Copyright 2003, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

Harwell Nips Weber At Finish Line For WERA B Superstock Win

Cagy veteran Scott Harwell and his Arclight Suzuki GSX-R750 snagged a B Supersport Expert victory away from rising WERA star David Weber at the last split second and by less than two feet in Sunday’s final race of the WERA Sportsman Series weekend at VIRginia International Raceway. Valvoline EMGO Suzuki’s Chris Ulrich finished third, coming from row five on the grid and rapidly closing in on the top two riders during the final exciting lap.

Harwell, of Lincolnton, North Carolina, grabbed the lead at the beginning of the short, 6-lap race and held on relatively comfortably until two laps to go when a hard-pressing Weber moved within striking distance. In the middle of turns one and two on the final lap, Weber finessed his XT Racing Suzuki GSX-R750 by Harwell on the outside and held onto a lead until the last two feet from the finish line.

“Well, he got by me there (in turn one) but I knew I had the motor on him, so I just kind of let him have it around the backside of the track and to the front stretch where I felt I could re-take the lead,” Harwell pointed out. “There was a (lapped) bike there with us and I just gave it all there at the end and made it by just in time.”

Weber was on a VIR consistency streak all weekend and earlier on Sunday recorded a win in B Superbike Expert. The near-win in B Superstock was tantalizingly close but gave the Roswell, Georgia resident a hefty dose of confidence for his venture into the AMA Nationals at Barber next month. He’ll be racing in the WERA Nationals next weekend at Hallett instead of riding in the AMA races at VIR.

“Towards the end of the race, I started trying to make some passes on him (Harwell) and I got by him in turn one, but he’d just get me coming on the front straightaway with some horsepower, getting a little better drive,” explained Weber. “On that last straight, I just didn’t get the drive I wanted and with his horsepower combined with his drive, he got me there at the end…those last two feet.”

The B Superstock race had a solid field of competitors, including several riders garnering track time and fine-tuning their bikes for the AMA weekend. Finishing fourth was Scott Carpenter on the RonAyers.com Suzuki with Vincent Haskovec of Lake Elsinore, California rounding out the top five. Haskovec was riding a Tapeworks Suzuki GSX-R600 borrowed from Russ Masecar of Raleigh, North Carolina.

Young Steve Atlas, also from Lake Elsinore, California, brought his Suzuki GSX-R750 to sixth. One of the favorites to be dicing for the lead at race’s end was Georgia’s Chris “Opie” Caylor, but he blew an engine early in the race and recorded a disappointed DNF.

A surprise in the race was Lake Elsinore’s Ulrich, who had to overcome an untimely false neutral right after what he felt was a good start. “A bunch of guys got by me, so I had to work my way through and I did some pretty hairball passes, including one on Steve (Atlas) that was pretty close right before you get to the esses on the back of the track,” Ulrich said. “I got by Haskovec and the bike felt good…like the harder I rode it, the better it was.

“I just feel real good right now because I have a good base going into next week and I’ve got a track day here tomorrow,” Ulrich said. “I made some huge set-up changes today going in the same direction…drastic changes that I never would have done if I hadn’t been here. I got off the bike smiling from ear-to-ear. I feel like I’m back.”

Second Day of Acree-Haskovec Show

After a thrilling Lee Acree-Vincent Haskovec side-by-side battle on Saturday in the Mediumweight Solo 20, the two racers rekindled their friendly rivalry at VIRginia International on Sunday with another close Acree win over Haskovec in a six-lap WERA C Superbike Expert sprint. Michael Garofalo rounded out the podium with a third, while Shaun Fields came in fourth and David Weber finished finished fifth.

“I was gridded on the fifth row and I knew Vincent was on the sixth row and I knew that he was going to be the one to want to push me,” Acree said. “I got a fairly good start, but I had to try to weave through traffic and I was hoping to get a few more positions up before turn one. I think I was in fourth.

“I was just trying to make sure I didn’t get into trouble and I’m sure Vincent was doing the same thing…he was probably looking at the back of me, following through traffic,” the Triad Powersports Yamaha rider continued. “I was trying to run a quick enough pace to stay out front, but with a comfortable enough one where I wasn’t staying on the edge to risk any more than I had to.”

Late in the sprint, Acree had to suddenly move towards that uncomfortable edge. “I was just watching my pitboard after I got out front and it was point four, point four, and I came around for the last lap and another point four, so I figured as long as I maintained, I would be OK,” reflected Acree. “But when I came around to take the checkered flag, I got a point one and I was like ‘Ohhh, man, here comes Vincent!’ I just tucked in real tight and luckily I think I had a little bit of horsepower on him. He rode a great race.”

Less than a bikelength separated the two as they roared through the VIR finish-line kink.

