Results:
1. Lucio Cecchinello, Aprilia
2. Toni Elias, Honda, -0.573 second
3. Manuel Poggiali, Gilera, -6.764 seconds
4. Steve Jenkner, Aprilia, -6.854 seconds
5. Youchi Ui, Derbi
6. Pablo Nieto, Derbi
7. Daniel Pedrosa, Honda
8. Joan Olive, Honda
9. Alex de Angelis, Honda
10. Simone Sanna, Aprilia
The schedule for the AMA National at New Hampshire International Speedway at Loudon, New Hampshire has been revised in a bid to beat threatening rainstorms. The new schedule is as follows:
600cc Supersport, 11:00 a.m., 24 laps
Superbike, 12:00 p.m., 39 laps
250cc Grand Prix, TBA, 24 laps
Buell Pro Thunder, TBA, 24 laps
Jimmy Adamo Memorial, TBA, 10 laps
Sidecar, TBA, 8 laps
Teams and riders who are running in both the 600cc Supersport and Superbike races objected to the schedule change because it will require riders to run 63 consecutive laps on the difficult track.
Al Ludington, who tunes for Eric Bostrom, said “That just screws Eric. It’s just another example of the AMA knuckling under to the track instead of saying, ‘We can’t do that.'”
Vic Fasola, who works with Aaron Yates, said “It sucks. It’s stupid. I mean, 63 laps around this place? Physically, how do you plan on doing that? Several of the top riders will be at a very big disadvantage.”
1. Jamie Hacking, Suzuki, 1:12.670
2. John Hopkins, Suzuki, 1:12.718
3. Aaron Yates, Suzuki, 1:12.767
4. Eric Bostrom, Kawasaki, 1:12.861
5. Tommy Hayden, Yamaha, 1:12.973
6. Roger Lee Hayden, Honda, 1:13.488
7. Josh Hayes, Honda, 1:13.596
8. Grant Lopez, Suzuki, 1:13.879
9. Miguel Duhamel, Honda, 1:13.918
10. Jake Zemke, Honda, 1:14.050
11. Tom Kipp, Suzuki, 1:14.126
12. Scott Greenwood, Suzuki, 1:14.726
13. Aaron Gobert, Yamaha, 1:15.188
14. Vince Haskovec, Suzuki, 1:15.221
15. Jimmy Moore, Suzuki, 1:16.335
16. David Ortega, Suzuki, 1:16.359
17. Tyler Wadsworth, Yamaha, 1:16.395
18. Owen Richey, Yamaha, 1:16.582
19. Daigoro Suzuki, Kawasaki, 1:16.782
20. Roland Williams, Suzuki, 1:17.065
21. Paul Hopkins, Yamaha, 1:17.770
22. David Schweitzer, Honda, 1:20.021
23. Justin Blake, Honda, 1:20.307
24. John Salemi, Honda, 1:23.107
25. Dale Seaton, Yamaha, 1:33.914
Prior to the rain delay, Corbin Yamaha’s Jim Filice was fastest in 250cc Grand Prix practice at Loudon.
1. Jim Filice, Yamaha, 1:12.939
2. Rich Oliver, Yamaha, 1:13.198
3. Chuck Sorensen, Yamaha, 1:13.479
4. Jeff Wood, Yamaha, 1:13.480
5. Michael Hannas, Yamaha, 1:14.306
6. Perry Melneciuc, Yamaha, 1:14.442
7. Simon Turner, Yamaha, 1:15.093
8. Mike Himmelsbach, Aprilia, 1:15.104
9. Derek MacKelvie King, Honda, 1:15.288
10. Ed Marchini, Yamaha, 1:15.755
11. Bill Himmelsbach, Yamaha, 1:15.909
12. Chris Pyles, Yamaha, 1:16.402
13. Ed Sorbo, Yamaha, 1:16.451
14. Cory West, Yamaha, 1:16.586
15. Greg Esser, Honda, 1:16.808
16. Steve Scott, Yamaha, 1:16.824
17. Hus Holcomb, Yamaha, 1:17.121
18. Tyler Henshaw, Yamaha, 1:17.190
19. Chris Holske, Yamaha, 1:17.398
20. Stuart Nodell, Honda, 1:17.966
Mat Mladin was fastest in Superbike practice at Loudon Sunday morning, before the rain delay.
