“Racing for his birthday - Free Lance-Star” plus 4 more |
- Racing for his birthday - Free Lance-Star
- The fastest mile - Victoria Advocate
- Sebastian Vettel has winning habit that began with Bernd Rosemeyer - The Guardian
- Updated: Westby Racing And Team Roadracingworld.com Suzuki Separated ... - RoadracingWorld.com
- Eight Hours & SuperSport Shootout - Motorcycle USA
| Racing for his birthday - Free Lance-Star Posted: 17 Oct 2009 10:15 PM PDT
Orange supervisor will race through the desert
Date published: 10/18/2009
BY ROBIN KNEPPER There are birthday celebrations and there are birthday experiences. It's not unusual to choose the latter as we get older. But Zack Burkett may be going over the top. He has chosen the experience of racing through the Mexican desert in an extremely modified Volkswagen over getting a new pair of socks. The Orange County supervisor, who will turn 70 in January, will commemorate his birthday by competing in the Baja 1,000, the world's longest point-to-point race. "I always wanted to run in a race, and I figured if I didn't do it, now I'd have trouble doing it later," he said. "My wife asked why I didn't do something sane like jumping out of an airplane." The race will run for 31 hours Nov. 19-22 over a 673-mile loop course that begins and ends in Ensenada on the Baja peninsula--that long piece of land that appears to be Southern California but is really part of Mexico. Burkett heads the Still Crazy Racing team that includes his 45-year-old son, who is the Texas amateur cross-country motorcycle-racing champion in the over-40 category. "I call him Zack Burkett the Lesser, but he kinda resents it," his father said with a laugh. The two Zacks will share the time behind the wheel of the custom-built "Baja Bug" that the elder Burkett spent 18 months building. He put the car through a test race last weekend and had no major problems with the Class 9 short-wheelbase vehicle, which uses a VW drive train on a custom-built race car chassis. "We rolled it during the test run," Burkett said, "but we drove it away. Since then we've been fixing and modifying it." In an earlier test, he said, he found that he had put the switches out of his reach when he was strapped into the required five-point safety harness. Comfort has been an issue, too. "It can get painful after a few hours of bouncing through the dirt," he said. "As a kid, I did hot-rodding, but nothing like this. I went to the Baja 1,000 last year and talked to people there to see what we would be getting into. "About 30 miles of the race was on the road, but the rest is through the desert. We'll test the car in the desert when we get out there and see if there are things we still need to figure out." But it's not just a lark for the birthday boy. "When we started this, I was hoping just to finish, but now I think we have a good shot at winning our class," he said. Robin Knepper: 540/972-5701  Read more stories about Orange
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| The fastest mile - Victoria Advocate Posted: 17 Oct 2009 09:03 PM PDT GOLIAD COUNTY - No speed limit. No rules. No pressure. Just one mile to make the fastest run you can. That's what participants from all over the country came to the Goliad Industrial Air Park to do from Thursday to Sunday at the bi-annual Texas Mile. Hundreds of racers with motorcycles and tricked-out cars gathered to race for notoriety, to improve old times or just to race. "It's one of the last bastions of unsanctioned racing around," said Bill Albert of Woodsboro. "There's no governing body to screw everything up. It's just guys trying to have fun. You get to see a lot of fast cars and it's a lot of fun." Albert, his wife, Kathy, and friend Richard Piwetz came only to spectate as they did last year, but they love what they see. Piwetz said he likes it because it's the only place you can go to watch legal speeding. Although atmosphere is laid back, Piwetz said that the competition at the top has become a high stakes game. "That's more out of my class as far as money," Piwetz said. "Some of these guys have a lot of money tied up in these vehicles." One of those racers is Andrew Brincome of England. This is his first time racing, but his Dodge Viper is hard to miss. Advance One Wheels and Dodge Performance is doing a product display and running tests on his car this year. The Viper is supercharged and decked out with full-suspension and extra brakes. "I love the rush and the thrill. There's