“I’m here to have fun and get some track time and like yesterday with Lee, I had some real fun out there today,” Haskovec said. “Lee is definitely a great rider, one of the smoothest I know. So, it is always a pleasure to race with him.”

Acree also recorded another win on Sunday in C Superstock Expert, finishing ahead of Fields, Weber and Garofalo, with Matt Elliott, a young participant in the Team Hammer Talent Search Presented By Alpinestars, rounding out the top five.

What J.J. Roetlin did to Scott Harwell in the A Superstock Expert class foreshadowed what Harwell would later on do to David Weber in the B Superstock race: Grabbing the lead at the very end of the race. Shaking the cobwebs out from not racing for nearly a month, Roetlin and his Twin County Dairy Suzuki GSX-R750 won the A Superstock sprint, besting an impressive array of riders in WERA’s 10th race of the day.

Scott Carpenter was third, while Vincent Haskovec came in fourth and Roger Bell rounded out the top five.

“On that last lap, I gained on him (Harwell) in turn one, and I was just waiting for a place to get around him or at least show him a wheel,” Roetlin said. “I figured coming down the hill that I could get up close enough to maybe try to draft by him at the finish. When we got to the finish line, I think Scott had to back off just a little bit to get by another rider and I just took the inside.”

Roetlin was using the WERA Sportsman Series as a tuneup for the Suzuki Lightning Nationals at VIR this coming weekend. He will compete in 750cc Superstock and the AMA Superbike races after he returns from two days of classes as a journalism major at the University of Iowa.

WERA Regional at VIR Sunday race results In chronological order

FORMULA TWO EXPERT: 1. Brian Kcraget (Hon RS125) 2. Lance Yeager (Yam TZ250) 3. Kent Larson (Suz SV650) 4. John Klaras (Hon RS125) 5. Jimmy Clark (Hon RS250) 6. David Deggendorf (Hon RS125)

FORMULA TWO NOVICE: (All Suzuki SV650) 1. Mark Biletnikoff 2. Brent Hackney 3. David Wheeler 4. Bart Ruppenthal 5. Kevin Hamilton 6. Harry Woole

C SUPERBIKE EXPERT: 1. Lee Acree (Yam YZF-R6) 2. Vincent Haskovec (Suz GSX-R600) 3. Michael Garofalo (Suz GSX-R600 4. Shawn Fields (Yam YZF-R6) 5. David Weber (Suz GSX-R600) 6. John Lemak (Suz GSX-R600)

C SUPERBIKE NOVICE: 1. Chad Larsen (Suz GSX-R600) 2. Kirk Downs (Hon CBR600) 3. Tim Francis (Hon CBR600) 4. Derrick Jones (Suz GSX-R600) 5. Scott Collins (Yam YZF-R6) 6. Ernie Dix (Suz GSX-R600)

HEAVYWEIGHT TWINS EXPERT: 1. Russ Masecar (Suz TL1000R) 2. Craig Hughes (Hon RC51) 3. Fred Farzanegan (Suz TL1000R) 4. Lance Yeager (Yam TZ250) 5. Kent Larson (Suz SV650) 6. Jimmy Clark (Hon RS250)

FORMULA ONE EXPERT: 1. Michael Barnes (Suz GSX-R1000) 2. Vincent Haskovec (Suz GSX-R600) 3. Roger Bell (Suz GSX-R1000) 4. Chris Ulrich (Suz GSX-R750) 5. Doug Duane (Suz GSX-R1000) 6. J.J. Roetlin (Suz GSX-R750)

FORMULA ONE NOVICE: 1. Jeff Floyd (Suz GSX-R750) 2. Tim Francis (Hon CBR600) 3. Thomas Hughey (Yam YZF-R6) 4. Steve Gould (Suz GSX-R750) 5. Dan Burnette (Suz GSX-R600) 6. Nick Carney (Yam YZF-R6)

LIGHTWEIGHT TWINS EXPERT: 1. Phillip Chapin (Suz SV650) 2. Nate Kern (BMW R1100) 3. Kent Larson (Suz SV650) 4. Shawn Romano (Suz SV650) 5. Paul Sluss (Suz SV650) 6. Don Kinsey (Suz SV650)

LIGHTWEIGHT TWINS NOVICE: (All Suzuki SV650) 1. Mark Biletnikoff 2. William Baragona 3. Brent Hackney 4. Bart Ruppenthal 5. Kevin Hamilton 6. David Wheeler

B SUPERBIKE EXPERT: (All Suzuki GSX-R750) 1. David Weber 2. Opie Caylor 3. J.J. Roetlin 4. Doug Duane 5. Steve Atlas 6. Chuck Juhasz

VINTAGE 6: 1. Scott Williams (Yam 600) 2. Ken Kitt (Hon 700) 3. Joseph Garboski (Hon 700) 4. George Mood (Yam 600) 5. Russell Bigley (Yam 750) 6. Randall Shank (Hon 900)