The big news was Pascal Picotte getting into the 1:10s on the Harley-Davidson VR1000. Times follow:
1. Mat Mladin, 1:10.018
2. Aaron Yates, 1:10.138
3. Eric Bostrom, 1:10.700
4. Pascal Picotte, 1:10.987
5. Nicky Hayden, 1:11.098
6. Doug Chandler, 1:11.207
7. Steve Rapp, 1:11.316
8. Jamie Hacking, 1:11.322
9. Tommy Hayden, 1:11.380
10. Miguel Duhamel, 1:11.952
11. Larry Pegram, 1:12.106
12. Mike Smith, 1:12.454
13. Andreas Meklau, 1:12.654
14. Mike Ciccotto, 1:13.062*
15. Jordan Szoke, 1:13.591
16. Michael Barnes, 1:14.671*
17. Mauro Cereda, 1:15.754*
18. Michael Gallagher, 1:15.920*
19. Tony Meiring, 1:15.982*
20. Dean Mizdal, 1:16.047
*=750cc Supersport bike
Honda’s Daijiro Katoh beat Aprilia’s Tetsuya Harada by 0.114-second to win the 250cc Grand Prix at Catalunya, Spain Sunday. Results follow:
1. Daijiro Katoh, Honda
2. Tetsuya Harada, Aprilia
3. Roberto Rolfo, Aprilia
4. Roberto Locatelli, Aprilia
5. Fonsi Nieto, Aprilia
6. Jeremy McWilliams, Aprilia
7. Emilio Alzamora, Honda
8. Randy de Puniet, Aprilia
9. Alex Hofmann, Aprilia
10. Naoki Matsudo, Yamaha
16. Katja Poensgen, Aprilia
AMA Pro Racing Director Of Competition Merrill Vanderslice “played hardball” (in Grant Lopez’s terms) with riders in refusing to allow a warm-up session to judge track conditions after using jet blowers to dry off the track at New Hampshire International Speedway in Loudon, New Hampshire, resulting in no professional riders taking the grid.
The race started with 12 riders, mostly LRRS locals, on the grid and as this is posted the leader is Scott Greenwood followed by Paul Hopkins, John Salemi, Matthew Silva and Roland Williams.
According to AMA Media Relations Contractor Larry Lawrence, officials were concerned with getting the race in before it resumed raining and believed they had to get the race going quickly.
Attack Suzuki’s Tom Kipp took a warm-up lap and pitted, reported to his crew that the track was fine, but declined to race because of the way the situation was handled.
Lopez also wanted to race, but declined to do so because of the way Vanderslice handled the situation, Lopez explaining later that the confrontation could have been entirely avoided with better communication and less dictatorial tactics by AMA officials.
John Hopkins also wanted to race but decided not to because he was denied his request for a warm-up session.
The race was red-flagged with the leader on his 20th lap when several crashed in short order as it started to rain again.
Arclight Suzuki’s Scott Harwell was the star of the show Saturday at the WERA Cycle Jam at Virginia International Raceway during Saturday’s Sportsman sprint races. Hailing from nearby Hickory, North Carolina, Harwell scored two wins and a third on Metzeler DOT-labeled tires. Jason Peters and Brian Stokes each took home two wins while Paul Harrell set a new motorcycle lap record in front of a huge turnout of racers and fans.
Harwell’s first win came in A Superstock on his GSX-1000. Harwell caught and passed early leader Larry Denning at the halfway point. As Harwell slowly built his advantage over Denning, Shogun Motorsports’ Paul Harrell was charging from the back of the grid. Harrell broke the track record on lap six with a 1:30.43, passed Denning on the final circuit, and crossed the line second behind Harwell. After the race, Harrell withdrew because his Yamaha YZF-R1 was not legal for the A Superstock class. Harwell and the Shogun team are using the WERA weekend as a testing weekend for the Formula USA event to follow two weeks from now.