a great crowd here and it's a great time for everyone," Brincome said. "The women are great too." Other racers just come for the enjoyment. Don Davila of Houston has come out six times to the bi-annual event and said that he keeps coming back because of the atmosphere. "It's not stressful. You don't have to go up and race. If you want to run, you run, if not you can sit here and talk about it with people," he said. "When you're ready you go up there and get in line. I enjoy it a lot, and I guess that's why I keep coming back." While he comes to relax, Davila is no slouch. He has reached up to 210.5 miles per hour on his motorcycle, which he achieved last March. Two hundred mph has become a benchmark which many participants base success or failure upon. Each racer starts at the beginning of the track and has one mile to reach the fastest speeds possible, then come to a complete stop after another quarter mile. Davila said many exterior conditions must be right for someone to reach 200 mph. "I'd like to get another 200 mark this time," he said. "Everyone wants to go 200." Mark Vickers of Corpus Christi said air density, temperature, wind direction and speeds and hundreds of other variables go into getting the best possible time. Vickers has gone to each event for the last two years and is trying to hit 190 mph on his motorcycle. "You can go as fast as you want and there are no speeding tickets. This is about as safe as you can get, too," he said. "I've hit 188.256. That's my best run yet, but I'm always tweaking things trying to make it better. A lot of it has to do with aerodynamics and internal tweaking. Smaller guys have an advantage." Sunday is the final day for the event. Gates open at 8 a.m. and the day will end at 4 p.m. For more information, go to texasmile.net or call 281-303-1844. This content has passed through fivefilters.org. | |||
| Sebastian Vettel has winning habit that began with Bernd Rosemeyer - The Guardian Posted: 17 Oct 2009 09:53 PM PDT  Sebastian Vettel could become only the second German to win the Formula One world title. Photograph: LUCA BRUNO/AP By the side of the A5 autobahn from Frankfurt to Darmstadt stands a grey stone stele, about 6ft high, bearing the name of one of Sebastian Vettel's most illustrious predecessors. On Wednesday, as Vettel was arriving in Brazil to pursue his outside chance of depriving Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello of the 2009 world championship, a small group of enthusiasts gathered to place a bouquet commemorating the 100th anniversary of the birth of Bernd Rosemeyer, who died on that spot in January 1938 in the course of a speed-record attempt. Like Vettel, Rosemeyer was a natural. In 1935, aged 25, he graduated from motorcycle racing straight into the Auto Union team. The following year, thanks to three grands prix victories at the wheel of the company's tricky mid-engined car, he was crowned European champion, the pre-war equivalent of today's world title. In those days German drivers were as dominant as German cars, and today it seems one of grand prix racing's most puzzling anomalies is that although Vettel is the 44th German driver to take part in formula one since 1950, only one of his predecessors – Michael Schumacher, of course – managed to capture the world title. Even though he failed to make it through the near-lottery of yesterday's rain-drenched first qualifying session, no sensible judge would bet against Vettel becoming the second. With four wins to his credit, three of them in his second full season in the top flight, Vettel is making the same sort of impact as Schumacher, Ayrton Senna and Lewis Hamilton. These were drivers who did not need to serve an apprenticeship in grand prix racing. They were blindingly fast from the start, and their speed, matched by their early results, conferred an authority that outweighed their inexperience. No eyebrows are raised when Vettel's Red Bull-Renault starts a race from pole position. It seems an utterly normal occurrence, a tribute to the symbiosis between a talented young driver and the fine car created by Adrian Newey, the team's chief technical officer. And the sight of Vettel on the top step of the victory podium is starting to become almost as unexceptional. To snatch this year's title from his two rivals he needs to win at Interlagos today and in Abu Dhabi in a fortnight's time, while hoping that misfortune strikes the Brawn drivers. "The pressure is on the people