould brin g him
his firs t WERA 125cc GP wi n by sixten ths of a seco nd ov er th e reco ver ed
DiSal vo a nd Py les , so me 10 secon ds
beh ind at the fin ish.
Spies was back in th e 'Fo rm ula Tw o
Nationa l Challenge race on his Yamaha
TZ250 to take on the 600cc Superbikes
head to head . Three-time cla ss winner
Brian Lantz grabbed the holeshot, Lantz
kept a tw o-second lead be tween him self
and second pla ce until Spies worked his
w a y into the number-two spot. Spi es
qu ickly reeled in Lantz and made a bid
for the lead in tu rn o ne, but Lant z held
him off. Spies used the superior brak es
of the GP bike to take the lead , braking
fo r tu rn 10 a n d le adin g und er th e
Michelin Brid g e. Lantz repas sed the
youngster in the tricky tum 12 to retake
the po in t positio n . Lan tz rod e the last
lap w it h t h e li t tle two -stro k e b ik e
bu zzing at every tum, but he man aged
to stave off a charge by Spies to captu re
a hard- fou ght victory.
Tray Batey has made the WERA Form ul a One Na tio na l Chall en ge race his
persona l property b y w in n ing e \'ery
event this season o n a Pirelli-equipped
Arcligh t Suzuki GSX-R750 Su perbike.
Batey led flag to flag in the po uring rain
and was never cha llenged for th e win.
. He leads the cha m pions hip points with
a perfect 100.
Th e Open Superstock even t featured
a variety of ma chi nery, from the Yamaha YZF R-l to the Suzuki GSX-R750 and
TL -I 000R and the Kawa saki ZX -9R .
Arclight Suzuki rid er Joe Pru ssiano, the
current poi n ts le a d e r , g ra b bed th e
hol esh o t but rel inq u ish ed th e lead to
Mark Junge before the end of th e first
lap . Ju nge, whose bike was ca ugh t o n
radar at 161.8 mph, began to.stretch his
lea d , tu rnin g lap tim es in th e 1:29s.
Re ig n in g A-S u per Stock Sports man
National Champion Billy Eisenacher, on
a Peachtre e Performance Yamaha R-I ,
passed Tim Bemisderfer at th e halfway
p oin t of th e six-lap race to take over
third. At the finish, Junge had a five-second lead over Prussiano, and Eisenacher
had closed to wi thi n two seco nds of the
Arclig ht rid er.
Junge was right back on th e track in '
the Pirelli 600cc Su per Stock class o n
th e Ves rah Ka wasaki ZX-6 R. He took
th e hol es h o t fro m p o le p osition a nd
held on to lead th e fir st lap . Across th e
s tri pe fo r th e fir s t lap , th e o rder was
Junge, Lantz, P russia no , Davi d Rose
and Bri a n G ibbs. On th e secon d lap,
Gibbs passed bo th Rose a nd Prussiano
to take over third in o rder to chase
down th e le ad in g du o . Lant z di s pl ac e d Jun g e o n t h e s a me lap a nd
thwa rted eve ry a ttempt Junge mad e to
get back into th e lead . At the halfway
flag s, Gibbs ca rne u nder a tta ck fro m a
remoti vated Rose, w ho p assed G ib bs
for th ird en teri ng tu rn o ne and ca ug ht
and passed Junge the ve ry next lap in
the sa me spot, with the sa me ma neuver. La ntz was holding a slim lead
over Ro se and Junge a s t h e y d ra gr a ced side by s id e down th e back
s tra ig h taway a nd began the brakin g
d u el going into tu rn 10- A. Jun g e ' s
Ka w asa ki slipped into a fa lse neutral
a nd sent h im free-w heeli ng in to th e
back o f La ntz . Both rid ers fe ll in th e
g ravel tra p , a nd Ro se - barel y mi s sed
going wit h th em. Rose held o n to wi n
on his Team Pro-Motio n Suzuki GSXR600.
The Michel in 750cc Supers tock race
was a Joe Prussiano af fair from flag to
flag . He go t the holeshot on his Arcli ght
Su zuki GSX-R 750, led eve ry lap, a nd
only ca rne under pressure o n the last
la p wh en local ace G ibbs battled his
wa y th rou gh from th e 11th row on the
grid . Gibbs wa s strip ped of his secondplace fin ish in g p o s it ion bec au s e he
ignored th e bl ack fla g o n the last lap
when his bike sta rted smoking, signa ling an oil leak. Th e results officially list
his finish po sition as seven th, one spo t
behind Keith Wilson , who also started
from th e rear of the g rid . Ben efitin g
fr om Gi bbs ' mi sfortune wer e Tim
Bemisd er fer a nd Rose, wh o slowed due
to th e a mou n t of smoke co rni ng from
Gi bb s' Suzuki, movi ng up to seco nd
and thi rd , res pectively.
Performan ce Po w ersports-ba ck ed
Ed ward Cobb wo n both th e 600cc Produ cti on a n d the 750 cc Produ ct io n
N ovi ce races on his Pire lli-shod Suzuki
GSX-R600, his firs t Natio na l Ch allen ge
win of th e season. Smith Brother s H-D
rid er Ja son Sm it h us ed hi s Ka wa saki
ZX-6R to d ominat e th e wet field in the
600cc Supe rb ik e Novice race, w hi le
Rick Fairbairn d id th e sa me in th e 750cc
Superbike ovice class, wit h Smith tak in g second in th e big-bore class on his
600 . Brian Honeycutt beat o u t Tripp
Volz for th e Heavyweight Twins Exp ert
win, and Greg Ca lla ha n go t th e better
of Dr. Adam Ma shike in the N o vi ce
ranks.
eN
Road Atlanta
Braselto n, Georgia
Results: July 11 , 1999 (Round 5)
OPEN S/STK : 1. Mark Junge (Ka w) ; 2. Joe
Pru s s ia n o III (5 u z ); 3 . Billy Eisenac her (Yam) ; 4 .
Tim o thy J. Bemisderfer (Ya m); 5. Scott Car p en te r
(Yam).
750 SISTI<: 1. Joe Prusstano III (5uz); 2. Timothv , .
Bemisdcrfer (502); 3. David JW:.;c (Suz); 4. C hri,;i Caylor
'
(502) ; 5. Byron Barbour (So2).
600 S/ST K: 1. Da vid Rose (5u z); 2. Brian Gibbs
(5uz) ; 3. Jami e Ha n. .haw (5uz) ; 4. J ~ Pru ssiano III (5uz);
.
S. Shannon EldII (5 uz).
.
Fp]: 1. Tray Batey (5u z); 2. Jonatha n Bowman (502);
3. Bill y Ethri dge IKaw): 4. William League (Suz ); 5.
Tripp Volz (Suz).
