WANTED: A GOOD DICE Munroe Motors/Tag Team/Harmon Bros Racing’s Eric Gulbransen takes home a well-fought second place at Thunderhill Raceway during the 5th AFM round aboard his Ducati 749R. Thunderhill Raceway, CA July 17th, 2005 – The thermometer was soaring, the parking lot asphalt was melting and the sweat was pouring. Eric “GoGo” Gulbransen and the team from Munroe Motors/Tag Team/Harmon Bros Racing were chillin’ in the shade of their Ducati EZ-Ups at Thunderhill Raceway in Northern California, scene of the 5th round of the nine round AFM Championship Road Race series. The topic of discussion was what makes the perfect road race. Racer Tom Goetze, put it perfectly about his Formula 40 race on his T-&-G/Munroe Motors sponsored Ducati 996 “¦man, I had a great dice”. “That’s it!” the team decided. All racers want “a great dice” and, ironically, winning comes second. If you’re going to risk it all, then you want to have the best possible time doing it. The Open Twins race provided GoGo the ideal opportunity to test the new theory his 749R was clearly the best handling bike on the grid, but the extra power of the big-bore 1000cc competition was a real threat on the long and fast straights of Thunderhill. The green flag dropped to start the race, and for once GoGo was not the first to stuff his bike through turn 1. “I blew the launch. My fault. The bike wanted to go, but I screwed it up.” he explained later, “That entire first lap I was out to lunch. Pfeiffer got the hole shot and then Long squeezed under me going into turn six. That 749R is a weapon when you’re on your game. And for that first lap, I wasn’t.” Out front, Jack Pfeiffer on his Aprilia 1000 was easing away from the pack, and by lap two he pulled a 2 second margin over GoGo who worked his way past last year’s Open Twins champion Brian Long into second place. “By lap two we were jammin’ again. The bike felt like I grew up on it. Jack had gapped us a bit, so I kept my head down and hit my marks harder and faster than ever before” said GoGo, as he raved on about the little Ducati. Each lap GoGo went a little faster, until he dipped under his 749 personal best time at Thunderhill, by just under a second, to record a 1:55:01. “Once I caught him I nudged my way under him on lap five, cresting the hill out of turn nine, and then drag raced him to turn ten but I was on the outside. He says he had no idea I was there, and I’m sure he’s being honest because he drifted to the edge of the track once we got into the brakes and pinched me right out of the fight. That lost us some time, and now I only had one lap to get back on him. I tried the same move on the white flag lap, only this time on the inside. And this time we made it stick… Once I had the lead, I started looking for things to throw over my shoulder at him, because I knew we’d be in trouble once we hit the long straight to the checkered flag. If I could have tucked inside that gas tank I would have, but Jack shot by and took the checkers by a bike length. We both shouted and high-fived each other all the way around the cool-down lap”¦what a race!” Back in the pits, the crew judged that GoGo must have had a good time by all his hootin’ and hollerin’ thereby proving our new theory that “a good dice”, not to forget a strong second place, is the best way to spend a rather warm Sunday afternoon at the racetrack. More, from a press release issued by Traxxion Dynamics: Young Gun Peris Unbeatable in Hindle Pro 600 Racing at Mosport Young Gun Chris Peris had the best weekend of his professional racing career at the Parts Canada double header weekend at Mosport International Raceway last weekend. It started with a stunning pole position run that saw Peris complete only the first five laps of qualifying. Peris set the pole time of 1:23.9 on his third lap, and then ran two more laps within tenths, and came into the pits and parked his bike. “That was a perfect lap. I can’t duplicate it, and I can’t go any faster. Nobody will beat that lap”. He took his helmet off, and sat down to watch the rest of qualifying. To the astonishment of the officials and spectators, he was right and his pole time remained unbeaten. The television crews were aggravated, since Peris’s qualifying effort was to be filmed as part of the “featured rider” coverage throughout the weekend. “We had just started to roll cameras, and were set up to film Chris, and then he never came around again!” proclaimed an amazed cameraman. In Saturday’s race, conditions were hot and dry, and the competition was close and fierce. Peris got off the pole behind the front row, and had to work forward. At the white flag he was 20 bikelengths behind Clint McBain, whose lead seemed insurmountable. Peris however, showed a new level of determination, and “Rossi’d” McBain by making up the gap, passing the leader, and putting in the fastest lap of the race on the last lap! Peris’ father Fernando was extremely proud of Chris and the Topline Printing Yamaha Team. “Chris made several draft passes throughout the race, and it was clear that our Vass Performance Racing Engine was faster than anything else on the track. Our second advantage is our Traxxion Dynamics suspension. To set the fastest lap by almost a second on the last lap speaks for itself; our Dunlop tires looked perfect even after that blistering lap. Chris never ceases to amaze me, and I am really happy for Max McAllister and Willie Vass, since they have worked so hard this year to put Chris on the box!” Peris passed all post race inspections including a tear down and inspection of the front fork system. The weather took a dramatic turn on Sunday, and it rained so long and so hard that officials continually delayed the start of the feature events. When the race finally did start, the track was “full wet” and rain continued to drizzle lightly. Peris led the race and a three rider breakaway of Peris, Tom Kipp, and Matt McBride quickly distanced the field. Then disaster struck as Peris approached the slow and slippery turn 5 area. A rider had fallen and a debris flag was waving. Peris was trying to sight the problem and ran wide