McLean, Ferris and Turner Win in Utah 27 July 2008 Toole, UT: Miller Motorsports Park and USBA hosted the USGPRU for the West Region’s round number five. The weather was sunny and warm and the competition was hot. The Rising Sun Cycles 125GP race had 13-year-old Canadian Royce McLean on pole position. He was joined on the front row by Jake Lewis, Ryan Matter and Garrett Gerloff. With the drop of the green flag, the field saw the Yamaha TZ125 rider McLean grab the hole shot with Lewis, Matter and Justin Ducut in tow while Gerloff got shuffled back a few positions. McLean looked tough to beat during practice, leading the time charts all weekend, and the race was no different. After setting the fastest lap of 1:39.260 early on, he proceeded to open up a dominating 17-second lead by race end. Lewis held on to second place with Matter a distant third. The battle for 4th was tight as Justin Ducut, on the lone Honda MD250H four-stroke, battled with Garrett Gerloff on his RS125. After following Ducut for most of the race, Gerloff passed with only a few laps to go and held onto fourth place. In his usual dominating form, Kyle Ferris showed that he would be tough to beat in the Moto Liberty 250GP event. After decimating the field in qualifying he started on pole with a blistering 1:37.742 lap. Vincent Rolleri could only muster a 1:40.861 with Dylan Olsen and Royce McLean not far behind. Ferris would lead the field through turn one as Rolleri made a disastrous start by stalling his TZ250 on the starting line. Once restarted, Rolleri made it up to 7th position on lap 1 and into 4th by lap two. But he was too far behind to ever mount a serious threat to the leaders. While Ferris settled into a rhythm out front, Olsen couldn’t find a groove while being hounded by McLean. With only a few laps to go, McLean was trying to put his TZ125 ahead of Olsen, only to get passed before the finish line. On the last lap, McLean dug deep and made a final attempt in the Clubhouse turn and held off Olsen for second place by less than a hundredth of a second. The fan-pleasing event of the weekend was the Honda Moriwaki MD250H race. Jake Lewis secured the pole with a 1:43.161 while Ryan Matter and Kris Turner were within half a second. Garrett Gerloff and Justin Ducut filled the top five. At the start of the race, it was clear that no one had a distinct advantage. On lap one, Turner led Lewis and Matter while Gerloff and Ducut were side-by-side across the line. The top three were trading positions multiple times per lap and contact was made exiting turn one, which dropped Lewis back a few bike lengths. Lewis caught up to Matter and Turner two laps later, building a small gap back to Gerloff and Ducut. With one lap to go, the drama increased as raindrops started to fall from a fast moving storm. Matter lost a few bike lengths in turn one by running too deep but made it back up going into the Attitude turn. Lewis was all over Turner and looking to draft by at the line, but Turner had better drive out of the last turn and took the victory by .008 of a second. Matter was only .170 seconds behind Turner to take third. Matter set the fastest lap of the race with a 1:42.199. The USGPRU would like to thank the wonderful folks at Miller Motorsports Park and the Utah Sportbike Association (USBA) for conducting another fine event. The USGPRU will return to this beautiful facility for the finale October 3-5, 2008. The next round for the USGPRU will be Barber Motorsports Park Aug 9th and 10th. This weekend wouldn’t have been possible without the support of the 2008 USGPRU National Series sponsors: RoadracingWorld.com, Rising Sun Cycles, Moto Liberty, Motion Pro, Repsol Lubricants, REV’IT, Bridgestone Tires, Dunlop Tires, EBC Brakes, GP Tech, Rich Oliver’s Mystery School, Powerstands, Chicken Hawk Tire Warmers, Hjelm Motorsports, Michelin Tires, Regina Chains, and Starlane by Yoyodyne. Rising Sun Cycles 125GP race results 1. Royce McLean (Yam TZ125) 2. Jake Lewis (Hon RS125) 3. Ryan Matter (Hon RS125) 4. Garrett Gerloff (Hon RS125) 5. Justin Ducut (Mor MD250H) 6. Alexander Hartl (Hon RS125) 7. Conor Matthews (Hon RS125) 8. Matt Elder (Hon RS125) 9. Don Roberts (Hon RS125) 10. Casey Hughes (Hon RS125) Moto Liberty 250GP race results 1. Kyle Ferris (Yam TZ250) 2. Royce McLean (Yam TZ125) 3. Dylan Olsen (Yam TZ250) 4. Vincent Rolleri (Yam TZ250) 5. Mike Lytle (Yam TZ250) 6. Matt Elder (Unk) 7. Don Roberts (Yam TZ250) 8. Steve Buckner (Unk) 9. Daniel Qualtire (Yam TZ250) 10. Anthony Digati (Unk) 11. Dale Murphy (Unk) 12. Michael Rajotte – DNF (Unk) 13. Daniel Jackson – DNF (Unk) Moriwaki MD250H Powered by HONDA race results 1. Kris Turner (MD250H) 2. Jake Lewis (MD250H) 3. Ryan Matter (MD250H) 4. Justin Ducut (MD250H) 5. Garrett Gerloff (MD250H) 6. Alexander Hartl (MD250H) 7. Michael Aquino (MD250H) About USGPRU The USGPRU is the officially recognized Motorcycle 125 Grand Prix National Championship ® and 250 Grand Prix National Championship series. We are also the official race series for the new youth-only, spec class racing the Moriwaki MD250H Powered by HONDA. The USGPRU emulates true World MotoGP racing experience and serves to attract young riders to gain experience in a professional environment and provide a path to world-class