The Moon was full and bright at night Mother Nature was Happy the riders showed up and put on a great show Round #1 of the WERA National Challenge Series was AWESOME!
Friday was practice on the 2.0 mile Roebling Road Raceway outside of Savannah, GA and qualifying for the 600cc Expert Superstock Class which would run on Sunday. Garrett Gerloff out of Vero Beach, FL took top honors with a 1:11.204 followed by Jake Lewis from Princeton, KY with a 1:12.108 and third went to Garrick Schneiderman all the way from Monticello, IA with a 1:13.111 Sunday was shaping up to be very competitive!
Saturday the WERA National Endurance took to the track for 4 hours of racing. BEI Racing with their Suzuki 1000 had Billy Ethridge, Tim Bemisderfer and Brian Stokes share riding duties and put the BEI machine on top of the podium and first in the Heavyweight Superbike Class. #825 Run 1 Racing/MouseBox Racing took their Yamaha 600 to the second spot on the podium and 1st in the Mediumweight Superbike Class with riding duties going to Tim Hunt and Miles Thornton 3rd on the podium was Chuck Ivey’s TVR 131 on a Yamaha 600 with Chuck sharing the riding with Shane Williams. The Lightweight Superbike Class win went to Team Kinetic on their Suzuki SV650 with Rob Turner, Chris Parrish, Tim Birdsong and Michael Wischmeyer riding. For full results check www.wera.com!
Sunday the Michelin/WERA Nationals combined with the Pirelli/Sportsman Series saw the clouds giving everyone some cooler temperatures and the racing was fierce Tim Hunt took his Suzuki 1000 to the win in Open Superstock Expert and Nikk Rogers took his Kawasaki 1000 to the top of the Novice podium; the much anticipated 600 Superstock Final saw Garrett Gerolff on his Yamaha 600 and Jake Lewis on his Yamaha 600 battle for the top honors James Cohrs took the final spot on the podium on his Yamaha 600. The fastest time in the race was Gerloff at a 1:10.953. Curtis Murray on his Suzuki 600 took first in the 600 Superstock Novice class followed by David Allison on his Honda 600 and Kenneth Liedy on his Suzuki 600. Formula 2 had Trey Yonce on a Suzuki SV650 take top honors for the Experts and Jeff Kulchinski on his SV650 took the Novice top honors.750 Superstock saw Jake Lewis take his first win followed by Jimmy Merck and David Pullen for the Experts. Curtis Murray, Ian Coleman and Dan Crawford were the top three Novices in 750 Superstock. The Pirelli/WERA Sportsman Formula 1 race went to Bemisderfer on a BMW1000 with Reese Wacker and Luie Zendejas rounding out the top 3. Nikk Rogers, Bobby Stoker and Andrew Fahsholtz were the podium for the Novices. Palmer Kling won the 125 GP race. 600 Superbike saw a reverse in the top two with Jake Lewis taking a win over Garrett Gerloff and James Cohrs in third Novice 600 Superbike was Curtis Murray, Jamie Lee Murray and Joe Melendez on the box. Giovanni Rojas took the win in Heavyweight Superstock Expert and Andrew J. Sidwell was the Heavyweight Superstock Novice winner. Lightweight Superbike saw Yonce take take another first with Jon Couch and Allan Burley rounding out top 3. The WERA Superbike Class gave everyone the best show of the day when Tim Bemisderfer, Tim Hunt and Luie Zendejas went at it for the 12 laps Bemisderfer came out on the top of the box on his BMW1000 with Hunt behind on his Suzuki by only 0.205 at the line and Zendejas on his Suzuki behind Hunt for third. Rogers took another Novice win with Stoker and Matthew Dalke rounding the Novice A Superbike podium. You can find all the results from this past weekend’s races on www.wera.com.
Round #2 of the WERA National Challenge Series moves to Talladega on April 8/9/10 with the WERA National Endurance Series and the Michelin/WERA National Challenge Sprints. Also in April catch the Pirelli/WERA Sportsman Series presented by Lucas Oils at Las Vegas Motorspeedway featuring the SRA-West Sidecars and the Pirelli/WERA Sportsman at Summit Point Raceway on the 2nd and 3rd of April! Come on out and join us in 2011. Tickets are always available at the gate for any WERA Motorcycle Roadracing event. For more information check out the WERA website at www.wera.com!
More, from a press release issued by KWS Motorsports:
KWS Motorsports and Millennium Technologies Dominate the WERA National at Roebling Road Raceway!
Charleston, SC March, 2011 KWS Motorsports customers and sponsored riders dominated the action at the first WERA National of the year at Roebling Road Raceway this weekend with seven wins and fifteen podiums! Tim Hunt, Jake Lewis, and Trey Yonce all came away with multiple wins and fifteen year-old Lewis turned the fastest lap of the event!
