CARTER SWEEPS AT AUTOBAHN Odenton, MD. Budding young superstar, Garrett Carter, completely dominated the field of 26 125GP riders and 18 250GP riders at the USGPRU powered by AlwaysOnline.net East coast championship round at Autobahn Country Club in Joliet Illinois. During qualifying, Garrett set a blistering pace on his Aprilia of 1:31.752, a full second and a half ahead of his closest competitor, Josh Day and his Honda RS125. Ryan Clay had a strong qualifying session on his Stargel-tuned Aprilia and captured the third place position. Many riders were surprised when amateur Canadian rider, Matt Cooper had his best qualifying all year and beat John Hjelm to finish off the front row of the grid. Josh Day came into this 16 lap final round trailing Carter in the Acid Cigar’s 125GP event by a mere 12 points. A win pays out 50 and 40 points for second. So Day would have to win the race and Carter finish third or worse in order to win the regional championship. Day knew what needed to be done and hurled his Honda into the lead. Carter hounded him and was able to overtake Day on lap two. Day held on to Carter’s draft for a few turns, but in the end just didn’t have the winning combination to best the Carter/Aprilia combo. Carter rode a flawless race and stepped away from Day to finish with a 22 second lead. Scott Smallwood battled with John Hjelm early on for third place. Hjelm started fading back into the pack around lap 9 in anticipation of his upcoming 44th birthday. Japanese rider, Nobi Iso, rode a borrowed Honda to an impressive 4th place finish only to be later disqualified for being 2 lbs under the weight minimum. This promoted James Boudreau and Tom Swager up to 4th and 5th place respectively. Canadian Matt Cooper highsided his Honda early in the race but somehow managed to land the bike on its wheels and hang on to the bars. He landed to the side of the bike, and after 2-3 really big steps at race pace was able to get back on the bike and ride it off the track. He returned to the race with damaged fairings and was able to limp the bike in to a 20th place finish. The DialitinTracktime.com 250GP qualifying was a nail-biter as Day set the pole time of 1:30.013 seconds merely .08 seconds ahead of Carter. Day rode consistently all season and only had to finish to clinch the championship. Bill Himmelsbach put in a strong performance as usual to take the third position. And the surprise qualifier, Zachry Lee from San Antonio, Texas turned in his best ever qualifying results to round out the front row. On the drop of the green flag, Lee launched his Honda like his life depended on it and left the field almost standing still. Carter and Day quickly caught and passed Lee and began to check out from the field in what appeared to be a carbon copy of the 125GP race. Day hung onto the back of Carter’s bike for 4-5 laps until his water pump started letting go and he had to slow up and nurse the bike to the finish. Carter rode an outstanding race and finished a solid 17 seconcs ahead of Day. Himmelsbach passed Lee on lap 4 and fellow senior Bruce Lind did the same on lap 5. Lee and Lind had a battle for the rest of the 16 lap event with Lind crossing just half a bike ahead of Lee. Acid Cigar’s 125GP results: 1. Garrett Carter Apr RSR125 2. Josh Day Apr RSR125 3. Scott Smallwood Hon RS125 4. James Boudreau Hon RS125 5. Tom Swager Hon RS125 6. Scott Troutman Hon RS125 7. John Hjelm Hon RS125 8. Jay Pilster Hon RS125 9. Boyd Bruner Hon RS125 10. Craig Babcock Hon RS125 11. Rich Kjar Hon RS125 12. Merle ‘Sandbagger’ Eschman Hon RS125 13. Bruce Lind Yam TZ125 14. Travis Huffman Hon RS125 15. Barry Gilsenan Hon RS125 16. Crystal Campagna Hon RS125 17. Bob Johnston Hon RS125 18. Glen Pison Hon RS125 19. Jeff Permanian Hon RS125 20. Matt Cooper Hon RS125 21. Marc Whitney Hon RS125 22. Brian McLaughlin Yam TZ125 23. Marcus Matthews Hon RS125 24. Patrick McCabe Hon RS125 25. Robert Taylor Hon RS125 DNF Nobi Iso Hon RS125 Dialitintracktime.com 250GP results: 1. Garrett Carter Apr RSV250 2. Josh Day Yam TZ250 3. Bill Himmelsbach Yam TZ250 4. Bruce Lind Yam TZ250 5. Zachry Lee Hon RS250 6. Mark Stiles Yam TZ250 7. Brian Kwak Yam TZ250 8. Mike Wright Yam TZ250 9. Ronald Bounds Yam TZ250 10. JP Bartlett Yam TZ250 11. Kory Gill Yam TZ250 12. Brian McLaughlin Yam TZ250 13. Meghan Stiles Yam TZ250 14. Patrick McCabe Hon RS250 15. Nobi Iso Yam TZ250 16. Chris Manfrin Yam TZ250 17. Ryan Clay Apr RSR125 18. David Matthews Yam TZ250 The 2005 USGPRU National Series sponsors include AlwaysOnline.net, Dialitintracktime.com, Acid Cigars, Roadracingworld.com, Revit Leathers, Bridgestone, Dunlop, EBC Brakes, GPC Moto, Hjelm Motorsports, Ian Emberton Engineering, Motion Pro Cables and Tools, Redline Cycle Imports, Repsol YPF, Rising Sun Cycles, Silkolene, Zambrana Performance, and VP Fuel.