Harwell’s second win came from an extremely hard-fought battle with Vesrah Suzuki’s Glenn Szarek. With both riders on Metzeler DOT-equipped TL1000Rs, Harwell and Szarek spent more time leaning on each other at VIR than following one another. Harwell made an inside move to pass Szarek on lap six of eight and held on to the lead with the help of some lapped riders, Szarek was one bikelength behind Harwell at the finish line with BCM Motors/Project Monza’s Bill St. John on his Ducati 748/800.
M&M Racing’s Brian Stokes took a pair of wins as well. Stokes got the holeshot in B Superstock and ran away with lap times as low as 1:31.4. Harwell was in second, but Szarek came from the second wave to pass Harwell in the new braking area, created by the track from feedback from motorcycle racers, leading to the “Roller Coaster” on the last lap. Szarek took second
with Harwell third.
Stokes got the best start in C Superstock on his GSX-R600 but had to battle the entire eight laps with CAD Racing’s David Yaakov and 4&6 Racing’s Larry Denning. Yaakov held a small margin at the start/ finish line for the first six laps. On lap seven, the three riders were side-by-side and bumping fairings as they came through the front straightaway’s 140 mph kink. The lead trio exchanged positions for the last two laps, but Stokes used the draft to take the win by a wheel over Denning and Yaakov at the stripe.
Denning came back later to win handily in C Superbike with used Pirelli tires on his Yamaha YZF-R6. Later riding his R1, Denning led Formula One on lap two. On lap three, Shogun Motorsports’ Joe Prussiano riding his F-USA-spec Yamaha YZF-R1 went past Denning on the front straight and held on for the win. Denning took second ahead of Fasttrax’s Douglas Duane and Team Xtreme’s Jamie Lane.
Jason Peters won in 125 Grand Prix and Formula Two on his Trip Bellinger-built Honda RS125. In the F2 sprint, Peters was able to win over RS250-mounted Jason DiSalvo. Cruise America Grand Prix Racing’s DiSalvo was in attendance to earn an invitation to the WERA Grand National Finals in October, but jetting problems slowed DiSalvo to second place in Formula Two. Steve Reeves, the winner of the WERA Formula Two National at Talladega last month, finished third in Formula Two today.
Sunday will be round four of the WERA National Challenge Series with practice starting at 8:30 a.m. and racing starting at 12:30 p.m.
Rain started to fall at about 10:30 a.m. Sunday, bring racing activities to a halt at New Hampshire International Speedway in Loudon, New Hampshire.
In an effort to avoid alienating spectators with a rain-forced halt in activities for the second year in a row, race promoters and track owners Bob and Gary Bahre have discussed posting a $20,000 purse for an LRRS run-what-ya-brung, Unlimited Grand Prix race. But under terms of the AMA sanction agreement, any such race must be signed off on by AMA officials, and it is unknown at post time whether or not officials will agree to the idea.
In related news, NHIS Motorcycle Safety Director Jerry Wood revealed that the track owners yesterday expressed dismay that AMA Superbike Operations Manager Ron Barrick had not requested additional changes to the road course to address rider concerns. “They said to Barrick, tell us what you need, and we’ll do it,” Wood said.
Wood pointed out that two years ago he personally took Mat Mladin on a tour of the course, asked him what needed to be changed, and that the track then made every change requested by Mladin. But despite that effort, Wood said, Mladin continues to criticize the track and has complained that the track has not made any additional changes. “He hasn’t asked for anything else to be changed,” Wood said. “We did everything he asked for.”
Anthony Gobert, back at the track on Saturday, said this about his crash during Friday’s Superbike qualifying session, which he was leading at the time, about 20 minutes into the 1-hour session:
“I put on a hard tire and highsided at the top of the hill. I just didn’t give it enough time to come in. The back end came around on me at the top of the hill and sent me over the handlebars. I just got caught out by running hard tires because I never run ’em. I knew before hard tires weren’t really my friend. This is a hard way to learn it. Nothing against Dunlop, it just needs a couple of laps to come in. It was my mistake.”
