Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

U.5. Grond Prix Rocers Union - Southeorl Region Round l: tennings GP Welsh Cleans U at fennings p ,&IIEIEI ,EZ,;IJJEA ) JENNINGS, TI., APR, 2 The frrst round of the USGPRU s Southeast Retional Series I b.orrght .ace.s out from wrnter hrbemalron. An especially stron8 showing from the Canadian GP racert made for out- standing racinS in the Florida sunshine. at the fabulous Jennings GP circuit. Canadian Alex Welsh led most of the l25cc qualifying on Saturday and claimed pole position with a time ot L20.172, over Scott Smallwood, at 1.20.979. They were closely followed by l''like Himmelsbach and local fasr guy Steve wenner. The start of the race saw Welsh and Wenner leading, with USGPRU presadent Stewart Aitken-Cade hot on their heels. Himmelsbach and Smallwood made quick work of Aitken-Cade midway through rhe first lap and ser rheir sighrs on the Nvo leadinS racers. Smallwood passed Himmelsbach and worked his way up pasa Wenner io sit riSht on Welsh s rear wheel. Smdlwood made the pass for the lead and started to step away sliShdy. just when it looked like Smallwood had the race in the bag, he got held up sli8htly by lapped traffic, and Welsh took advantaSe and closed the gap. Welsh made the pass midway throuSh the last turn on the last lap and narrowly beat Smallwood to the line. Himmelsbach followed to claim the final podium position aboard the USGPRU raflle bike. During the 250cc GP qualifyinS, Welsh led for most of th€ ls-minute session, finishinS with a time of 1.19.671. ln the last l0 seconds, lo.al favorite Wenner pulled the rrigg€r on his Zambrana-tuned RS250 Honda and squeaked out the pol€ position with a time of 1.19.289. The rest of the front row included Canadian l4att Cooper and Texan Zach Lee. The drop ofthe green flag saw welsh and Lee catapuh their Honda RS2505 toward turn one, with Welsh winnan8 the dra8 race as Lee power-wheelied the bike and had to chop throttle. Wenner quickly recovered from a mediocre starl and picked off Lee and then staned tracking down the l8-year-old welsh. By lap four, wenner had made the pass for the lead, and it looked like he would wrap up his first win for the weekend. On the last lap, wenner had a L5 second lead when his bike staned developin8 power problems, and Welsh was able to close che gap. Wenner was leading out of the last turn, but Welsh was able to lay lhe power down and narrowly win the race by .013 seconds! Cooper had the besr seat in the house ao warch ahis bade, but he didnt realize he was being stalked by Sean Wray, who had recovered from a bad stait and worked his way up throuSh the pack. He was closing on Cooper at the rate of about one second per lap, and he .aught Cooper with two laps to 80. Wray made the pass but nearly highsided himself in the process, and Cooper was able to reSarn the position. Wray recovered to finish lounh. Cll J I Dn---: GN 12 lssuesy'2 Years-$18.00 6 lssuesr'l Year-$9.95 Onc year (6 i3!uer, 2nd cla.. Canadr o. M.ico and all oth6rlo.sign co{nt io. $2t.95 (U,S, Fqnd3r. 1.r.la3..nd .lrnall r.r.. .r.ll.blo upon *qu..r, I +r'- I REsuLrs 125 GP: l. Alex welrh (Hon): 2. S.otr Smallwood (Hor)r I l'1ike Himmer5b&h (Ho.)i4 steve !:venner (r_lon). 5 flike Orien {Ho):6 Stuajtken' cade (Hon): 7 Bar.y G,henai (Hon)i 8. lohn Kl,6 (Hon): 9. M t cooper (Hon)i r0 shawn sundheim (Hon)i ll. John Len:k (Hon)i l?. Adn Loetil€r (Ho.); 13. Kent Hotfin (Hon); 14. Fredrie Codes (Hon)i 15. Lee Hollimon (Hon)i i6 cry$alC.mpagn. (Hon); 17. Mrch&lsanrelia (Hon)i 18. l'larcus Ma(the$ (Hon); 19. steve Belknap (Hon); 20. Bri.n Gordon (Hon); 21. MofrEi F.ede k*i (Hon): 22. scott Thompson (Hon)r 23. Alejanro Fialro (l_ioh). 250 GP: L Aexwelih {Hon); 2. st*e wennq (Hon)il. Maft c@p€r (Hm).4 sean w6/ CYam)i 5 Daniele Len duzzi (Apr)r 6.lohn OemFey (Yam)i 7. znh Lee (Hon):8 S.or Smdrwed 1H6n)i9. Adam Lemer (Ho.): r0. shawn sundhe,m (Hon)r ll. Chns Reynolds (Hoi)i 12. s.on cccoh (Hon)i ll. Oliver Brama ('t m): I4. r'1,ke wn8ht (Yan).I5. jarei 6dsey (Hon). Io Subscribe r -aOO-A3r -2220 www.moto-kids.com Secure Online Subscriptions ET Don't see your event here? I[en GneGI out www CycleNewsEvcnts.com EN!T=i CYCLE NEWS APRTL 26, 2006 4l foctoru Ride tor ltids! tarlt lor Icllon! J) I 7 ru I U I I H;s Y' ry 1 .1 I I D I I o Molorcyrle news will never be lhe some! You con occesr Cy

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