Copyright 2003, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

Matt Wait earned Formula USA race wins in Sportbike and Superbike on his Kneedraggers.com Yamaha YZF-R6 at Summit Point Raceway in Summit Point, West Virginia Sunday. Kosco Harley-Davidson/Buell’s Dave Estok took the Thunderbike race win and clinched the 2003 Formula USA Thunderbike Championship one round early, after Bryan Bemisderfer, who actually won the race on the track, was disqualified.

Wait dominated the 31-lap Sportbike race. The former 500cc Grand Prix racer got off to a slow start, took the lead from Jeff Wood on lap four and pulled away to win by 16 seconds. Wood rode alone for most of the race to finish second.

Scott Harwell took third after a long fight for the position with Lee Acree, Scott Greenwood and Michael Himmelsbach.

Greenwood was forced to ride his back-up Suzuki GSX-R600 after crashing his new Yamaha YZF-R6 in Sunday morning’s Sportbike qualifying session.

Young Nicky Cummings, Buell XB9R-mounted Eric Wood, Tim Bemisderfer and Des Conboy filled the remaining top-10 positions in the Sportbike results.

Mike Ciccotto crashed his Hal’s Performance Buell soon after serving a stop-and-go penalty for jumping the start.

Nate “Gator” Wait highsided in turn one on the warm-up lap of the Sportbike race and was transported to a local hospital with a possible broken right wrist. Nate Wait was leading the F-USA Grand National Championship (which combined results and points from select F-USA road race and dirt track events) coming into the Summit Point round.

Matt Wait said it was hard to concentrate on racing and not think of his injured brother, but he came back later in the day for a tougher race against Harwell in the 15-lap Superbike final.

Riding his Arclight Suzuki GSX-R600 Superbike. Harwell had a horsepower advantage, but Wait was more aggressive on the brakes and through many of the corners. The two riders were nose-to-tail until the final lap when Harwell made a mistake and Wait turned his fastest lap of the race (1:15.299) to seal the victory.

Acree took third in the Superbike race with Jeff Wood only inches behind in fourth. Harwell’s teammate Dave Stanton finished fifth in his first visit to Summit Point in seven years.

Estok led the 15-lap Thunderbike race early, but Bemisderfer came from three seconds behind to catch Estok. The two riders looked very equal on their Buell Firebolt XB9Rs, but Bemisderfer was able to use his track knowledge and some crafty work through lapped traffic to cross the finish line first.

However, Bemisderfer’s bike went several horsepower over on the dyno during post-race inspections, and he was disqualified. Estok was awarded the race win, which combined with Bemisderfer not scoring any points, clinched the Championship for Estok.

Dan Bilansky rode his Buell Firebolt XB9R alone in third for most of the race, but was caught by Edward Repkoe in the late going. Bilansky quickly re-passed the Pennsylvania rider and salvaged his third place, which became second after the post-race dyno checks. Repkoe, who rode a Supersport-spec Suzuki SV650, ended third.

Larry Denning took a close victory over Eric Wood in the 15-lap Expert Unlimited Grand Prix. Denning, riding a Yamaha YZF-R1, and Wood, riding a Suzuki GSX-R750, went back and forth throughout the sprint. Wood, who has already clinched the Championship in the class, tried a last-lap, last-corner move to pass Denning, but Denning won the resulting drag race to the checkered flag. Chris Rankin of Maryland finished a distant third.

Brian Kcraget won the 15-entry USGPRU 125cc Grand Prix on his NESBA.com-sponsored, Phil Dodd-tuned Honda RS125. Scott Moxey raced with Kcraget early-on but faded toward the end of the 15-lap race and finished second. Steve Gorrell took a lonely third.

RESULTS:

SPORTBIKE: 1. Matt Wait (Yam YZF-R6), 31 laps; 2. Jeff Wood (Yam YZF-R6); 3. Scott Harwell (Suz GSX-R600); 4. Lee Acree (Yam YZF-R6); 5. Scott Greenwood (Suz GSX-R600); 6. Michael Himmelsbach (Suz GSX-R600); 7. Nicky Cummings (Hon CBR600RR); 8. Eric Wood (Buell XB9R); 9. Tim Bemisderfer (Hon CBR600RR); 10. Des Conboy (Suz GSX-R600); 11. Michael Shaun Fields (Yam YZF-R6); 12. Dave Stanton (Suz GSX-R600); 13. Chris Rankin (Suz GSX-R600); 14. Jason Smith (Yam YZF-R6); 15. Dave Ebben (Suz GSX-R600); 16. William Lindsay (Yam YZF-R6); 17. Tomer Levy (Yam YZF-R6); 18. Logan Myers (Yam YZF-R6); 19. Adrian Jones (Suz GSX-R600); 20. Michael Garofalo (Suz GSX-R600). 30. Mike Ciccotto (Buell XB9R), DNF, crash; 31. Nate Wait (Kaw ZX-6), DNS, crash.