Results:
1. Lucio Cecchinello, Aprilia
2. Toni Elias, Honda, -0.573 second
3. Manuel Poggiali, Gilera, -6.764 seconds
4. Steve Jenkner, Aprilia, -6.854 seconds
5. Youchi Ui, Derbi
6. Pablo Nieto, Derbi
7. Daniel Pedrosa, Honda
8. Joan Olive, Honda
9. Alex de Angelis, Honda
10. Simone Sanna, Aprilia
The schedule for the AMA National at New Hampshire International Speedway at Loudon, New Hampshire has been revised in a bid to beat threatening rainstorms. The new schedule is as follows:
600cc Supersport, 11:00 a.m., 24 laps
Superbike, 12:00 p.m., 39 laps
250cc Grand Prix, TBA, 24 laps
Buell Pro Thunder, TBA, 24 laps
Jimmy Adamo Memorial, TBA, 10 laps
Sidecar, TBA, 8 laps
Teams and riders who are running in both the 600cc Supersport and Superbike races objected to the schedule change because it will require riders to run 63 consecutive laps on the difficult track.
Al Ludington, who tunes for Eric Bostrom, said “That just screws Eric. It’s just another example of the AMA knuckling under to the track instead of saying, ‘We can’t do that.'”
Vic Fasola, who works with Aaron Yates, said “It sucks. It’s stupid. I mean, 63 laps around this place? Physically, how do you plan on doing that? Several of the top riders will be at a very big disadvantage.”
1. Jamie Hacking, Suzuki, 1:12.670
2. John Hopkins, Suzuki, 1:12.718
3. Aaron Yates, Suzuki, 1:12.767
4. Eric Bostrom, Kawasaki, 1:12.861
5. Tommy Hayden, Yamaha, 1:12.973
6. Roger Lee Hayden, Honda, 1:13.488
7. Josh Hayes, Honda, 1:13.596
8. Grant Lopez, Suzuki, 1:13.879
9. Miguel Duhamel, Honda, 1:13.918
10. Jake Zemke, Honda, 1:14.050
11. Tom Kipp, Suzuki, 1:14.126
12. Scott Greenwood, Suzuki, 1:14.726
13. Aaron Gobert, Yamaha, 1:15.188
14. Vince Haskovec, Suzuki, 1:15.221
15. Jimmy Moore, Suzuki, 1:16.335
16. David Ortega, Suzuki, 1:16.359
17. Tyler Wadsworth, Yamaha, 1:16.395
18. Owen Richey, Yamaha, 1:16.582
19. Daigoro Suzuki, Kawasaki, 1:16.782
20. Roland Williams, Suzuki, 1:17.065
21. Paul Hopkins, Yamaha, 1:17.770
22. David Schweitzer, Honda, 1:20.021
23. Justin Blake, Honda, 1:20.307
24. John Salemi, Honda, 1:23.107
25. Dale Seaton, Yamaha, 1:33.914
Prior to the rain delay, Corbin Yamaha’s Jim Filice was fastest in 250cc Grand Prix practice at Loudon.
1. Jim Filice, Yamaha, 1:12.939
2. Rich Oliver, Yamaha, 1:13.198
3. Chuck Sorensen, Yamaha, 1:13.479
4. Jeff Wood, Yamaha, 1:13.480
5. Michael Hannas, Yamaha, 1:14.306
6. Perry Melneciuc, Yamaha, 1:14.442
7. Simon Turner, Yamaha, 1:15.093
8. Mike Himmelsbach, Aprilia, 1:15.104
9. Derek MacKelvie King, Honda, 1:15.288
10. Ed Marchini, Yamaha, 1:15.755
11. Bill Himmelsbach, Yamaha, 1:15.909
12. Chris Pyles, Yamaha, 1:16.402
13. Ed Sorbo, Yamaha, 1:16.451
14. Cory West, Yamaha, 1:16.586
15. Greg Esser, Honda, 1:16.808
16. Steve Scott, Yamaha, 1:16.824
17. Hus Holcomb, Yamaha, 1:17.121
18. Tyler Henshaw, Yamaha, 1:17.190
19. Chris Holske, Yamaha, 1:17.398
20. Stuart Nodell, Honda, 1:17.966
Mat Mladin was fastest in Superbike practice at Loudon Sunday morning, before the rain delay.
