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The American Motorcyclist Association Posted September 23, 2007 |
Final number one plates decided in tight racing on day two of the AMA Road Race Grand ChampionshipsBy Lance Oliver Decision day at the AMA Road Race Grand Championships saw the crowning of a new Horizon Award winner, the Top Novice Award going to a guy who couldn't be stopped by anything except an engine failure, and a runaway victory by the CMRA in the Club Challenge. Here's a recap of Sunday's race action: 85cc Grand Prix It was speed in the corners versus speed in the straights that created the closest finish of the weekend, as Hayden Gillim won the 85cc Grand Prix race by 0.007 seconds over Ryan Matter.
Gillim led in the carousel turn on the last lap, but Matter pulled up beside him as they entered the final straight. At the checkered flag, Gillim (left), was still ahead by half a bike length, but the result would have been different if the finish line were 10 yards further away. Finishing in third, seven seconds back, was 10-year-old Nick McFadden. Gillim carried number 195 on his bike in the race in honor of his younger brother, Ethan, who died earlier this year in a flat-track racing crash. Ethan was number 95. Heavyweight Twins Superstock Expert/Novice It took 14-year-old California rider Tyler Odom just half a lap to move up from his mid-pack starting position in the Expert class to take the lead, and by the mid-way point of the eight-lap race he had disappeared from the field. Odom ran laps on his Ducati that were two seconds faster than anyone else in the class. Scott Rosey finished a lonely second on his Triumph and Michael Flis held off a pack behind him to finish third on his Ducati. In the Novice class, James Dellinger, on a Triumph, held off Scott Files, on a Suzuki SV1000, by a fraction of a second after a race-long battle. Pro-Am Supersport 600cc
Westby switched to a backup bike for the restart, and he and Chapman resumed their two-man fight at the front, pulling away while Tony Kasper slotted into third. The close racing continued all the way to the checkered flag, with the two touching on the last lap as Westby tried a pass for the lead going into the keyhole turn. But Chapman held on to win by 0.075 seconds at the finish line. 250cc GP (USGPRU) Alex Welsh made the win look easy, steadily pulling a way to a 12-second victory in the two-stroke, quarter-liter class. Welsh left fellow front-row qualifiers Kyle Ferris and Chris Pyles to fight over second. Ferris held off Pyles to win at the line by a fraction of a second. 750cc Superstock Expert
Burleson opened up a one-second advantage over Westby and held that margin all the way to the finish, while Dominguez struggled to a third-place finish despite mechanical problems. Tony Kasper, challenging Dominguez for third, clipped the curb on the inside of the final turn, dropped his front wheel into the dirt and and crashed just short of the finish line. 750cc Superstock Novice Dustin Doucet's bid for a fifth Novice-class championship ended with a mechanical problem. Woody Heimann took the win by a comfortable eight-second margin, with James Horton in second and Michael Books in third.
Dane Westby (#213) came back from his crash earlier in the day to win the Expert class decisively, by nearly 19 seconds over Dustin Dominguez. Jonathan Cowles finished third. Todd Urig won another Novice class title, finishing seventh overall, ahead of several Expert riders. 600cc Superstock Expert Zac Chapman got the holeshot on the start but lost the front of his Suzuki GSX-R600 in the first right-hand turn, in the keyhole. The crash was a low-speed, lowside, but it forced Chapman to suffer his second straight DNF. Meanwhile, Dane Westby inherited the lead and steadily pulled away. "I just tried to open up a gap," said Westby. "I didn't want to mess with anyone. I've had enough battling this weekend, even if it is fun." As Westby pulled away, Derek Wagnon, on a Yamaha R6, and AMA Supermoto pro rider Chris Fillmore, on a Kawasaki ZX-6R, battled for second, with Fillmore holding off Wagnon for several laps until Wagnon finally made a pass with one and a half laps to run. 600cc Superstock Novice You have to wonder what Michael Books could do if he didn't spot the field a head start of several seconds The 28-year-old rider from Grand Rapids, Michigan, registered at the last minute. In the novice classes, that means you start at the back. But despite starting in the second wave in each of his races, Books finished each race in the top five, including a second-place finish in 600cc Superstock Novice, where he ran lap times more than a second faster than anyone in the race. "I'm just spending a lot on tires and putting my head down to get up there from the second wave," said Books, who took up racing after going to several track days and finding he was faster than many of the local racers. Lightweight Twins Superstock Expert/Novice Dane Westby and Zac Chapman again pulled away from the field, this time on matched bikes: Suzuki SV650 twins. Chapman was content to follow a close second for several laps, until the fifth lap when Westby ran slightly wide onto a curb and Chapman seized the lead. Westby got back by a lap later and held on for the win, as the two leaders hit lapped traffic on the very last corner. In the Novice class, Matt Evans set the biggest margin of victory for the entire Road Race Grand Championships with a 24-second win over second-place Allan Edwards and Scott Nelson in third, all aboard Suzuki SV650s.
Dustin Dominguez (#68, left), Danny Kelsey (#344), Seth Starnes (#619) and Sam Gaige (#20) battled for the early lead in the keyhole turn, but Starnes followed up his two Saturday victories on his Suzuki GSX-R1000 with another win in Superstock, pulling away to a 5.5-second gap at the finish line. Kelsey finished second and Dominguez held on to the last spot on the podium. Woody Heimann took another victory in the Novice class. Lightweight Superbike Expert/Novice David Podolsky, riding his Yamaha YZ426F, continued his domination of the single-cylinder classes, winning by nearly 14 seconds over Scott McKee. Matt Kelley won in the Novice class. Pro-Am Superstock 1,000cc Ben Thompson turned the fastest laps of the weekend, just as he did on Saturday, as the AMA Superbike Championship privateer ran in the 1:28 range to win the Pro-Am race. He was followed by 2006 AMA Horizon Award winner Cory Burleson, with Seth Starnes in third. © 2007, American Motorcyclist Association |
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