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Dirt-trackers Cummings and Myers face off on the road-race course


Logan Myers (left) and Nick Cummings during GT II Novice, their first battle Monday.

July 22, 2002 - Just a couple weeks ago Michigan amateur dirt-trackers Nick Cummings and Logan Myers battled in the AMA Dirt Track Grand Championships and were co-winners of the prestigious dirt-track Horizon Award, given to promising amateur racers.

Now, the two friends are facing off at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in the AMA Road Race Grand Championships, riding Honda RS125 road-racers.

Cummings and Myers are among a number of club racers taking part in the road race Grand Championships to gain experience riding road-race bikes, and to have fun on the technical 2.4-mile, 15-turn track that will host AMA Pro Racing Superbike races this coming weekend.

Cumming, of Mt. Morris, says he likes dirt-track and road-racing, and hopes to do both when he becomes 16 and turns pro in October. Today was the first time he rode the Mid-Ohio track, and it gave him new respect for Nicky Hayden, a fellow dirt-track AMA Horizon Award winner who now leads the points in the AMA Chevy Trucks U.S. Superbike Championship and who will race at Mid-Ohio this coming weekend.

"This track is pretty technical," Cummings says. "I would hate to be Nicky because he's riding that big ol' RC51."

Myers, of Wheeler, says he's road-racing because it's something different, and the riding helps his dirt-tracking.

"It helps with cornering speed," he says, "and with confidence with the bikes."

Myers turns 16 in January and hopes to race both dirt track and road race as a pro.

Cummings and Myers are pitting together at the Road Race Grand Nationals, and also are racing with another Michigan friend, Taylor Knapp of Lapeer.

Cummings likes being together with his two friends on the track because it pushes them all to do better.

"It's nice because we've been racing each other for so long," he says. "When we're together we drop about three seconds off our laps."