The big news was Pascal Picotte getting into the 1:10s on the Harley-Davidson VR1000. Times follow:
1. Mat Mladin, 1:10.018
2. Aaron Yates, 1:10.138
3. Eric Bostrom, 1:10.700
4. Pascal Picotte, 1:10.987
5. Nicky Hayden, 1:11.098
6. Doug Chandler, 1:11.207
7. Steve Rapp, 1:11.316
8. Jamie Hacking, 1:11.322
9. Tommy Hayden, 1:11.380
10. Miguel Duhamel, 1:11.952
11. Larry Pegram, 1:12.106
12. Mike Smith, 1:12.454
13. Andreas Meklau, 1:12.654
14. Mike Ciccotto, 1:13.062*
15. Jordan Szoke, 1:13.591
16. Michael Barnes, 1:14.671*
17. Mauro Cereda, 1:15.754*
18. Michael Gallagher, 1:15.920*
19. Tony Meiring, 1:15.982*
20. Dean Mizdal, 1:16.047
*=750cc Supersport bike
Honda’s Daijiro Katoh beat Aprilia’s Tetsuya Harada by 0.114-second to win the 250cc Grand Prix at Catalunya, Spain Sunday. Results follow:
1. Daijiro Katoh, Honda
2. Tetsuya Harada, Aprilia
3. Roberto Rolfo, Aprilia
4. Roberto Locatelli, Aprilia
5. Fonsi Nieto, Aprilia
6. Jeremy McWilliams, Aprilia
7. Emilio Alzamora, Honda
8. Randy de Puniet, Aprilia
9. Alex Hofmann, Aprilia
10. Naoki Matsudo, Yamaha
16. Katja Poensgen, Aprilia
AMA Pro Racing Director Of Competition Merrill Vanderslice “played hardball” (in Grant Lopez’s terms) with riders in refusing to allow a warm-up session to judge track conditions after using jet blowers to dry off the track at New Hampshire International Speedway in Loudon, New Hampshire, resulting in no professional riders taking the grid.
The race started with 12 riders, mostly LRRS locals, on the grid and as this is posted the leader is Scott Greenwood followed by Paul Hopkins, John Salemi, Matthew Silva and Roland Williams.
According to AMA Media Relations Contractor Larry Lawrence, officials were concerned with getting the race in before it resumed raining and believed they had to get the race going quickly.
Attack Suzuki’s Tom Kipp took a warm-up lap and pitted, reported to his crew that the track was fine, but declined to race because of the way the situation was handled.
Lopez also wanted to race, but declined to do so because of the way Vanderslice handled the situation, Lopez explaining later that the confrontation could have been entirely avoided with better communication and less dictatorial tactics by AMA officials.
John Hopkins also wanted to race but decided not to because he was denied his request for a warm-up session.
The race was red-flagged with the leader on his 20th lap when several crashed in short order as it started to rain again.
Arclight Suzuki’s Scott Harwell was the star of the show Saturday at the WERA Cycle Jam at Virginia International Raceway during Saturday’s Sportsman sprint races. Hailing from nearby Hickory, North Carolina, Harwell scored two wins and a third on Metzeler DOT-labeled tires. Jason Peters and Brian Stokes each took home two wins while Paul Harrell set a new motorcycle lap record in front of a huge turnout of racers and fans.
Harwell’s first win came in A Superstock on his GSX-1000. Harwell caught and passed early leader Larry Denning at the halfway point. As Harwell slowly built his advantage over Denning, Shogun Motorsports’ Paul Harrell was charging from the back of the grid. Harrell broke the track record on lap six with a 1:30.43, passed Denning on the final circuit, and crossed the line second behind Harwell. After the race, Harrell withdrew because his Yamaha YZF-R1 was not legal for the A Superstock class. Harwell and the Shogun team are using the WERA weekend as a testing weekend for the Formula USA event to follow two weeks from now.
