Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

EVE'~ l7S Ounlop/WERA National Endurance Series Round 9 : Barber Motorsports Park Team Velocity Rates Barber Win By DAN IRMIN AM, At track a nd in th e p its , as these Superstock SCHMm EPT. 25 ""'e ninth round o f t he Dunlop/WERA I National Series started under clear skies , w ith temperatures in the mid-80s. at the greatest road course in the Americas. Bradley Champion , on the Team Velocity Yamaha RI , ran up front, with Tray Batey following closely on the Vesrah Suzuki 1000 . CherokeeC halienge.net ran third , w ith Ne ighbor Of The Beast and Army or Darkness running together in fourth and fifth . The ne xt wave of bikes in clud e d Velocity Crew. Team Ecl ipse . Team Xtreme/Maxxis. Mad Kaw, Musketeers, Bells Suzuk i II, Team Chicago, SMP Racing. Need A Sponsor, RECH Racing and Dixie Mafia. Fritz Kling, on the B&S Racing II superbike, pulled off the track with a dead engine after 12 laps. and then Scott Brown fell in tum six, raking Army out of the running for a wh ile. At the top of the first hour, Vesrah gained a two -lap advantage as Velocity made its first fuel stop . Tw enty minutes into the second hour, Batey was on the c harge t hrough the e sses when Mad Kaw crashed at the exit. With nowh ere to go. Batey wen t over the rider and off the trac k, riding the fron t wh eel . Th e red nag ne w, and safety cre ws w ent to work . With the nip of th e nag for the restart, the Sup erstock te am too k o ve r the ra ce. Team Vel OCit y led , w it h Che roke e . Ecl ipse a nd N e ighbor righ t there . Velocity Crew led in Midd lew eight Superbike, and Dixie Mafia and Be ll's Suzuki battled fo r the lead in the Ughtwe ight Superbike class . The Vesrah crew me mbers had the ir hand s full changing the pipe , fairing. pegs, computer, erc ., but they got the bike back up and running in 20 minutes and headed out to salvage some points . The skirmlsh (or the win came both on the Sabatka Sr.·s o nly comment was , " Man , these kids are really fast!" In th e Pro-Am m ain, Chase Sconyers, on the Honda of Statesb oro/Low Cou ntry Machinerysponsored Honda, led the pack into turn one, with Yamaha rider Garth Bro w seco nd and the rest of the field cl os e be hind . It a ppe a re d Sconyers was going to pull away from the field. but Brow had oth er ideas: He pulled eve n with Sconye rs on the front stretch , and the two d ived in t o turn o ne alm o st in un ison , w ith Sconye rs e merging w ith the lead. It was close all the wa y to the finish, with Sconyers tak ing the w in by half a wh eel ove r Brow, with Irvin, o n a backup mot orcy cle, in th ird. In the O pen Pro main, Brow, also known as the "Ca ro lina Gunslinge r," grabbed the lead at the s ta r t and to ok t he wi n. Howe ver, t he follow ing mor nin g, wh ile visitin g t he t rac k pr o mo te r at home. Brow had an unfortu nate encou nter w ith a high-sp irite d little Shetland po ny. Wh ile attem pting to ride this little beast. he was catapulted into the air, land ing roughly on hi s r e a r. A full recove ry is e xpected , teams , w ith no quic k -change equipment allo we d. went about their tas ks of changing t ires and refueling. With Steve Breckenridge at the helm , Velocity ma inta ined it s one- lap advan tage over Chero kee , Neighbor and Eclipse. Velocity Crew ran fifth , and Dix ie. on the SV charged (0 sixth . Bell's was out with , engine problems again. Need A Sponsor. 0&0, both B&S teams , SMP and Team Pennzoil were on the same lap. fighting (or seventh overall. During the last hour, the Team Xtreme/Maxx is boys put on the big push as they charged to fifth and sixth overall o n their GSX-RIOOOs w ith street-based Maxxis tires. Cherokee gained a lap on Neigh bor, while Eclipse held off the charge of Velocity Crew. With the showing of the checkered flag, Team Velocity took its second victory of the year. "We expect to do well at every race ," team owner and rider Chuck Ivey sa id. "Running Superstock. we can't expect to win the overall at every round , because we have to make the ex t ra pit stops. As far as the teamwork [is co nce rned], I thi nk we have a great team ~ maybe th e best." Bradley Champion (3), on the Team Velocity Yamaha Rl, leads Tray Batey (1). on the Vesrah Su:

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