Millennium Technologies sponsored, fifteen-year old Jake Lewis was the star of the show this weekend at Roebling Road Raceway. This was Jake’s first time riding the KWS Motorsports-built Earls Race Team R6 and he impressed right away by qualifying second Friday, with a time of 1:12.108 on only his second visit to the famous Savannah, GA track. With help from Race Tech Suspensions Lenny Albin, Lewis was able to go faster every time he went out, but still had a lot of work to do to catch Garrett Gerloff on his Monster Energy Graves Yamaha. In the first race on Sunday, Jake had to struggle to get second place in 600 Superstock after running off the track. Meanwhile Gerloff went on to win and break the 600cc track record by turning a time of 1:10.953. In 600 Superbike Jake was determined to not make any mistakes and not let Gerloff get away. Jake went on to turn a lap of 1:10.639 on the second-to-last lap, passing Gerloff at the line for the win. This was the fastest time recorded during the entire event and only a tenth of a second off the overall track record of 1:10.538 set by Tim Hunt in 2010. Jake also went on to win both 750 Superstock and 750 Superbike by more than ten seconds.
Apex Road Racing’s Tim Hunt didn’t have to break his own track record on his way to wins in Open Superstock and Senior Superbike on his Dunlop Shod, Millennium Technologies sponsored GSX-R1000. Hunt also finished on the podium in WERA Superbike.
Luie Zendejas continued to develop the BMW S1000RR with KWS Motorsport’s Michael Godin and Ohlins USA’s Eric Knight. Zendejas made progress every time he went on track with the ultra-fast BMW, turning his best time ever at Roebling with a lap of 1:11.975 on his way to a podium finish in Open Superstock, Formula One, and WERA Superbike.
Roebling Road specialist Trey Yonce dominated the lightweight classes with wins in Formula Two and Lightweight Twins Superbike in his Dunlop sponsored KWS Motorsports Suzuki SV650. Friend of the shop and all around good guy Scott Carpenter finished on the podium in Senior Superbike on a Michelin Shod KWS Motorsports GSX-R1000.
Luie Zendejas “The BMW Motorcycles of Riverside S1000RR that KWS Motorsports built ran great all weekend and I am very happy with the progress we are making with the bike. We went faster than we have ever gone at Roebling and got three podium finishes. I still feel there is so much more potential in the Millennium Technologies sponsored S1000RR and with help from KWS and Ohlins USA, I feel confident that we will be on the top spot of the podium soon!
Jake Lewis “We had a Awesome weekend at Roebling! Three wins and a second my first weekend on the KWS Motorsports-built, Earl’s Racing R6 is a dream come true. When we came here for the first time a few weeks ago I never imagined that I could have gotten into the 10’s, but Garrett and I pushed each other hard in both races and we turned a lap only a tenth off the overall track record! I want to thank The Hayden Brothers General Store, Millennium Technologies, Apex Manufacturing, Roclun, STT, and of course my dad, Tryce and all the guys at KWS from their help with the bike!”
Tim Hunt “I couldn’t be more happy with how the weekend went. The KWS Motorsports-built, Millennium Technologies, Apex Roadracing GSX-R1000 is awesome! This is our the first weekend out on the bike and we were struggling a little with rear grip, but the guys at KWS and Race Tech helped us out and we came away with two wins and a podium. I can’t wait to go Talladega in April!”
KWS Motorsports (www.kwsmotorsports.com) is proudly sponsored by: Millennium Technologies, Ballistic Performance Components, Pit Bull, LeoVince Exhaust, Motion Pro, Bazzaz Performance, Yoyodyne, Worldwide Bearing, K&N Filters, Zero Gravity Windscreens, Spider Grips, and Motul Lubricants.
Luie Zendejas (www.luiezendejasracing.com/) is proudly sponsored by: KWS Motorsports, BMW Motorcycles of Riverside, Millennium Technologies, Ballistic Performance Components, Ohlins USA, Andrew Swenson Designs, Drippin Wet, LeoVince Exhaust, Bazzaz Performance, Armour Bodies, Arai Helmets, Motion Pro, K&N Filters, EBC Brakes, Cycle Gear, Zero Gravity Windscreens, VP Fuels, and Motul Lubricants.
Jake Lewis (www.jakelewis85.com/) is proudly sponsored by: Hayden Brothers General Store, Earl’s Racing Team, KWS Motorsports, Millennium Technologies, Apex Manufacturing, Sportbike Track Time, Roclun International, GMDATL.com, Race Tech, Princeton Pawn, Alpinestars, Arai, HotBodies, Vortex, Galfer, Dunlop, Oakley, RK, and Motul Lubricants.
Tim Hunt (www.apexroadracing.com/) is proudly sponsored by: KWS Motorsports, Millennium Technologies, Race Tech Suspension, Dunlop Tires, EBC Brakes, GPR Stabilizers, LeoVince Exhaust, VP Racing Fuels, Vortex, Arai Helmets, Hotbodies, Bazzaz, Heroic Leathers, K&N Filters, and Motul Lubricants.