B SUPERBIKE NOVICE: 1. Jeff Floyd (Suz GSX-R750) 2. Chad Larsen (Suz GSX-R600) 3. Scott Collins (Yam YZF-R6) 4. Derrick Jones (Suz GSX-R600) 5. George Lingwall (Suz) 6. Ernie Dix (Suz GSX-R600)

D SUPERBIKE NOVICE: 1. William Baragona (Suz SV650) 2. Brent Hackney (Suz SV650) 3. Bart Ruppenthal (Suz SV650) 4. David Wheeler (Suz SV650) 5. Michael Shafer (Apr RS250) 6. John Ince (Suz SV650)

D SUPERBIKE EXPERT: 1. Phillip Chapin (Suz SV650) 2. Paul Sluss (Suz SV650) 3. Scott McKee (Yam 400) 4. Matt Blashfield (Suz SV650)

A SUPERSTOCK EXPERT: 1. J.J. Roetlin (GSX-R750) 2. Scott Harwell (Suz GSX-R750) 3. Scott Carpenter (Suz GSX-R750) 4. Vincent Haskovec (Suz GSX-R600) 5. Roger Bell (Suz GSX-R1000) 6. Russ Masecar (Suz GSX-R1000)

VINTAGE 7 HEAVYWEIGHT: 1. Aaron Brown (Duc 916) 2. Lawrence Dinmore (Yam YZF750R) 3. Buford Scott (Suz GSX-R750) 4. George Mood (Yam 600)

VINTAGE 7 MIDDLEWEIGHT: 1. Lance Yeager (Yam TZ250) 2. Jeff Johnson (Yam TZ250) 3. Louis Schalow (Kaw 600) 4. Jimmy Clark (Hon RS250) 5. Pat Bartlett (Yam TZ250) 6. Joseph Wood (Kaw 600)

CORC EXPERT (Crusty Old Racer Class, age 40+): 1. Scott Carpenter (Suz GSX-R750) 2. Roger Shelton (Suz GSX-R750) 3. Jimmy Clark (Hon RS250) 4. Scott McKee (Yam 400) 5. Buford Scott (Suz GSX-R750)

CORC NOVICE (Crusty Old Racer Class, age 40+): 1. Stephen Maurer (Suz GSX-R750) 2. Kevin Hamilton (Duc 748) 3. Randy Hills (Duc 998) 4. Keith Hamilton (Hon RC51) 5. Scott Powers 6. David Civit (Sus GSX-R600)

C SUPERSTOCK NOVICE: 1. Chad Larsen (Suz GSX-R600) 2. Tim Francis (Hon CBR600) 3. Kirk Downs (Hon CBR600) 4. Brandon Parrish (Yam YZF-R6) 5. Dan Burnetter (Suz GSX-R600) 6. Scott Collins (Yam YZF-R6)

C SUPERSTOCK EXPERT: 1. Lee Acree (Yam YZF-R6) 2. Shaun Fields (Yam YZF-R6) 3. David Weber (Suz GSX-R600) 4. Michael Garofalo (Suz GSX-R600) 5. Matt Elliott (Suz GSX-R600) 6. Heath Small (Yam YZF-R6)

125cc GRAND PRIX: 1. Brian Kcraget (Hon RS125) 2. David Deggendorf (Hon RS125) 3. John Klaras (Hon RS125) 4. Glen Pison (Hon RS125) 5. Brian Roach (Yam TZ125) 6. David Cecento (Yam TZ125)

CLUBMAN EXPERT: 1. Eric Mercer (MZ 762) 2. Steve Long (Hon 250) 3. Shawn Romano (MuZ 650) 4. Wayne Shelton (Yam 550) 5. Ken Lehman (Suz 500)

CLUBMAN NOVICE: 1. Peter Kirsch (Kaw 500) 2. Mike Macek (MuZ 650) 3. Jeff Stewart (Yam 600) 4. Chris Mann (Kaw 500) 5. Rick Young (Kaw 500)

B SUPERSTOCK NOVICE: 1. Chad Larsen (Suz GSX-R600) 2. Rim Francis (Hon CBR600) 3. Ernie Dix (Suz GSX-R600) 4. Dan Burnette (Suz GSX-R600) 5. Steven Gould (Suz GSX-R750) 6. Terrence Johnson (Suz GSX-R600)

B SUPERSTOCK EXPERT: 1. Scott Harwell (Suz GSX-R750) 2. David Weber (Suz GSX-R750) 3. Chris Ulrich (Suz GSX-R750) 4. Scott Carpenter (Suz GSX-R750) 5. Vincent Haskovec (Suz GSX-R600) 6. Steve Atlas (Suz GSX-R750)