Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/128173
GFI Racing Fall Series South
Round 1: Glen Helen Raceway Park
Dylan Lord 1301 leads Kyle Mace 15831,
Jason Clarletta 14121, Jonathan Shimp
12361 and the rest of the pack at the
start the 125cc Pro mote at round one
of the GFI Racing Fall Series South.
STORY AND PHOTOS
BY GREG ROBERTSON
SAN BERNARDINO, CA, SEPT. 1
'fF he opening round of the GFI
U Racing/Goat Eyewear/Shoei/
Thor/Motul/ Alpinestars-sponsored
Fall Series, held on the National track
at Glen Helen Raceway Park, saw
some young guns make their GFI
Racing Pro debut, with some remarkable results. Honda-mounted Sean
Collier appeared to have a good shot
at winning the 250cc Pro class in his
first-ever attempt until a bobble with
time running out handed the win to
rookie Pro Jonathan Shimp. Another
up-and-coming rider with a promising
future is Dylan Lord, who was most
impressive in his 125cc Pro debut, as
he went wire to wire for a convincing
victory aboard his RM125.
When the gate dropped for the
one-shot, 20-minute 250cc Pro moto,
it was the YZ426F with Terry Fowler
aboard that won the drag race down
the long start straight to lead Collier,
Shimp, Jeff Eide and Chris Barrett.
Shimp matched Fowler move for
move for a couple of laps before taking over the lead. Collier zapped
Fowler a short time later and closed
in on Shimp. By lap four, Collier was
leading his first-ever 250cc Pro race,
with Shimp all over his back fender.
Shimp pushed Collier for the next five
circuits until Collier went down in a
turn, handing Shimp the lead and
eventual win.
"I got a decent start and then I got
held up by one of the four-strokes for
a couple of laps," explained the
Thousand Oaks Yamaha/Varner/
Thor/R&D/Silkolene-backed Shimp
after his win. "Once I -got around him,
Collier caught me, and as soon as he
passed me, I kind of just wanted to
pace him a little bit, and then about
halfway through the moto I could tell
he was starting to get tired, so I
picked up the pace and was able to
get back around him. Then he fell. I
got lucky there. I kept checking to
see where Michael [Young] was,
because I knew he could come on
strong at the end."
Young gated just inside the top 10
on his Moto XXX/Yoshimura/O'Neal/
Etnies/Smith-sponsored YZ250 and
slowly picked off one rider at a time.
"I got a terrible start, and 1 think I
lost all of my energy on, like, the
fourth or fifth lap," said Young. "I was
battling with some guy on a fourstroke, and I'd pass him, then he'd
pass me back pretty aggressively,
about four times. I finally made it up
to third place and was looking forward to where Collier and Shimp
were. I just kind of settled into third
because I didn't think I was going to
be able to catch them. Luckily for
me, Collier went down, and I pulled
off a second-place finish."
Collier blitzed the last couple of
laps aboard his Honda of Houston/
Twisted/RG3/Troy Lee Designsbacked CRF450R but couldn't catch
Young and would have to settle for
third at the checkers.
"I made my way into the lead and
then crashed with about three laps to
go when my front end just pushed
and went over the berm," said Collier.
"I wasn't really happy with my first
Pro race. I wanted to win it, but I
wasn't really riding too smooth out
there - kind of out of control - but I
tried my hardest."
There was a good battle for fourth,
with Fowler holding off Michel Sandoval and Eide at the line. Barrett
held on for seventh, with Raymond
Carvalho, Paco Torres and Jozef
Deutsch rounding out the top 10.
Lord timed the drop of the gate
perfectly to abscond with the
holeshot during the one-shot,
20-minute 125cc Pro moto. Kyle
Mace settled into second, ahead of
Shimp, Justin Mace, Tyson Taylor
and Brent Denton. Lord was putting a
second per lap on the field during the
opening laps, while Mace and Shimp
argued over second, Shimp finally
got the upper hand, but Lord and
his American Suzuki/Fly/Pro Circuit/
Renthal-backed RM had an insurmountable lead. Collier came from
outside the top 10 to finish a respectable third, behind Shimp. Kyle Mace
was fourth, followed by Justin Mace,
Young, Cody Knauss and Eide.
Robert Memoli was the top Mini
rider on the day, as he went four for
four to top both the Supermini and
80cc Open events. Memoli led every
lap of both Supermini motos and did
the same in the first Open moto.
Memoli went down on the first lap of
the second Open moto but then
fought his way back up from eighth
to sweep the class. Nick Valdez posted 2-2 moto finishes, over Michael
Hall (5·4) and Curtis Malins (4-4), in
Supermini action, with Dane Jackson
doing the same in the Open class to
top Ricky James (5-3) and Tony
Esposito (3-5).
CN
Shimp was runner-up in the 125cc
Pro class and won the 250cc
Pro class.
Freier (Suz); 5. Devin Roth (Hon).
80 NOV: 1. Johnny Jelderda (Kew); 2. Casey
Logen (Vern): 3. Michael Truglia (Kew); 4. Austin
Brown (Yom); 5. Aaron Fox (Yom).
80 INT: 1. Trent Pugmire (Kaw); 2. Tye Hames
(Kow): 3. M