Cycle News

VOL. 52 ISSUE 35 SEPTEMBER 1, 2015 P93 Briefly... multiple lines available to them, in- cluding one high, right up next to the outside air barriers. Henry Wiles earned the MotoBatt Hard Charger Award at the Don Tilley Memorial Charlotte Half-Mile after taking a provisional and starting from 19th on the grid and working his way to an impressive seventh-place finish aboard the number 17 Zanotti Racing Harley-Davidson XR750. "Team Za- notti and John Cornwell with Ohlins really helped dial the bike in," Wiles said. "We brought in a new rear shock today and I was kind of strug- gling with it. It was just mainly getting it tuned in right." Talking about his charge in the main event. "Some of the guys I passed low, some of them I passed high. There was really no set way I was doing it. It would have been great if I could have started up front. After the semi they literally went to work on the bike. They ad- justed everything they could adjust. It was really fun to ride the bike in the main; where early it was a real struggle to try to ride it. Dave Zanotti has seen it all and he made a couple of good calls [on setup] and it put the bike where it needed to be and I just had to ride it." Jason Isennock turned a lot of heads by coming in second to Bryan Smith in GNC1 timed qualifying. Is- ennock was using the high line with good success on his Richard Foard Sr./Highs Dairy Stores Kawasaki and clocked a lap at 21.001 seconds. But then he missed making the national by one spot in his heat race and then found himself on the outside look- ing in after finishing ninth in the first semi. "We got lucky and hit the setup almost perfectly for the conditions in CORY TEXTER DEBUTS KAWASAKI VULCAN S FLAT TRACKER Newlywed Cory Texter was back on track at Charlotte and put his Cory Texter Racing Kawasaki into the field for the national. After consulting with Cycle World magazine, who Texter writes for, and several trusted individuals close to the Pennsylvania native, the team decided to take a differ- ent path and use the 2016 Vulcan S powerplant, versus the EX650 engine most Kawasaki teams use. While derived from the EX650 mill, the Vulcan S engine produces power lower in the rev range and trades ultimate horsepower for torque, as well as increasing the flywheel mass. The bike, built in two weeks by Alan Rodenborn and Gordy Schopieray, was a head turner in its first time out. Texter won his semi to put the unique Kawasaki in the field. "Yeah, it's not ideal to jump into the deep end past the halfway point of the season with a new motorcy- cle," said Texter. "But I have some great people involved in this proj- ect such as Alan Rodenborn, Jerry Alexander and Gordy Schopieray. With this much talent and experi- ence behind me, I am going into this with a lot of confidence." Texter finished 13th in the Grand National. The semi victory was a highlight, but Texter said every- thing that happened at Charlotte was a bonus. "I was grateful just to make the race," Cory Texter said. "When we got here they told me the bike wouldn't start. Then they got it fired up and I had to shift back into race mode. We have a lot of bugs to work out, but for a brand new motorcycle it has a lot of potential." Smith celebrates his Charlotte victory along with third-place finisher Sammy Halbert and runner-up Kenny Coolbeth, Jr.

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