A big thank-you goes out to the riders, officials, corner workers and spectators that came out to the Pirelli/WERA Road Atlanta Sportsman event this weekend. Mother Nature kept us dry, but she baked us with sunshine and 90+ degree weather. Attendance was over 1400 folks through the weekend and the 251 riders gave them 711 reasons to cheer!

On Saturday the Vintage races saw more than normal participation and Doug Bowie won the 500GP and 350 GP races on his Ducati 250; Buff Harsh won the V2 on his Honda 350; Jim Hinshaw won Formula 500 and the Formula 2-Stroke on his Kawasaki 500 and 750 respectively; Tash Zarvalas won the V1 on his Honda 350; Wayne Shelton won V4 on his Yamaha 550; Joe Pomeroy won V6 Lightweight and V5 on his Yamaha 350; and Mark Morrow took the win in V3 on his Yamaha 350. Sunday Vintage winners were Ray Hickman in V6 and V7 Heavyweight on his Suzuki 750 and Scott Lindsay took the win in V7 Mediumweight on his Honda 600.

Saturday’s Solo races saw Brett Bolton take the win in Mediumweight Novice; Matt Lynn won Mediumweight Expert; Ricky Ford won Lightweight Expert and Joseph Dempsey won Lightweight Novice. In the Heavyweight Solo Taylor Knapp won the Expert and Trever Townsend won the Novice race.

Sunday saw Matt Lynn win C Superbike Expert and David Podolsky taking first Expert in Heavyweight Twins Superstock and John Moore taking first Novice in HWTSS. Brett Bolton took first in C Superbike Novice; Taylor Knapp won Formula 1 Expert and Trever Townsend won Novice. D Superbike saw Chad Hinton take the Expert win and Greg Kuhlman the Novice win. Ricky Ford took Lightweight Twins Superstock Expert and Travis Richards too the Novice win.

WERA’s new E Superstock Class for the Kawasaki 250 saw 20 riders and got their own race with Chris Spencer winning on the Expert side and Jamie Spencer the Novice side. B Superbike Expert went to Chris Opie Caylor with Townsend taking another win in the Novice ranks. William Rhyne took the win in D Superstock Expert and Tim Nolan was the Novice winner.

Ricky Ford continued his winning ways in the Lightweight Twins Superbike and Joe Dempsy got another win for the Novices. Taylor Knapp showed everyone around again in A Superbike Expert and Townsend followed suit for the Novices. 125GP saw young Xavier Zayat take his first WERA win and Max Perethian took the Clubman Expert win with Manabu Sato taking the Novice win.

A Superstock saw Brian Stokes show Taylor Knapp that miles on Road Atlanta make a difference when he made a great pass in the last turn to take the A Superstock Expert win and Townsend won for the Novices. Bud Lawter came out to claim the Heavyweight Twins Superbike Expert win and John Butler took the Novice win. Joy Higa came out from Patterson, California to take the win in the Women’s Sup0erstock Class. Deidra Slough got the Novice win.

Knapp came back to claim C Superstock Expert and James Sehringer got his win in C Superstock Novice. Lawter and Butler repeated their winning ways in Formula Two.

Senior Superbike Heavyweight Expert went to Tim Hunt, Novice winner was Chris Steele and in the Mediumweight Van Salt took the Expert win and James Sehringer got his second win of the weekend.

The final race of the day was B Superstock and Caylor got his second Expert win and Townsend capitalized his weekend with one more win for the Novices.

All the results are on the wera.com web site and we look forward to seeing everyone again at Road Atlanta in October when the WERA Grand National Finals come in. The show will be on the 8th through the 11th of October.

For more information on WERA Motorcycle Roadracing visit the web site at www.wera.com.

More, from a press release issued by Ridersdiscount.com:

Taylor Knapp Wins on Board New RidersDiscount.com Bikes at WERA’s Road Atlanta Regional Weekend

Aside from having ridden the bike only four laps in practice at Road America three weeks ago, Taylor Knapp quickly found himself at home on the RidersDiscount.com YZF-R1. Despite an engine that ran hotter than ideal all weekend long in the sweltering Georgia heat and a front end that needs improvement, Taylor scored a second place finish in A Superstock along with a win each in Formula 1 and Solo20 races with the RidersDiscount.com Yamaha YZF-R1. On top of that, with his RidersDiscount.com Suzuki GSX-R1000, Taylor carded an additional win in the A Superbike race the first time he’d ridden that bike and with only stock suspension!

Taylor’s first race on Saturday with the 2009 R1, was won by a 22.333 second gap over Chris “Opie” Caylor. “There was actually a problem with the forks and it was really, really soft but we were rode around the problem,” said Taylor of the R1. The Ohlins & RidersDiscount.com crews tried to help Taylor with his fork situation and did make progress to the effect that, come Sunday, Taylor finished with outstanding results on the Yamaha and the Suzuki bikes.

Taylor reflected on the weekend “It went good actually – the Yamaha is definitely getting better. Once we sort out the forks on the R1 and look for a little top speed, it’s going to be great. We had stock suspension on the Suzuki, but we still went pretty good on that.” Good indeed, Taylor now heads to Laguna Seca for the combined AMA/MotoGP round to show teams from both the AMA and Europe what he can do as a front-running privateer.

About RidersDiscount.com Founded four years ago by former AMA pro racers, RidersDiscount.com provides Taylor with Alpinestars leathers, boots & gloves along with crew support at various AMA and WERA races around the country. RidersDiscount.com is proud to support Taylor in his goal to finish as top-privateer in AMA American Superbike & Daytona Sportbike as well his WERA efforts for the 2009 season.

More, from a press release issued by Team Velocity Racing:

TVR/EBC Brakes Yamaha’s Ivey Down but Not Out After Crash

AUGUSTA, Ga.””TVR/EBC Brakes Yamaha team owner Chuck Ivey is always an optimist, even when he’s at home recovering from a crash. Ivey went to Road Atlanta over the weekend to get some seat time on the team’s Yamaha YZF-R1 during a WERA Sportsman Series round, but a crash in turn four during Friday’s practice ended his weekend abruptly.

Ivey suffered multiple broken bones in his right foot, ankle and leg, including the lower tibia and fibula as well as two bones in his foot. His foot got pinned under the sliding motorcycle, and the foot peg punctured both his boot and his foot. Ivey was taken to the hospital, where he had immediate surgery to repair the tissue. He will schedule further surgery this week to insert pins and screws into his broken bones.

Despite the injury, Ivey plans to sit out as few WERA National Endurance Series rounds as possible, and the team itself won’t miss any rounds. TVR/EBC Brakes Yamaha will head to Grattan in a few weeks for their next race, and Ivey will be there to support his team.

“Everything on the bike is bent or broken, so we’ll use the backup bike at Grattan and see about repairs, budget-allowing,” said Ivey, noting that the bike’s frame was bent when it went tumbling. “Everyone will pull together for the rest of the season and we’ll finish great. Every rider on the team is capable of winning, and I’ll just have to watch from the sidelines for a while.”

Ivey also mentioned the quick response of Road Atlanta’s medical staff, and the assistance of his fellow racers. “I appreciate everyone’s concern. The get-well wishes have been appreciated,” he said.