in front of me," he said here on Thursday, during a press conference shared with Button and Barrichello. "For me it is pretty straightforward. You don't have to be a genius to work out that from now on we simply have to win the two races and hope that these two mess it up." Born in 1987 in Heppenheim, a small town overlooked by a medieval castle among the Odenwald mountains in south-west Germany, Vettel came from a modest background – his father runs his own small roofing company – and started racing karts before his eighth birthday. After winning Germany's Formula BMW series in 2004, he spent two years in the European Formula Three series before becoming the BMW-Sauber team's reserve driver in 2006. When Robert Kubica missed a race after a spectacular accident in Canada the following year, Vettel took his chance. Eighth place in the United States grand prix made him the youngest driver to score a world championship point and earnt him a mid-season transfer to the Toro Rosso team. A year later a commanding performance from pole position on a wet weekend at Monza gave the team its first victory and made him, at 21 years and 74 days, the youngest winner in grand prix history. Suddenly even Lewis Hamilton, on his way to becoming world champion at 23, did not look quite so young any more. Vettel was also winning friends through his seemingly open and uncomplicated nature, his mischievous sense of humour and – it has to be admitted – his excellent command of idiomatic English, although there was a sign of a more volatile side to his temperament when he hurled his steering wheel away and marched straight through the garage after yesterday's reverse. This season his errors in Australia, Monaco and Singapore have been balanced by commanding wins at Shanghai, Silverstone and Suzuka, but the mistakes and a series of Renault engine failures have probably cost him the chance of becoming the youngest champion of all – or, some would say, merely deferred the opportunity until next year. "Looking back, I had five races where I didn't finish, so of course that didn't help," he said. "But we cannot change it now, so nothing to regret. I still think it's a good season for us, the best one we have ever had, so it's very positive and we can still do it." While yesterday's misfortune turned such an outcome from improbable to near-impossible it did nothing to damage his prospects in the longer term. This content has passed through fivefilters.org. | |||
| Updated: Westby Racing And Team Roadracingworld.com Suzuki Separated ... - RoadracingWorld.com Posted: 17 Oct 2009 07:23 PM PDT Oct 17, 2009, ©Copyright 2009, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc. AMA Pro SunTrust Moto-GT 8 Hours At Daytona 1. Westby Racing/Kneedraggers.com (Dane Westby/Dustin Meador/Jeff Wood/Josh Hayes), Yam YZF-R6, GT1, 123 laps 2. Team Roadracingworld.com Suzuki (Chris Ulrich/Martin Cardenas/Jason DiSalvo), Suz GSX-R600, GT1, -27.3 seconds 3. Touring Sport Ducshop Ducati 49 (Ryan Elleby/Matt Lynn/Hawk Mazzotta), Duc 848, GT1, 121 laps 4. R&B Motorsports (Michael Barnes/Phil Caudill/Mark Crozier/Skip Salenius), Duc 848, GT1, 116 laps 5. Crozier Motorsports (Mark Crozier/Scott Jensen/David Estok/Michael Barnes), Duc 848, GT1, 115 laps 6. McNology Racing (David McPherson/Mark McCormick), Yam YZF-R6, GT1, 114 laps 7. Touring Sport Ducshop Ducati 38 (Brian Stokes/Dario Marchetti/Frank Shockley), Duc PS1000LE, GT2, 113 laps 8. Touring Sport Ducshop Ducati 77 (Pete Friedland/Corey Rech/Brad Phillips/Brian Stokes), Duc PS1000LE, GT2, 112 laps 9. Pair-A-Nines (Jay Springsteen/Taylor Knapp/Scott Ryan), Kaw EX650, GT2, 111 laps 10. KRM Racing by Motocorse (Chris Boy/Barrett Long/Fernando Ferrer), Duc PS1000LE, GT2, 109 laps 11. Team MIM/Repsol 26 (Paul Onley/Chris Onwiler/Jeff Purk/Mitch Stein), Suz SV650, GT2, 108 laps 12. Riderschoice.ca (Matt McBride/Andrew Nelson/Larry Orde/Pat Barnes), Suz GSX-R600, GT1, 104 laps 13. Team MIM/Repsol 17 (Paul Onley/Chris Onwiler/Jeff Purk/Mitch Stein), Suz SV650, GT2, 102 laps 14. James Gang/Hoban Brothers Racing (Shawn Higbee/Paul James/Jeff Johnson), Buell 1125R, GT1, 86 laps 15. Team Hurtbyaccident.com 69 (Santiago Villa/Russ Wikle/Tomas Puerta/Tyler Odom), Suz GSX-R600, GT1, 83 laps 16. Old Pros Racing (Paul Schwemmer/Dave Aldana/J.P. Tache), Tri Daytona 675, GT1, 82 laps 17. Liberty Waves Racing (Eric Pinson/Walt Sipp/David Sadowski, Jr.), Buell 1125R, GT1, 82 laps 18. East Coast Powersports (Kenny Rodriguez/Trey Yonce/Ryan Patterson), Suz SV650, GT2, 70 laps 19. El Rey Beer for Kings 20 (Dave Ebben/Dennis Espinosa/Calvin Martinez), Suz GSX-R600, GT1, 36 laps 20. Team Hurtbyaccident.com 59 (Rodolfo Ramirez/Tomas Puerta), Duc PS1000LE, GT2, 10 laps 21. Team Hurtbyaccident.com 64 (Robert Fisher/John Linder/Justin Filice), Duc PS1000LE, GT2, 0 laps