SUPERBIKE: 1. Matt Wait (Yam YZF-R6), 15 laps; 2. Scott Harwell (Suz GSX-R600); 3. Lee Acree (Yam YZF-R6); 4. Jeff Wood (Yam YZF-R6); 5. Dave Stanton (Suz GSX-R600); 6. Scott Greenwood (Suz GSX-R600); 7. Mike Himmelsbach (Suz GSX-R600); 8. Des Conboy (Suz GSX-R600); 9. Michael Shaun Fields (Yam YZF-R6); 10. Chris Rankin (Suz GSX-R600); 11. Jason Smith (Yam YZF-R6); 12. Chad Klock (Kaw ZX-6); 13. Logan Myers (Yam YZF-R6); 14. Ryan Lettich (Kaw ZX-6); 15. Adam Vella (Suz GSX-R600), -1 lap; 16. Tyler Hopwood (Yam YZF-R6), -4 laps; 17. Bryan Furey (Suz GSX-R600), -4 laps; 18. Tomer Levy (Yam YZF-R6), -9 laps; 19. Larry Denning (Yam YZF-R6), -10 laps, DNF.

THUNDERBIKE: 1. Dave Estok (Buell XB-9R), 15 laps; 2. Dan Bilansky (Buell XB9R); 3. Edward Repkoe (Suz SV650); 4. Ray Bowman (Hon CBR600F2); 5. Darren James (Buell XB9R); 6. Phillip Chapin (Suz SV650); 7. Darren Danilowicz (Suz SV650); 8. Joseph Rozynski (Buell 1200); 9. Brian McClain (Suz SV650); 10. Sam Rozynski (Buell 1200); 11. Kent Larson (Suz SV650); 12. George Federlin (Hon CBR600); 13. Gilbert Schweitzer (Hon CBR600), -1 lap; 14. Bart Ashby (Suz SV650), -1 lap; 15. Eric Helmbach (Hon CBR600), -1 lap.

EXPERT UNLIMITED GRAND PRIX: 1. Larry Denning (Yam YZF-R1), 15 laps; 2. Eric Wood (Suz GSX-R750); 3. Chris Rankin (Suz GSX-R750); 4. Art Diaz (Yam YZF-R1); 5. Michael Swank (Yam YZF-R1); 6. Chris Rockwell (Duc 998); 7. Russell Masecar (Suz GSX-R1000); 8. Joe Ribeiro (Suz GSX-R750); 9. Nate Kern (Suz GSX-R1000); 10. Jason Moss (Yam YZF-R1); 11. Urayoan Torres (Suz GSX-R600); 12. Jim Bonner (Yam YZF-R1); 13. Brian Gregory (Suz GSX-R750), -1 lap; 14. Chris Sweigard (Kaw ZX-7), -2 laps; 15. Brian Clippinger (Hon CBR954RR), -5 laps, DNF, crash.

AMATEUR UNLIMITED GRAND PRIX: 1. Donny Kelley (Suz GSX-R600), 10 laps; 2. Chad Larsen (Suz GSX-R600); 3. Arnold Hastings (Suz GSX-R1000); 4. Gregory Ludt; 5. Ned Brown (Yam YZF-R6); 6. Hector Jimenez (Suz GSX-R600); 7. J. Michael Branson (Suz GSX-R750); 8. Jason Lewis (Hon CBR600); 9. Rob Baker (Suz GSX-R600); 10. Roy Cadoo (Hon CBR600).

USGPRU 125cc GRAND PRIX: 1. Brian Kcraget (Hon RS125), 15 laps; 2. Scott Moxey (Hon RS125); 3. Steve Garrell; 4. Dale Greenwood (Hon RS125); 5. David Deggendorf; 6. John Klaras (Hon RS125); 7. Chris Vest (Hon RS125), -1 lap; 8. Brian Roach, -1 lap; 9. Samantha Cotter (Hon RS125), -1 lap; 10. Dennis Woods (Hon RS125), -1 lap.

More, from a press release issued by Proforma:

LEE ACREE FINISHES STRONG AT FORMULA USA SUMMIT POINT EVENT

Lee Acree attended round six of the Formula USA Championship Series at Summit Point Raceway over the September 6-7 weekend, and came away with a third place in the Superbike class and fourth in Sportbike, both on the same-spec Triad Yamaha R6. Lee had qualified third in both classes in the Sunday morning sessions, turning faster lap times but continuing to struggle with the front suspension on the bumpy Summit Point course.

“Tommy (Lancaster, crew chief) and I just couldn’t get the front end working the way I needed it to,” said Acree. “We got it better for Sunday’s races, but I still had to enter the corners slower than I wanted to get the front end settled and keep from crashing. I had a few close calls during both of the races.” Lee was disappointed with the final race results, but realizes that this was only his third race weekend on the new Yamaha R6. “The bike ran well, and it had plenty of power,” said Lee. “I guess everyone struggles a bit now and then, but the results were less than I expected.”

Look for Lee on his Yamaha R6 over the next two weekends at the upcoming WERA and AMA National events at Barber Motorsports Park in Birmingham, AL.