of the apex, and fell on the concrete patch. Luckily, he stayed with the bike and was able to pick it up and re-enter the race. The right handlebar had bent in, but Peris continued on anyway, and actually maintained a third place position, 10 seconds off the leader. To everyone’s amazement, Peris worked his way back past McBride, and then passed Kipp for the lead coming to the white flag. He never looked back and took his second win to complete a perfect weekend. According to McAllister, Peris’ suspension tuner, “Chris stepped to another level here this weekend. I have been watching racers for a long time, and I have not been that impressed with a rider since John Hopkins came from behind to win the AMA FX Championship at VIR. I think the fans can expect to see Chris competing closer with the leaders than ever at Mid-Ohio this weekend.” Peris and the Topline Printing Yamaha Team are headed to the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course for the upcoming weekends AMA National. More information is available at www.peris.ca. More, from a press release issued by Kenny Kopecky: Willow Springs Motorcycle Club Round 7 – July 17, 2005 Rosamond, CA On the hottest race day of the 2005 season at Willow Springs, Ducati Oceanside’s Kenny Kopecky took four race victories along with a well fought third place to remain atop the WSMC Overall Track Championship standings and solidify his hold on several individual class Championships. The wins included back-to-back races in BOTT Heavyweight and 750 Superbike early in the schedule. Kenny said “The heat didn’t seem too bad in the first couple of races but later in the day we saw 109 in the shade at our trailer and decided to skip the Formula Two race to wait for our next pair of consecutive events in 650 Superbike and Middleweight Twins. The 650 Superbike race went well…I had a fun battle with Mickey Lane throughout the event and came up just a little short at the end finishing 3rd. The wind was getting a little gnarly in turn 8, so I think we rode a little on the conservative side.” Jason Perez easily won over a field that was somewhat thinner then usual. Kopecky won his 3rd straight WSMC 750 Superbike event and has now moved into a tie in the class point standings with Ritchie Thorup, who finished a close third just behind Karl Lowry Jr. on Sunday. Kenny added “We ran hard for a few laps to get a gap…I knew the other guys would remain strong all the way and we feel our strategy worked out really well today. We managed to sweep the Ducati contingency races again this month and our 749, the 999 and the Dunlops held up really well in the desert blast furnace.” Kopecky also leads the BOTT Middleweight, BOTT Heavyweight and Formula Twins class standings and is ranked top 5 in Formula Two and 650 Superbike. The next WSMC roadrace is Round 8 on August 19-21, 2005. More, from a press release issued by Bell’s ARNCHU Racing: Bell’s ARNCHU Racing rises to 5th overall in points! This past weekend during Round 6 of the Dunlop/WERA National Endurance Series, Bell’s ARNCHU Racing (#15) scored another overall podium position of 3rd overall. The team also scored 2nd in the Heavyweight Superbike class, on a largely superstock Suzuki GSXR750. The team rose to 5th in points with a string of lately impressive finishes in the series. Riders Nathan Dressman, Randy Sherman, and Bojan Milkovich all rode with times in the 1:23/24 range. Dressman put in the 3rd fastest lap of the race at 1:22.1 on lap 7 of 230. Considered a “local track” by the riders, the team understood that weather at Grattan is a curious thing, often with it’s own atmostphere. ARNCHU played a calculated risk during the final 45 minutes of a wet Grattan 6 hour race. As the closing hour came with rain on the western half of the course, ARNCHU was running P4. Randy Sherman, riding, was told to stay out in the damp conditions as teams began to funnel in the pits for rain tires, including Team Redstar in P3. This was the chance the team needed to overtake for P3 by over a minute. Soon the track began drying and Sherman increased the lead into P3 by over a lap! “It was the most intensely focused I’ve been on a bike and it felt incredible. The seams at Grattan were so slippery so I chose completely different lines. We ran the whole race on one Michelin front slick and two rear DOTs!” said Sherman. Our team thanks the dedicated crewmanship of Ted Sherman, Tom and Kathy Dressman, and Jim Sheldon of Trackoholics.com. Bojan Milkovich, our guest rider, rode extremely fast and consistent on bike a bit too soft for him. More, from a press release issued by Rojo Racing: Jason Perez pulls off five wins for five starts at the seventh round of WSMC race event. Prior to Sunday’s races Jason ran the GTO on Saturday experimenting with 16.5″ rear wheel technology. Being that there was a lack of set up time, the attempt was unsuccessful having to pull in on two consecutive laps then pulling out of the race. On the other hand Sunday was a different story. After Saturday’s mishap Jason opted to stay with the 17″ rear wheel on his Yamaha R1, which has worked great in the past. Despite the 108 degree heat in the high desert, Perez was able to keep his competitors behind him the entire day. With lap times in the mid 21’s of the first race “Open Superbike” Jason was off to a good start with a win. Jason went on to win Open Superstock, 600 Superbike, 600 Superstock, and the premier Formula One class. Jason said “the bikes were working great, despite the heat.” “During the Formula One race I started with a couple of easy laps but noticed my pit board was not giving much of a gap so I picked up the pace a little while taking care not to cook my tire, Once I saw that I had a bit of a gap I maintained that pace and every thing turned out ok” “the bike felt a little loose towards the end but it worked fine”. Tire choice was crucial this week end due to the extreme heat conditions, we have to hand it to Dunlop for getting Jason and his Yamaha R1 on the top box! Rojo Racing team will be taking their show on the road next weekend at the Mid Ohio AMA Superstock race.