More, from a press release issued by AMA Pro Racing: AMA Pro SunTrust Moto-GT 8 Hours At Daytona Underway at Daytona International Speedway Hayes and Cardenas Swapping Overall Lead in Opening Laps of Race That Runs from 1 - 9 p.m. ET DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (October 17, 2009) - The green flag has waved to officially start the fourth annual AMA Pro SunTrust Moto-GT 8 Hours At Daytona and Josh Hayes (No. 13 Westby Racing Yamaha YZF-R6) and Martin Cardenas (No. 18 Team Roadracingworld.com Suzuki GSX-R600) immediately began a battle for the lead that could very well be waged for entirety of the eight-hour endurance race that runs from 1 - 9 p.m. ET. Pole-sitter Hayes led the race's first two laps from the start but Cardenas swept by in the run through the Daytona International Speedway tri-oval on Lap 3 to lead for the first time. The duo went on to swap the lead in the opening laps and minutes of the race before Hayes opened up to a slight lead just before the 30 minute mark. Hayes will share the No. 13 Westby Yamaha with Jeff Wood and regular riders Dane Westby and Dustin Meador while Cardenas partners with two-time 8 Hours At Daytona winner Chris Ulrich and Jason DiSalvo. "Martin (Cardenas) is going to do two stints and then I'm going to do two," said DiSalvo, who finished third in last March's Daytona 200. "My strategy is to try to be consistent and just put my laps in there. We're not sure who's going to be on the No. 13 bike when I'm out there. Just going to keep plugging away, hopefully we pick up a little bit of time with our pit stops and I can go out there with a little bit of a gap and just nurse it along during my hour, hour and 10 minutes on the bike. Just keep it steady." In GT2, the No. 38 Touring Sport DucShop Ducati PS1000LE of Frank Shockley, Dario Marchetti and Brian Stokes has led every lap in the race's opening hour after starting from the pole. The No. 38 had qualified second but the No. 23 KRM Racing by Motocorse Ducati PS1000LE was moved to the back of the GT2 field after failing post-qualifying technical inspection on Friday. Barrett Long had put the No. 23 on the provisional GT2 pole but the Ducati was found to exceed the allowable horsepower limits for the class. The time was disallowed and the No. 23 was moved to the back of the field along with the No. 26 and No. 17 Team MIM/Repsol Suzuki SV650 entries that were penalized for failing to report to technical inspection. Friday night rain showers brought the coolest temperatures central Florida has seen in weeks and race-day conditions are a sunny 70 degrees with only minimal wind. No rain is in the forecast. While the weather is nearly perfect, the opening minutes of the race have been far from that for several competitors. All three of Team HurtByAccident.com's motorcycles have encountered problems, including the No. 64 Ducati PS1000LE of Robert Fisher that slowed with electrical problems on the pace lap just before the race start. The No. 69 TeamHurtByAccident.com Suzuki GSX-R600, with Russ Wikle onboard, threw a chain in Turn 1 on the opening race lap. Both bikes were being repaired behind the pit wall when word came that Tomas Puerta on the No. 59 TeamHurtByAccident.com Ducati PS1000LE lowsided on course. Puerta was uninjured but the No. 59 was later retired. The No. 69 has continued well down in the order but the No. 64 has yet to take the green flag. Another expected GT1 contender that has yet to complete a lap in the race's first 45 minutes was the No. 20 El Rey Beer for Kings Ducati 848 of Calvin Martinez that encountered mechanical problems. The No. 20 won the SunTrust Moto-GT season-opening race at Daytona last March. Jay Springsteen also continued after a minor spill on the No. 9 Pair-A-Nines Kawasaki EX650 team at the 45-minute mark. The No. 9 was riding just behind the No. 23 when the Ducati momentarily stalled as it ran out of fuel and Springsteen went down to avoid contact. Springsteen was uninjured and returned to the pits where Taylor Knapp continued on the minimally damaged Kawasaki in the top five. The No. 23 also continued after refueling.
