Sutton Steals Cash as Walbon Wins 4 at WMRRA Season Opener
April 22 & 23, 2017 Pacific Raceways – Kent, WA
The Washington Motorcycle Road Racing Association stormed into its opening round of the 2017 season with host of new changes for the club and a brigade of hearty racers, determined to get through an environmentally taxing round. With announcing reintroduced, a plethora of new sponsors with its title sponsor being Legal Shield, live social media feeds, and bucket loads of purse money to be had as the spoils of war, the well attended event was full of excitement and anticipation.
After a Formula Ultra qualifying practice and lunch break, spectators and racers alike we ready to witness the matchup between 2x WMRRA #1 plate holder Ryan “Chromie” Sutton and local flat track phenom Mitchell Pierce, who was returning to road racing after doing a “for fun” round at the end of last season with very solid results. Pierce had the fastest time in qualifying, but conditions were sketchy on a damp track with rain clouds billowing in. Formula Ultra is WMRRA’s premier class and thanks to class sponsor 2Wheel Dyno Works, they posted up $1,000 of winner take all purse money for each race, attracting a sizable grid of riders wanting their chance at the loot in this 16lap scrap. As the eager crowd gathered to witness the battle, storm clouds wetted themselves all over the track, removing any doubt that this would be a rain race. Unfortunately, Squid 2 Grids rider Kevin Nanthrup had a nasty highside crash on the sighting lap exiting T4, causing the whole grid to be sent back to the pits while safety officials attended to him. During this time, the sun poked its head out from the clouds long enough to begin causing some to guess their tire choices. When the re-grid was called, all racers chose their rain tires, with the exception of Pirelli mounted Mitchell Pierce who chose a full slick setup, hoping the golden orb we stay out, drying the track enough to make his gamble pay off. Out went the light and BMW S1000rr mounted Sutton jumped to take the hole shot in T2, with Chase Glidden riding a Yamaha YZF-R1 nipping at his rear tire. Pierce, being careful on a damp track with slicks, wisely played an opening lap caboose in this Formula Ultra race train on his CBR1000rr. By the 1/2 way point in the race, Big Mamma Racing’s Glidden was still stuck to the back of SuperBike Underground’s Sutton, with a drying line beginning to appear. 2Wheel Dynoworks rider Pierce was able to finally take advantage of the drying line, however, too much gap had been put on him. He charged hard near the end gaining many positions, nearly setting the fast lap, yet finished 8th. Pierce would later go on to win the Moto Vixens OpenSS and Hinshaws Motorcycle Store OpenSB races during the weekend. As the final laps ensued, Ryan Sutton on Pirelli rain ties finally was able to put a small gap on the determined ex-drill sergeant Glidden to take the win. Glidden also on Pirelli rains, finished a very impressive 2nd, with last year’s WMRA #3 plate holder and new to 1000cc racing Wes Stults on his SuperBike Underground prepped BMW S1000rr taking the final podium spot, making it an all Pirelli podium.
Immediately following the race during the Formula Ultra awards ceremony, Sutton showed his signs of racing maturity by stating “I’ve worked hard all winter, paced myself to control that race and I’m so stoked to walk away with BMW contingency, as well as purse money. What a killer way to start my season!” $2,000 in BMW contingency and $1,000 in 2Wheel Dynoworks purse money is undeniably a great way to start a season. We’ll see if he can make it a streak in 3 weeks at the next round.
The iron man of the weekend goes to another successful WMRRA racer who raced 8 heats, earned 4 firsts, 2 seconds, and 2 DNF’s; 2Wheel Dynoworks’ Dustin Walbon. Dustin won the KFG Motorsports 600SB race, the SuperBike Underground 750SB class, the Cresap Orthotics & Prosthetics 750SS heat, and the Canright Construction MW GP Twins battle. His two 2nd’s came in the Hinshaw’s Motorcycle Store OpenSB race and the I-90 Motorsports 600SS class. All of these podiums came on his Pirelli mounted Kawasaki ZX-6R, with the exception of his Suzuki SV650 in MW GP Twins. Dustin was quite astonished he had such an amazing weekend during the awards ceremony Sunday evening by exclaiming, “I didn’t think such a great weekend was possible for me. I had so much fun racing in the rain and kept doing well!” Dustin may also be a bit surprised he is leading the overall points for WMRRA after the first round with 134 points, followed my Chase Glidden at 132 and Dunl op’s Dave Kohlstaedt at 117.
WMRRA’s next round is on May 13 & 14, 2017 at Pacific Raceways in Kent, WA. WMRRA is a not-for-profit race organization founded in 1974. For more information, please visit their website at www.wmrra.com