Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

Suzuk i Cup 2003 F inal Round : Road Atlanta Tra y Batey won the Suz uki Cu p SY1000 final at Road Atlanta. By D AN SCHMITT PHOTOS BY STEVE STARNES/ ADRENALINE SP ORTS PHOT OGRAPHY LLC BRAsaTON, GA, NOV. 2 The 2003 editi on of the Suzuki Cup I was held on the last day of a four day extravaganza of racing in Brasel ton , Georgia, and when the ' dust had settled on th e Road Atlanta course , Tray Batey had won the premier even t. It w as a co m bi ne d SV champ i onship rac e, wit h the 1000s starting in the first wav e and the 650s in th e next. J esse J anisch had to start from th e rea r of th e second wav e because his 4&6 Racing SV w as two p ounds light on the scales after Sat urd ay ' s heat race. Batey led the big cla ss on his Ch ris Junge-tuned Ves rah /Pirelli SV I OOO. Scott Brown held second on his Du nlop/ Sk ark sk inz T Ll 000, with the Tapeworks/Pirelli TL of Russell Masecar in third. Bradley Champion held a four-second lead during the third lap on his Motul/Pirelli SV, with Michelin/Vortexsponsored Jeff Walker second. Janisch moved up to sixth. During the next lap, Janisch got by Martin Musil to take third . Champion continued to stretch out his lead as Dunlo p/Hyperpro/H indle-backed Janisch gra bbed seco nd from Walker. Jeff T igert and Andrew Trevitt moved up to join the battle for seco nd . Two laps later, Mon agh an Mo to rs ports' T igert m ov ed to secon d, with J ani sch running third . Du r i n g t he la st lap , J anisch charge d by T ig ert in to second , Walker retook fourth , and Trevi tt settled for fifth. "T h is SV doesn 't have th e to p-end power of the TL, " Batey said afte r his win , "but Suzuki is cha nging over to 24 NOVEMBER 19. 2003' cue the SV Cup , so we decided to save the TL for th e Nationals." In the GSX-R600 C u p fina l , XT Racing/Outer Extreme's David Weber took the early lead, with Brian Stokes right on his rear wheel, followed by Valvoline 's Chr is Siglin and Scott Greenwood. Hard on the brakes going int o turn six, Stokes took the lead away. Drafting by on the long back stra ightaway , Siglin took th e lead going int o turn 10. At the halfway point, Stokes regained the lead and held an advanta g e of half a second o v er Siglin in sec on d, with Gr een wood thi rd and Vesra h/Ne il so n E n terp rises' Mark Jun g e moving to fourth. During the next lap, Junge moved to third and began to challenge Siglin, as Stokes gained another halfsecond. Junge moved up to second after outbraking Siglin going into tum fiv e. Valvoline's Matt Futek moved to fifth , Reuben Frank enfi eld moved to sixth , and Logan Young was seventh . At the wh ite fla g, Stokes gained another second leading eve ryone else up the hill. Fu tek moved up to challenge Junge for seco nd as they ran through the new second-turn chi cane . Greenwood t urned up the w ick and latched on to Fu tek . Down th e back st raig htaw ay , Futek trie d to draft by Jung e, but Junge had th e adva ntage co m ing ou t of tu rn l OA . Goin g down th e hi ll to th e c heckered flag, Stokes took the win with a few Brian Stokes celebrates his victory In th e Suzuki CupGSX-R600flnal. ....,~.....;.;..; _ seco nds to spare . Junge took seco nd by a whee l ove r Futek . Greenwood placed fo urt h , and Sigli n en de d up fifth . Fut ek was disqualifie d for havin g t oo much hor sep ower. "I wanted to get out front and go!" Stok es stated at the trophy present a t i on . " I k ne w t hose guys wo uld be b attl in g wi t h each other. I had an adva nt age through turns two to five, and s i x and seven. The Te am Embry/ A rai /Pirelli/ Freewebtown.com Suzuki just ran perfect. " The 650cc SV championsh ip was dec ided at the dyn o, as Champion 's bike ran out of gas. With the li mi t set at 79 hp , Champ ion 's SV pull ed 77 hp on the first try. His bike coughed and die d. The rules call for the highest-grade fue l to be added to the tank; Cham p ion's bike then pu lled 8 1 hp , and he was disqualified. Janisch then b e c am e the cham pion after coming fr om the last row on the grid. Champion explained that hi s b i k e was legal on the VP fuel he was usi ng, but the hi gher-octane fuel increased hi s horsepower. "I m oved to the ins ide going down the hill, and Walke r was leaning on me ," Janisch said of his charge to the fl ag. " I just kept m y line and got to th e flag first. I want to thank J im my, Shawn and Ed at 4&6 Racing for setting m y bik es up this yea r." Rueben Fr an k enfi eld led the fi eld fo r th e fi rst couple of laps in the GSXR750 Cu p final on his Tracy Shindlertuned Ves rah /Pirelli GSX-R . Batey , starting on the last row, moved up to sixth , while Stok es moved to second, and Jake Holden ran third. At the halfway point, EDR Performance/ Dunlop teammates Holden and John Dugan moved by Stokes to take sec ond an d third . During the sixth lap, Stokes, Holden and Duga n displaced Frank enfield . while Corona /Dunlop / VP's Ben Attard joined the lead pack of seven . Attard , Dugan and Ho lden dra fted by Stokes to lead do wn th e hill to take the white flag, while Bat ey m o v ed t o fi ft h. It was a five- m an c ha rge to th e c heckered f lag, and Attard led Hold en, Du gan , Stok es and Bat ey across the finish. "I' m r eally h app y th at Co ro na Su zu k i g ave m e th is op p ort un ity to come fr om A us tralia to race t h ese A merican guys ," Att ard stat ed on th e podium . "T he Dunlop tir es stuck just aw esom e, and th e Cor on a crew just set this b ik e up perfectly. "

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