Close Fight Up Front as AMA Pro SunTrust Moto-GT 8 Hours At Daytona Hits Halfway Mark No. 13 Westby Racing Yamaha & No. 18 Team Roadracingworld.com Suzuki Locked In Lead Battle DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (October 17, 2009) - The fourth annual AMA Pro SunTrust Moto-GT 8 Hours At Daytona hit the halfway mark at 5 p.m. ET and the No. 13 Westby Racing Yamaha YZF-R6 and the No. 18 Team Roadracingworld.com Suzuki GSX-R600 continue to wage a tight and intense battle for the overall and GT1 class victory on the 3.55-mile Daytona International Speedway (DIS) road course. As they have from the drop of the green flag at 1 p.m. ET, the No. 13 Yamaha and No. 18 Suzuki have repeatedly swapped the race lead back and forth and have collectively proven to be the class of the field. Dustin Meador was up front on the No. 13 Yamaha when the clock hit the halfway mark but Martin Cardenas remained in hot pursuit on the No. 18 Suzuki. The leaders have completed 124 laps so far in the red-flag free race, a full three laps ahead of the third place No. 49 Touring Sport Ducshop Ducati 848 of Ryan Elleby, Hawk Mazzotta and Matt Lynn. Meador is sharing the No. 13 with Dane Westby, Jeff Wood and top AMA Pro American Superbike rider Josh Hayes, who won the pole Friday on the Yamaha. The riders have combined to lead 57 laps, 10 less than Cardenas and his No. 18 teammates Chris Ulrich and Jason DiSalvo who have led a race-high 67 laps. "It is all pretty even and we both have good crews and good riders on the teams," Meador said. "Right now it is just about turning real consistent laps and not making any mistakes. So far each team has incurred some penalties in the pits for speeding, so we just need to watch that and we will be okay." Ulrich is the only rider in the race who has finished on the overall podium in each of the three previous 8 Hours At Daytona, including being on the winning Team Roadracingworld.com effort each of the last two years. "I am not surprised to see the 13 do well," Ulrich said. "Josh Hayes rode for Team Hammer back in the 90s and he is one of the best endurance racing guys to come out of our team. I am not surprised at his pace and he won seven American Superbike races this year. He's a good competitor but no matter what, they have put together a good team and all of the guys are a very like size." Ulrich is nearly a foot taller than the shorter DiSalvo while Cardenas falls somewhere in the middle of the two when it comes to height. "We are struggling with our size difference," Ulrich said. "I am on the bottom and Jason can't press the forks hard enough so we are actually going to change some stuff on the fly to help Jason. Martin is also doing a fantastic job for us and I just got on the bike to give those two a rest. We know how to win this race but I made a pit speed mistake and caught us a ride through penalty. We have had a few more penalties than the 13 but we are getting better mileage by as much as three or four laps." In GT2, the No. 38 Touring Sport DucShop Ducati PS1000LE of team owner/rider Frank Shockley, Dario Marchetti and Brian Stokes has led every lap since the race start. The team's championship-leading No. 77 Ducati PS1000LE of Pete Friedland, Brad Phillips and Corey Rech has trailed its sister bike in second for the majority of the race, but hasn't been able to shake the persistent No. 9 Pair-A-Nines Kawasaki EX650 that runs in third. Jay Springsteen recovered from an early race spill and joined teammates Scott Ryan and Taylor Knapp in putting the No. 9 back in winning contention while also maintaining a remote chance at the GT2 Championship. "In GT2 we are running one and two, which is really exciting, but of course there is a long way to go," Shockley said. "And our GT1 bike is running well, we are in third, which is not bad for a last minute effort. So right now we are really happy with how things are going and we just have to keep it clean and together until the end. It is all going to plan, but as we have seen in the past, all that could all go out the door really quick." Notable retirements include both the No. 59 and No. 64 TeamHurtByAccident.com Ducati PS1000LE machines, the No. 20 El Rey Beer for Kings Ducati 848, the No. 10 East Coast Powersports Suzuki SV650 and the No. 37 Old Pros Racing Triumph Daytona 675.
