Cycle News

VOL. 50 ISSUE 39 OCTOBER 1, 2013 Buell's Matt Smith scored his second win of the season with victory in the St. Louis round of the Countdown to the Championship. es over the ad following of the season today. I drank water all night and at 9 a.m. they checked me again and I felt a lot better and my blood pressure was normal. I was lucky I even got to race and now I made it to the winner's circle." Qualifying produced one of the quickest fields of the year and Smith was right in the thick of it with a 6.85 that was good for the number-three spot. Smith followed with race day wins against Joe DeSantis, Screa- P95 Briefly... The weekend proved to be devastating for the Lucas Oil Buell team as brothers Adam and Hector Jr. lost in the first round on holeshots and their father, Hector Sr., followed them to the sidelines one round later. The loss was especially devastating for Hector Jr., who has led the championship standings since the season-opener in Gainesville. Arana Jr. rode to a 6.86, but lost to White Alligator Suzuki's Jerry Savoie, who won with a slower 6.87 elapsed time. "I didn't want to push too hard and redlight because that's just really ridiculous," Arana Jr. said. "I just got beat. Jerry has been running good and was good at the Tree that time, and I was just dead late." Just five days before the start of the St. Louis round, Scotty Pollacheck rocked the Pro Stock Motorcycle class when he announced his sudden departure from the Sovereign/Star Buell team. Pollacheck elected to leave the Americus, Georgia, squad due to what he labeled differences of opinion with team owner George Bryce. Pollacheck then "purchased" a Buell from Viper Motorsports team owner Matt Smith, where he was reunited with John Hall, his teammate at Sovereign/Star in 2012. "What people need to understand is that I was paying to ride this bike," Pollacheck said. "I was bringing George a check at every race. I wasn't happy with the way I was treated so I simply decided that I no longer wanted to be a customer here. I'm sure the timing looks bad, but the bottom line is that I didn't enjoy coming to the races anymore and I felt the need to make a change." The mid-week drama between Bryce and Pollacheck spilled over into the St. Louis event as the war of words between the feuding camps continued throughout the weekend. Bryce was incensed that a rider would not only depart his team without advance notice, but would choose to do so midway through the Countdown to the Championship playoffs. "What he [Pollacheck] did to us was dirty," said Bryce. "Where I'm from when you make a commitment to someone, you do what you say you are going to do and Scotty had a commitment to us to ride for the entire season." As a final note to the Bryce/Pollacheck saga, the Sovereign/Star team had intended to start rookie development rider Chaz Kennedy in place of Pollacheck, but did not submit their entry in time. Kennedy is now expected to join the team at the next round in Reading, Pennsylvania. The off-track drama appeared to have little effect on the performance of the Sovereign/Star team as Michael Ray made the quickest run of his career in qualifying with a 6.830 that was good for the number-two spot in the field. "As far as I'm concerned, it is business as usual around here," Ray said. "The only way it affects me that with one bike, we now have five engines and a few extra crew members so we should have more than enough support." Popular privateer Joe DeSantis, who continues to race well into his 60s, made the best run of his long continued on next page

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