motorcycle racing. The USGPRU structures events with extended length grand prix racing exclusive to the GP machines, timed qualifying and strong contingency and sponsor support. For additional details, visit www.USGPRU.net More, from another press release issued by USGPRU: Iso and Noce stood atop the box while old lap records fell all around them 27 July 2008 Shannonville, Ontario Canada: The USGPRU went north of the border to Shannonville Motorsports Park for some very exciting racing hosted by the Can-Am and RACE Superseries. This marked the 5th round of the USGPRU East Coast Regional Championship. The program on Saturday was interrupted as major thunderstorms rolled in and caused timed qualifying to be postponed. Fortunately, the racers were greeted Sunday by nearly perfect racing conditions with bright sunshine and temperatures around 30 degrees Celsius. During the 15-minute 125GP qualifying session, Ben Young set a new lap record 1.52.267 and Nobi Iso wasn’t far behind him with a 1.52.450. In fact, the top 5 qualifiers all beat the old lap record including two more youngsters Lloyd Ramsey-Worrell and Steven Nickerson and local rider, John Dempsey. The 250GP qualifying was just as exciting with Nick Colley taking pole with former AMA 250GP rider, Sandy Noce right behind him with the times of 1.48.371 and 1.48.762 respectively. Mike Aboyoun and Eddy Brunet claimed the last two spots on the front row. In the Rising Sun Cycle 125GP race, Iso got the hole-shot into turn 1 while Ben Young went backwards following a terrible launch. Ben quickly recovered though and passed most of the field by the end of the first lap and started to close on Iso. On lap 3, Young passed Iso for the lead, and started to get in a groove and started to repeatedly set and then break the track record. Ultimately, Iso watched and learned from the local expert and was able to put his Aprilia back in the lead for the final lap and set the final record-breaking lap at 1.51.934. Lloyd Ramsey-Worrell rode his Rockwall Honda to a solid 3rd place finish. A 5-way battle for fourth place ended in a crash for Josh Wong on his Yamaha. Stevie Nickerson was left to do battle with Tim Harrington, John Dempsey, Stewart Aitken-Cade, and Elie Daccache. Harrington and Aitken-Cade broke away from the pack with 2 laps to go and finished in that order. The Moto Liberty 250GP racers took to the grid and from the time the light turned green, Sandy Noce set an absolutely blistering pace. Eddy Brunet, Adam Roberts, Matt Cooper, and Melissa Paris all set off after Noce. Paris started to fade half way through the race, leaving the three guys to dice for second. Matt Cooper put his recent experience with the Canadian Superbike series to use and managed to muscle his way ahead of Brunet and Roberts. The USGPRU and Can-Am series would like to thank Bickle Racing, Gary and Jodi Christie, Chris Chappelle, Tammy Dempsey, and John Sharrard for helping us to put on one of the best 125 and 250 races north of the border in many years. This weekend wouldn’t have been possible without the support of the 2008 USGPRU National Series sponsors: RoadracingWorld.com, Rising Sun Cycles, Moto Liberty, Motion Pro, Repsol Lubricants, REV’IT, Bridgestone Tires, Dunlop Tires, EBC Brakes, GP Tech, Rich Oliver’s Mystery School, Powerstands, Chicken Hawk Tire Warmers, Hjelm Motorsports, Michelin Tires, Regina Chains, and Starlane by Yoyodyne. The next round for the USGPRU will be Barber Motorsports Park Aug 9th and 10th. 125GP race results 1. Nobi Iso (Aprilia RS125) 2. Ben Young (Honda RS125) 3. Lloyd Ramsey-Worrell (Honda RS125) 4. Tim Harrington (Honda RS125) 5. Stewart Aitken-Cade (Honda RS125) 6. John Dempsey (Honda RS125) 7. Elie Deaccache (Honda RS125) 8. Steven Nickerson (Honda RS125) 9. Charles Boyd (Honda RS125) 10. Michael Lainhart (Honda RS125) 11. Michael Chambers (Yamaha) 12. Wayne Bishop (Honda RS125) 13. Don Murfin (Honda RS125) 14. Josh Wong (Yamaha) 250GP race results 1. Sandy Noce (Yam TZ250) 2. Matthew Cooper (Honda RS250) 3. Eddy Brunet (Honda RS250) 4. Adam Roberts (Yam TZ250) 5. Melissa Paris (Honda RS250) 6. Nick Colley (Yam TZ250) 7. Alain Brault (Yam TZ250) 8. Marc St. Amand (Yam TZ250) 9. Patrick Chartrand (Yam TZ250) 10. John Dempsey (Yam TZ250) 11. John Crook (Yam TZ250) 12. Jim Bergey (Honda RS250) 13. Angus Borland (Yam TZ250) 14. Kenny Riedmann (Yam TZ250) 15. Jerry Saddler (Yam TZ250) 16. John Chemello (Yam TZ250) 17. Steven Nickerson (Honda RS125) 18. Michael Lainhart (Honda RS125) 19. Michael Chambers (Yam) 20. Gord MacKay (Yam TZ250) 21. Lloyd Ramsey-Worrell (Honda RS125) About USGPRU The USGPRU is the officially recognized Motorcycle 125 Grand Prix National Championship ® and 250 Grand Prix National Championship series. We are also the official race series for the new youth-only, spec class racing the Moriwaki MD250H Powered by HONDA. The USGPRU emulates true World MotoGP racing experience and serves to attract young riders to gain experience in a professional environment and provide a path to world-class motorcycle racing. The USGPRU structures events with extended length grand prix racing exclusive to the GP machines, timed qualifying and strong contingency and sponsor support. For additional details, visit www.USGPRU.net