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| Eight Hours & SuperSport Shootout - Motorcycle USA Posted: 17 Oct 2009 03:41 PM PDT The toughest test of endurance on the 2009 AMA Pro Road Racing schedule will share the spotlight with a fast and flat-out sprint race to headline a full schedule of motorcycle road racing at Daytona International Speedway (DIS) at this weekend's Fall Cycle Scene, Oct. 16 - 18. Saturday's fourth annual 8 Hours At Daytona will close the 2009 AMA Pro SunTrust Moto-GT season while Sunday will be highlighted by the AMA Pro SuperSport presented by Shoei National Championship Shootout sprint race at high noon. The 8 Hour race starts at 1 p.m. on Saturday and at least one AMA Pro SunTrust Moto-GT title will be on the line in the season-ending event. The division features two classes of motorcycles and teams of riders competing at the same time for overall and individual class honors. The faster GT1 class is home to a diverse lineup of motorcycles that includes big-bore bikes from Buell, Aprilia, Triumph, Ducati, Kawasaki and Suzuki and more. The slightly smaller GT2 class features bikes from Kawasaki, Buell, Suzuki and Ducati and others. The strongest threat for the overall and GT1 class win is two-time defending 8 Hours At Daytona winner Team Roadracingworld.com Suzuki. The team has put together a potent rider lineup that includes Chris Ulrich, Martin Cardenas and Jason DiSalvo on the No. 18 Team Roadracingworld.com Suzuki GSX-R600. Cardenas was also part of last year's winning effort. Mark Crozier (No. 14 Crozier Motorsports Triumph Daytona 675) and his potent Triumph team clinched the 2009 GT1 class championship one race ago at New Jersey Motorsports Park. With the title wrapped up, Crozier and his co-riders Scott Jensen, Dave Estok and Michael Barnes, who joined Ulrich on the second-place bike in the inaugural 2006 race, can race for the all-out win at Daytona. A victory this weekend would be a series-leading third of the year for Crozier and the team after a pair of wins at Barber Motorsports Park and Virginia International Raceway earlier in the season. Crozier also won the GT1 and overall pole for the SunTrust Moto-GT opener at Daytona last March.The only other two-time GT1 winners this season are young upstarts Dane Westby and Dustin Meador and the No. 13 Westby Racing Yamaha YZF-R6. The Westby team won in its debut at Mid-Ohio and was victorious again one race later in Topeka. The 8 Hours At Daytona will be the new team's major endurance racing debut but they are expected to be in contention from the drop of the green flag.
Other 2009 GT1 winners likely to challenge in the 8 Hours At Daytona include the Road Atlanta winning No. 69 TeamHurtByAccident.com Suzuki GSX-R600 and lead rider Rodolfo Ramirez, the Road America winning No. 70 James Gang/Hoban Bros. Racing Buell 1125R of Paul James and Jeff Johnson and the No. 20 El Rey Beer for Kings Ducati 848 and primary rider Calvin Martinez, who won overall and in GT1 during the SunTrust Moto-GT Daytona opener. Two more teams to watch are currently second and third in the GT1 championship standings. The No. 14 Crozier team sealed the title with 165 points but the No. 37 Old Pros Racing Kawasaki Ninja ZX-6R of Paul Schwemmer and Dave Aldana is second in points with 130. The No. 41 Liberty Waves Racing Buell 1125R team of Eric Pinson and Eric Haugo is third in the championship with 129 points. Old Pros finished second in season-opening race at Daytona while Liberty Waves crossed the line in third after leading the most race laps.The 8 Hours At Daytona will run between 1 - 9 p.m. ET this Saturday, October 17, with official practice and qualifying on Friday.