Harwell’s second win came from an extremely hard-fought battle with Vesrah Suzuki’s Glenn Szarek. With both riders on Metzeler DOT-equipped TL1000Rs, Harwell and Szarek spent more time leaning on each other at VIR than following one another. Harwell made an inside move to pass Szarek on lap six of eight and held on to the lead with the help of some lapped riders, Szarek was one bikelength behind Harwell at the finish line with BCM Motors/Project Monza’s Bill St. John on his Ducati 748/800.
M&M Racing’s Brian Stokes took a pair of wins as well. Stokes got the holeshot in B Superstock and ran away with lap times as low as 1:31.4. Harwell was in second, but Szarek came from the second wave to pass Harwell in the new braking area, created by the track from feedback from motorcycle racers, leading to the “Roller Coaster” on the last lap. Szarek took second
with Harwell third.
Stokes got the best start in C Superstock on his GSX-R600 but had to battle the entire eight laps with CAD Racing’s David Yaakov and 4&6 Racing’s Larry Denning. Yaakov held a small margin at the start/ finish line for the first six laps. On lap seven, the three riders were side-by-side and bumping fairings as they came through the front straightaway’s 140 mph kink. The lead trio exchanged positions for the last two laps, but Stokes used the draft to take the win by a wheel over Denning and Yaakov at the stripe.
Denning came back later to win handily in C Superbike with used Pirelli tires on his Yamaha YZF-R6. Later riding his R1, Denning led Formula One on lap two. On lap three, Shogun Motorsports’ Joe Prussiano riding his F-USA-spec Yamaha YZF-R1 went past Denning on the front straight and held on for the win. Denning took second ahead of Fasttrax’s Douglas Duane and Team Xtreme’s Jamie Lane.
Jason Peters won in 125 Grand Prix and Formula Two on his Trip Bellinger-built Honda RS125. In the F2 sprint, Peters was able to win over RS250-mounted Jason DiSalvo. Cruise America Grand Prix Racing’s DiSalvo was in attendance to earn an invitation to the WERA Grand National Finals in October, but jetting problems slowed DiSalvo to second place in Formula Two. Steve Reeves, the winner of the WERA Formula Two National at Talladega last month, finished third in Formula Two today.
Sunday will be round four of the WERA National Challenge Series with practice starting at 8:30 a.m. and racing starting at 12:30 p.m.
Rain started to fall at about 10:30 a.m. Sunday, bring racing activities to a halt at New Hampshire International Speedway in Loudon, New Hampshire.
In an effort to avoid alienating spectators with a rain-forced halt in activities for the second year in a row, race promoters and track owners Bob and Gary Bahre have discussed posting a $20,000 purse for an LRRS run-what-ya-brung, Unlimited Grand Prix race. But under terms of the AMA sanction agreement, any such race must be signed off on by AMA officials, and it is unknown at post time whether or not officials will agree to the idea.
In related news, NHIS Motorcycle Safety Director Jerry Wood revealed that the track owners yesterday expressed dismay that AMA Superbike Operations Manager Ron Barrick had not requested additional changes to the road course to address rider concerns. “They said to Barrick, tell us what you need, and we’ll do it,” Wood said.
Wood pointed out that two years ago he personally took Mat Mladin on a tour of the course, asked him what needed to be changed, and that the track then made every change requested by Mladin. But despite that effort, Wood said, Mladin continues to criticize the track and has complained that the track has not made any additional changes. “He hasn’t asked for anything else to be changed,” Wood said. “We did everything he asked for.”
Anthony Gobert, back at the track on Saturday, said this about his crash during Friday’s Superbike qualifying session, which he was leading at the time, about 20 minutes into the 1-hour session:
“I put on a hard tire and highsided at the top of the hill. I just didn’t give it enough time to come in. The back end came around on me at the top of the hill and sent me over the handlebars. I just got caught out by running hard tires because I never run ’em. I knew before hard tires weren’t really my friend. This is a hard way to learn it. Nothing against Dunlop, it just needs a couple of laps to come in. It was my mistake.”
