Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

left the incident still in second but smartinS. Burkhart's teammate Henry was less lucky. "Kunzel fell down in the dirt and I went around him to go to the main line. Chris Fillmore was already in the main line and I did not see him cominS- He took my front end out - just hit the front end of the bike and ended up bending my front brake disc. I ended up running the rest of the race with- out front brakes. which is not much fun." Fillmore agreed with Henry's account. 'lAs Henry is going Like the previous round at Elkhart Lake, the pu6e at Shawano was $ l0,0OO divided equally between the four races. First place paid $300. Some ofthe top riders stayed in Wisconsin after Elkhart Lake while others dashed back to their home. Mar* Burkhart stayed in Shawaho afld played a lot of golf during the weekday while Troy Herfoss took in the go- kar'ts at USA lntemational Raceway. "l came to Shawano Sunday night and I've been here all week. I did some go-karting and tot the track record for go-karts. That wns pretty cool." Brandon Currie went home to take final exams. "l went back horne to Cal- ifornia. I had finals in calculus, physics, CAD de.sign, and lome machining classes. lgo to college full-rime and I m maioring in manu- facturing engineerinS." It was somelvhat impracti€al for rurSen Kunzel ro return home to Germany. Kun- zelfelt right at home in Wisconsin, ho'/yev- er. "l stayed in Wisconsin. lt looks a little bit like Germany. There is a ,ot of Germans here lin Wiiconsin], so it's pedect." Bemd Hiem€r came from Germany to race SuPermolo with Kunzel on the Red Bull KTM HMC t€am. "ln Europe I race the World Championship, and for training I race the German Championship. I was asking last y€ar to go to Arnerica. Now I am here, and in Septemb€r I will be here for Road Ameaiaa. This \^/as my Iirst tirne in y'merica, and it was really nice. Thank to KTM ahd HMC that I can ride here." The riders were full of praise for the Shawano racecourse, and even the dirt specialists had kind words {or the mostly paved course. "l like it, it's cool," said Burkhart. "lt's more open and it's a lo( more road racin8 here. Dirt is only aboul l0 percent. l'd like more dift, I could always use more din. I do a lot better than most ofthe other tuys in the din." Kunzel liked the ele tion changes that combine with tight tlrrns to cause riders to ride speedway-style around the road course. "l like this place. lr's a liftle bit of a different track wilh the ups and downs. h's a lot of fun. Normally we [race] a lot more on the fla! places, but here there is more eleva- tion. For the riders, it's a lot of fun. lt's a go-kart track, but it's not a small one with tiSht corners- lt's a technical track. And it's a nice track for spectators, too, because we are always srdeways and all this. It's a per- fe.t track for this." Kurt Nicoll and Jeff Ward were perhaps the tvvo who least liked the track. due to the maiority of the lap taking place on pavement. "The dirt is all right, but there's no passin8 in it and it's really kind of awkward," said Ward. "There's nothinS you can do to make up time. You cant Sive it any tas or do any- thing. lt's kind of frustrating - you can t work to gain any time. And it s only I0 sec- onds ofdirt and a minute and l0 seconds of pavem€nt. lt doesn't flow. but it's not bad and we ve had wo6e. lt definirely suits the pavement riders btter than the dirt riders. and I m a better dirt rider lhan pavement- conrinued on poge 29 (Abov.) Germqn Bernd Hiemer (5) leods Mqrk Burkhqrr (6) qnd Doug Henry in fhe se

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