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/128336
Villopoto Pounds Ponca City T eam Green Kawasaki's Ryan Villopoto, of Paulsbo, Wash ington , left the 29th Annual Ponca City NMA Grand National Championship in northern Oklahoma with fo ur titles: B5cc ( 14- 16) Stock and Modified, BScc Open (0- 16), and Supermini (0- 16). Although the event started with postcard-perfect weather through practice day, the skies opened up and dumped heavy ra in on Wednesday, July 2B, thus extending the event into Sunday, August I. A little over 2300 entries were fille d out and 35 champions were crowned. American Suzuki topped the event with nine titles to Kawasaki's eight and KTM's seve n. Honda and Cobra shared four titles each , while Yamaha held two and Polinlone. Three-peat w inne rs included North Carolina's Tyler McSwain who not on ly controlled the Pee Wee Stock and Modified (7-B) classes , but took a Championship in the 6Scc Modified (6-B) on KTMs. Ohio 's Shawn Rife won both the 6Scc Stock and Modified (9-11) classes, as we ll as the B5cc Stock (OII ) classes on KTMs. Double-cro wn holders among the minicycles included Californ ia's Blake Green, who used KTM power in the Pee Wee Stock and Modified (0-6) classes; Colorado's Eli Tomac (Suzuki) in the 65cc Open and BScc Modified (0-1 1) class; and Michigan's Nico l22i (Suzuki) in both the Stock and Modified BScc ( 12- 13). In the motorcycle ranks, Nevada's Jared Partridge (Suzuki) won both the Stock and Modified Novice, while California's Chris Niham (Honda) claimed the 12S and 2S0cc Stock Intermediate -class wins . Team Green's Justin Keeney, of Oregon, was the top Pro, winning the 125 and 250cc Stock Pro classes. Ryan Villo poto ran off w ith four cla ss cha mpion ships at the 29th an nual Ponca City NMA Grand Nationa l Championship. Scre amin' Eagle Harley-Davidson's Andrew Hines has occupied the top qu alifying spot. "O ur team, led by crew chief Mark Peiser, has been worki ng overtime to de ve lop a new engine combination for us, and it's finally paying off," Savoie said. "For the last co uple of race s, o ur bikes have really bee n showing a lot of improvement. This win was spe cial fo r me because I've never won here before . Now, I have won at least one race at every Savoie, Army Dominate N HRA Sonoma Pro Stock Former NHRA Pro Stock Bike champi on Ange lle Savoie and her U.S. Army Suzuki teammate Antron Brown turned in a domi- nating perfo rmance at last wee kend 's NHRA Fram-Autolite Natio nals at Infinean Raceway. Meeting in the final roun d for the first time starting line one-thousandth of a second too soo n and trigge red a red-light start , negating his quicker 7.05 run . ''As far as I'm co ncerned , the race was least press ure I've eve r felt in a final. I knew that no matter who wo n, our team was still going to have so mething to celeb rate ." The Sonoma event turned out to be a over as soon as Antran and I each won the semifinals," Savoie sa id. "For more than a co mple te ro ute fo r the Army cam p. Savoie qualified in the to p spo t with a 7.0B4 and since they became teammates more than a year, our goal has bee n to race each other in Brow n was clos behind in second wit h a e year ago, Savoie won her secon d title of the year with a 7.06 run after Brown left the the final, and we finally did it. Of course we both wanted to win, but I think that's the 7.0B7 run . It was o nly the third time in nine races this year that someone other than 8 AUGUST 11, 2004 • CYCLE NE WS 40th Anniversary track on the NHRA tou r exce pt for Braine rd, and we'll be there in tw o weeks." O n race day, Savoie made four-st raight runs in the 7.0s, including the best run of her caree r, a 7.04 in her sem ifinal race against Mateo Tools Suzuki's Craig Trebl e. She also ran a 7.07 in th e first ro und against Co nnie Cohen and a 7.0B in the secon d against GT Tonglet's Harley. "I made four nearly perfect runs tod ay," Savoie said. "We knew the bike had those kind of numbers in it, but we just had to figure ou t how to make it happen. Thankfully, the weathe r was really good th is weekend, and that's why w e saw near record performances." Wh ile Savoie made the quickest pass of the wee kend, t he fastest run wa s made by Andr ew Hines' Scre am in' Eagle Harley Davidson with a 196.13 blast d uring qualifying. "That speed was so fast, I don't think it was real," Hines said. "Because our front tire is so small, these bikes sometimes have a tendency to fool the speed clocks. In my opinion, any speed over 192 is probably bogus, but if they want to give me credit for going 196, I'lltake it." Hines made It to the semifinal ro und before red -lighting against Brow n, who was lucky to get th e win after leaving the starting line in seco nd gear. "That was my lucky break for the day," Brow n said. "When I let the clutch out, my bike just died. II Andr ew hadn't red-lighted, the re was no way I was going to beat him. Th at's just the kind of day it was for ou r te am. We cou ld do no wrong ." Kevin M cKe nna