Copyright 2003, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

By David Swarts

Vesrah Suzuki team owner Mark Junge of Union Grove, Wisconsin took a weekend off from racing in the WERA National series to run in the CCS twin-sprint event at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin April 26-27 and came away with five wins, two second-place finishes and $6400 in contingency money.

Riding Pirelli-shod Suzuki 600cc, 750cc and 1000cc GSX-Rs, Junge won the Unlimited Supersport and Heavyweight Supersport races on both days, won Saturday’s Middleweight Supersport final and took second in Sunday’s Middleweight Supersport contest behind former Suzuki Cup Champion Robert Jensen.

During Saturday’s Unlimited Supersport sprint, Junge and his 2003 GSX-R1000 were clocked on a spectator’s radar gun as reaching 182 mph on Road America’s 4400-foot front straightaway. The fan showed the reading to CCS officials who relayed the information to Junge. The accuracy of the spectator’s radar gun reading could not be verified, but Junge’s best race lap time of 2:14.2 on his GSX-R1000 would have placed him 10th on the 2002 AMA Superbike grid at Road America, behind only the factory Superbikes.

Junge also finished second in a Lightweight Supersport race after a race-long battle with multi-time CCS Regional and National Lightweight Supersport Champion Ed Key. It was Junge’s first time riding a Suzuki SV650, and he came away impressed, saying, “That thing is a blast! That is a great bike. That race with Key was the most fun I had all weekend.”

Because Suzuki paid contingency awards on both days of the twin-sprint weekend, Junge took home a total of $5750 of Suzuki money plus another $650 in contingency awards from Pirelli.

Harley-Davidson/Buell Communications Manager Paul James won Sunday’s Middleweight Sportsman race and finished second in the same class on Saturday riding a Buell XB9R Firebolt built by Roadracing World as a magazine project bike. James only planned to break in the Firebolt’s new engine at Elkhart Lake, but when James’ personal tube-framed Buell suffered mechanical problems in practice, he enlisted the services of the Firebolt to salvage some points. The Firebolt produces approximately 13 less horsepower than his normal racebike, but James said he was able to easily better his personal best lap times at Road America.