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/128215
Moose Motorcycle Racing Association of Northern Nevada Series Round 4: Castro I Grand Prix at Virginia City By NICK "FACTORY" FAIN PHOTOS BY JEFF THOMPSON/ RAZERXPHOTO.COM VIRGINIA CITY, NV, APR. 26-27 awasaki's Shane Esposito ~ notched his second win in as many tries at the second annual Castrol Grand Prix in Virginia City. After driving eight hours from the Terrible's Town 250 in southern Nevada, where he scored second overall, Esposito had a relatively easy ride, winning the overall and first in the MxSales.com Pro division by. more than five minutes. A light snow fell the night before and made the 21-mile course perfect for racing. Racers lined up 10 abreast on the quiet main street of Virginia City and left in 15-second intervals. The event was timed so that riders on each start row also had 15 seconds taken off their finishing time. Several racers used this to their advantage by starting on later rows and sneaking up on the competition. Moose/lronman Sprockets rider Adam Thissen jumped off the pavement the quickest, followed by fellow row-one starters Dennis Belingheri and Chad Martin. Belingheri quickly moved into the lead, followed shortly by Esposito, who started on the second row. By the end of the first lap, Belingheri was 10 seconds ahead of Esposito, Martin, and then Steve Tichenor, who started on row three. nn 44 MAY 21.2003' eye I e Thissen and Over 40 rider Andy Segale were the next to enter the pit aI,:a. Racers had the optkln of racing through a pit bypass or going through the quarter-mile pit area at 5 mph. Belingheri opted for the high-speed route, while Esposito stopped for a splash of fuel. By the time Esposito had exited the short motocross section that followed the pits, he was down almost a minute to MxSales.com rider Belingheri. n e _ s . ~Esposito closed in on Belingheri toward the end of the second loop, when Belingheri had a nasty tumble after hitting a concrete ledge. "[ hit a little piece of wood that looked like a ramp, but it ended up breaking, and I flew over the bars in fourth gear," Belingheri recounted. "Luckily, I wasn't hurt too bad. Espo stopped and checked on me; what a nice guy." Belingheri remounted in second but was slow to regain his earlier pace. By the end of the second lap, Esposito was still leading, followed by Belingheri and hard-charging Pro riders Ryan Johnson and Jimmy Bryant. After starting on the eighth row, Bryce Olson was also jumping into the battle for third. The course was now starting to dry out a little, causing dust and lappers to come into play. Esposito reeled off several more perfect laps and had extended his lead on Belingheri to more than three minutes by the end of the fourth lap. Johnson was now in a comfortable third, while Bryant, Olson, Tichenor and Sam Key were waging a four-way battle for fourth place. "I was dicing with number three [Tichenor] for most of the fourth loop," explained Bryant. "We had a good battle going." Heading out on the fifth lap, the top racers knew they would be cutting close to the 3 1/2-hour time limit to do a sixth lap. Esposito finished his fifth lap with about 10 minutes to spare before the time cut-off and headed out on his sixth lap. Belingheri was now five minutes behind and also made his fifth lap. Johnson and Bryant came through the scoring area with less than a minute to make their next lap, and Olson came by 30 seconds too late. Olson would have to settle for fifth, while the top four battled for one