Narbonne Edges Greenwood to Repeat in LRRS
Loudon Classic winner makes it two in a row
Shane Narbonne claimed his second consecutive victory in the Loudon Road Race Series Middleweight Grand Prix on Saturday at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. The winner of the 92nd running of the Loudon Classic in June held off the hard-charging motorcycle of class points leader Scott Greenwood to preserve the win.
Eric Wood jumped to the point early to lead the first lap before Greenwood got around him early on Lap 2. The rider of the No. 4 Yamaha YZF-R6 held the lead for the next two laps, but couldn’t contend with the raw speed of Narbonne, who took the lead on the front straightaway on Lap 4.
The two continued to battle for several laps, but Greenwood was never able to find his way back around Narbonne.
“He definitely has his stronger points than I do,” Greenwood said of chasing after the race winner. “A lot of the drives, he’s amazing at the drives. And then I have my stronger points where I roll back up on to him in the brakes or sometimes mid-corner.”
The race finish was much closer than when Narbonne ran away with the Loudon Classic a month ago, and that impressed the rider of the No. 64 Yamaha R6.
“I didn’t think Scotty [Greenwood] would be going that fast. He wasn’t going that fast this morning (in practice),” Narbonne said. “This race was good. I had control, so if I needed to go faster I knew that I could.”
After his early lead, Wood settled into third place to earn his fourth podium in four races on the season, and is still looking for his first win in the class since May 2014.
“If there’s a positive thing that we can take from this race, it’s that we could run consistent times right from the beginning to the end,” said Wood about his race.
Rounding out the top-10 behind the podium were Christian Cronin, Kristofer Knopf, Kip Peterson, Joel Allen, Michael Weyant, Alexander Guilbeault, and Timothy Barber. Cole Hall was the top finishing Amateur.
The Loudon Road Race Series will return to NHMS for its fifth of seven race weekends on August 15-16.