Copyright 2004, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

By Bruce Wilkins

It was a race in which the two top finishers immediately had the identical description: “I’ll never forget this one!” So replied race winner Jeff Wood and runner-up Rob Jensen after their action-packed, one-on-one duel that intensified throughout Sunday afternoon’s Formula USA Sportbike sprint race at VIR.

Wood, piloting a GSX-R600 Suzuki, trailed Jensen and his Yamaha YZF-R6 for most of the 20-lap race. He managed to grab brief leads twice in the mid-point of the race, but the real battle occurred in the final two laps.

“It was real aggressive…everything we did was aggressive,” Wood pointed out. “It was good, hard racing and we were both happy at the end…no bad feelings and that’s the way we like it.” On the last lap alone, Wood estimated that the lead changed six times.

“With two laps to go my plan was just to get on his tail for the last lap and find an opening and that’s what I did,” Woods pointed out. “I knew I couldn’t lead him over the start/finish line because he could get me on the straights. At one point, I thought I had it, then he got me back, and I got it again, and he got me back…it was just back and forth like that.”

Wood finished with a 0.206-second advantage over Jensen, while Mike Himmelsbach on a Yamaha YZF-R6 rounded out the podium. As if the Woods and Jensen battle wasn’t enough, there was an even tighter gap for fourth place, with Scott Harwell on a GSX-R600 Suzuki shooting slightly ahead of Brian Stokes on a another Suzuki GSX-R600 to grab the fourth place spot. Officially, Stokes finished 0.019-second behind Harwell for fifth.

Chuck Sorensen won the USGPRU 250cc GP race–run in conjunction with F-USA–on an Aprilia RSV250, beating Brian Kcraget, who had to come from the back row of the grid because he qualified on his RS125 and raced his RS250. Sorensen, pulled away from the beginning and built up an eight-second lead by race’s end. He stated after the race that he will put the Aprilia away and return to AMA Nationals for the final three rounds for 2004. Sean Wray finished third on a Yamaha TZ250.

In the first Formula USA race of the day, Jensen won the SuperBike race, having another close battle with Wood. Jensen finished 0.334-second ahead of Wood, while Himmelsbach rounded out the podium.

Bryan Bemisderfer won the ThunderBike final on a 1200cc Buell XB9R, finishing ahead Derek Keyes and his Suzuki SV650. David Yaakov, on another SV650, finished third.

A broken shift linkage on Kcraget’s RS125 handed 14-year-old Californian Josh Herrin a win in the USGPRU 125cc Grand Prix race. Kcraget had an eight-second lead when the linkage broke, and ran the final four laps with the bike stuck in second gear. Both Herrin and Kcraget rode RS125 Hondas. Herrin finished 13.250-seconds ahead of runner-up Todd Puckett, who was riding another RS125 Honda. Steven Wenner, also on a Honda RS125, rounded out the podium.

The final race of the day, Formula Sportbike, was shortened to nine laps after numerous red flags pushed the races close to the mandatory shut-down time for local noise ordinaces. Jensen collected his second win of the day by beating Brian Stokes, both on GSX-R750 Suzukis, in yet another close race. Harwell finished third.


F-USA Sportbike
19 laps
1. Jeff Wood, Suzuki GSX-R600
2. Rob Jensen, Yamaha YZF-R6
3. Mike Himmelsbach, Yamaha YZF-R6
4. Scott Harwell, Suzuki GSX-R600
5. Brian Stokes, Suzuki GSX-R600
6. Des Conboy, Yamaha YZF-R6
7. David Weber, Suzuki GSX-R600
8. Michael Garofalo, Suzuki GSX-R600
9. Trey Yonce, Yamaha YZF-R6
10. Joe Spina, Yamaha YZF-R6
11. Jason Smith, Yamaha YZF-R6
12. Derek Keyes, Yamaha YZF-R6
13. Carlo Gagliardo, Yamaha YZF-R6
14. Geoff Allen, Yamaha YZF-R6
15. Donny Kelley, Yamaha YZF-R6
16. Ray Bowman, Honda CBR600RR
17. Hector Jimenez, Yamaha YZF-R6, 17 laps
18. Justin Filice, Honda CBR600RR, 16 laps, DNF
19. William Meyers II, Yamaha YZF-R6, 10 laps, DNF
20. Nick Cummings, Honda CBR600RR, 4 laps, DNF



F-USA Superbike
19 laps
1. Rob Jensen, Yamaha YZF-R6
2. Jeff Wood, Suzuki GSX-R600
3. Mike Himmelsbach, Yamaha YZF-R6
4. Chuck Sorensen, Aprilia RSV250
5. Scott Harwell, Suzuki GSX-R600
6. Chris Ulrich, Suzuki GSX-R600
7. Simon Turner, Yamaha YZF-R6
8. Des Conboy, Yamaha YZF-R6
9. Michael Garofalo, Suzuki GSX-R600
10. Joe Spina, Yamaha YZF-R6
11. Jason SMith, Yamaha YZF-R6
12. Joe Arico, Yamaha YZF-R6
13. Donny Kelley, Yamaha YZF-R6
14. Hector Jimenez, Yamaha YZF-R6
15. Kevin Gordon, Suzuki GSX-R600
16. Gus Holcomb, Honda CBR600RR
17. Justin Filice, Honda CBR600RR
18. Brian Baker, Suzuki GSX-R600
19. Greg Ludt, Yamaha YZF-R6
20. Ned Brown
21. Nick Cummings, Honda CBR600RR, 12 laps, DNF
22. Marcus Winfree, Suzuki GSX-R600, 12 laps, DNF
23. Tim Bemisderfer, Honda CBR600RR, 11 laps, DNF
24. Ryan Patterson, Yamaha YZF-R6, 8 laps, DNF
25. David Weber, Suzuki GSX-R600, 2 laps, DNF
26. Carlos Gagliardo, Yamaha YZF-R7, 1 lap, DNF



F-USA Thunderbike
1. Bryan Bemisderfer, Buell XB9R
2. Derek Keyes, Suzuki SV650
3. Derek Keyes, Suzuki SV650
4. Edward Repkoe, Suzuki SV650
5. Darren Danilowicz, Suzuki SV650
6. Dan Bilansky, Buell XB9R
7. Jeff Johnson, Buell XB9R
8. Josh Guyer, Buell
9. Russ Masecar, Suzuki SV650
10. Joey Thomas, Suzuki SV650



F-USA Formula Sportbike (all Suzuki GSX-R750)
1. Ron Jensen
2. Brian Stokes
3. Scott Harwell
4. Scott Carpenter
5. John McGarity
6. Joe Ribeiro
7. Dave Ebben
8. Matt Malterer
9. Kevin Gordon
10. Chuck Juhasz


USGPRU 250cc Grand Prix
1. Chuck Sorensen, Aprilia RSV250
2. Brian Kcraget, Honda RS250
3. Sean Wray, Yamaha TZ250
4. Steve Wenner, Honda RS250
5. Josh Herrin, Honda RS125
6. Scott McNew, Honda RS250
7. Mark Stiles, Yamaha TZ250
8. Brian Roach, Yamaha TZ250
9. Patrick Dowd, Yamaha TZ250
10. Eric Yoo, Honda RS125


USGPRU 125cc Grand Prix (all Honda RS125)
1. Josh Herrin
2. Todd Puckett
3. Steve Wenner
4. Eric Yoo
5. John Hjelm
6. Steve Gorrell
7. Frank Guadagnino
8. Dale Greenwood Jr.
9. Gregor Halenda
10. Mike Orien
11. Brian Kcraget