GT2 Title Battle
The class leading No. 77 Touring Sport Ducshop Ducati PS1000LE team was in a position to clinch the GT2 crown at New Jersey only to retire when rider Huntley Nash crashed out in the race's first 30 minutes. Springsteen and teammate Scott Ryan won the New Jersey GT2 race for the team's second victory of the year after Springsteen and Nick Cummings won the Daytona opener. Heading back to Daytona, the No. 77 has 203 points but the No. 9 squad has closed to within 14 points with 189 markers. A maximum 32 points are available to a team at the Daytona finale. Taylor Knapp, who impressed in Daytona SportBike and AMA Pro National Guard American Superbike presented by Parts Unlimited in 2009, will co-ride with Springsteen and Ryan at Daytona. Touring Sport Ducshop Ducati is stacking its championship deck with not only the No. 77 but also its Mid-Ohio-winning No. 38 Ducati PS1000LE. Pete Friedland, Brad Phillips and a returning Corey Rech will be tasked to seal the title on the No. 77 while team owner/rider Frank Shockley, Dario Marchetti and Brian Stokes will go for the all out win on the No. 38. Rech is recovering from a mid-August right femur fracture in the SuperSport race at Virginia International Raceway (VIR) but is ready to ride this weekend. The day before his accident, Rech co-rode the No. 77 with Elleby to its fourth and most recent win of the season. In total, the No. 77 team has the four victories, three second-place finishes and lone DNF (Did Not Finish) in New Jersey in eight starts this season.
The No. 64 TeamHurtByAccident.com Ducati PS1000LE of John Linder and Robert Fisher is out of contention for the title race but is third in the championship standings with 140 points. They finished second in New Jersey for the team's first podium since winning at Barber Motorsports Park in May and are also expected to be a factor at Daytona. The team has also entered its No. 59 Ducati PS1000LE GT2 class bike for Daytona. In addition to Ramirez, Linder and Fisher, the full stable of TeamHurtByAccident.com riders for its total of three GT1 and GT2 entries includes Santiago Villa, Justin Filice, Tomas Puerta, Aaron Frank and Russ Wikle. Exact rider assignments will be declared prior to the race.
SuperSport Shootout Day won the 2009 SuperSport East title while Parker took SuperSport West honors. The pair of young guns gave a preview of what may be in store on Sunday one race ago in New Jersey. The duo waged a thrilling SuperSport shootout of its own with Day ultimately winning the race by .460 of a second over Parker. Day was credited with leading 16 of the SuperSport race's 19 laps but the number of unofficial lead changes within laps was almost impossible to follow. Day's unmatched four-race win streak came at Mid-Ohio, Topeka and VIR, in addition to New Jersey. Parker has won this year at Infineon and Laguna Seca. The only other 2009 multiple race winner is Leandro Mercado (No. 92 Monster Energy Attack Kawasaki Ninja ZX-6R), who would love nothing more than to get in the middle of the Day and Parker battle. Tyler Odom (No. 46 Erion Racing Honda CBR600RR) is the only other 2009 winner entered in the Shootout and his victory came right here at Daytona in the season-opening race last March.
Wikle (No. 5 Roadracingworld.com Suzuki GSX-R600) and Nash (No. 15 LTD Racing Yamaha YZF-R6) have each hit the podium at least once this season in SuperSport and could factor into the action in Daytona. Nash is part of a strong four-rider entry from LTD that also includes Puerta (No. 12 LTD Racing Yamaha YZF-R6), Joey Pascarella (No. 25 LTD Racing Yamaha YZF-R6) and team newcomer Jacob Gagne (No. 45 LTD Racing Yamaha YZF-R6), who finished sixth in his SuperSport debut in New Jersey. Pascarella and Wikle battled to the line just behind winner Odom in the Daytona opener with Pascarella taking second place over Wikle in a photo finish. Pascarella, who finished second at the spring race at the Speedway, was quick from the beginning of the weekend and showed his aggressive style early on. He was able to lap at 1:52.952 on the 3.51-mile configuration of the circuit. "Tomy" Puerta has raced well at Daytona in the past and earned another second-row start with his performance on Friday. He was just 0.004 behind Joey to take fifth place with a time of 1:52.956. Huntley Nash qualified eighth with a mark of 1:54.257 as "Hunt" set his best time in the closing moments of the session after he improved his lap times throughout the first day of official practice at DIS. Jake Gagne set the eleventh-fastest time in qualifying, the Red Bull MotoGP Rookies Cup racer making his Daytona debut on the LTD Racing Yamaha R6. Gagne performed very respectably in his second-ever race weekend on a 600cc machine, posting his lap of 1:55.106 on Friday. Sunday's SuperSport race will start at Noon for 12 laps/40 miles. This content has passed through fivefilters.org. |
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