Michael Beck scores championship point in World Superbike Series May 11 at Monza Substituting for injured GMT-94 Yamaha rider David Checa, Michael Beck scored his first world championship point in his first weekend of international competition. Michael Beck persevered to finish a weekend high of 15th in World Superbike Race 2 at Monza despite a nearly 30-kph top speed disadvantage and working from a bike setup of the 20 kg-heavier Checa. Equally impressive for the young Californian was that Beck had never traveled outside the U.S. before, had no experience with the historic Monza track, had never worked with his non-English speaking French team and was new to the Pirelli control tires. Michael Beck: “This place is FAST! The track map looks deceptively easy with all the long straights and very few corners. The corners are so long and so fast that if you don’t get a good drive it affects your speed at the other end of the straight. “Everyone seems happy that I scored a point, but I know I could do better with more top speed and a bike more suited to my size and riding style. Coming to Europe for the first time and seeing my name on the screen with Bayliss, Haga, Biaggi, etc. just makes me want to come back and prove what I can do. I also want to thank Murph at Hardcard, Christophe Guyot and the whole GMT-94 Yamaha team for the opportunity and all their hard work this weekend.” More, from a press release issued by Frank Gonzales: Springfield Motorcycle Race Team Takes a 2nd place in 5 Hour Oklahoma Race After a Crash Hallett Motor Racing Circuit,OK May 10, 08 Cycle Connection Harley-Davidson/Buell riders Joe “Jose’ ” Feco and Frank “Speedy” Gonzales recently took part in a five hour endurance race at Hallett, the third scheduled CMRA race. After a first hour crash the team came back strong and finished 2nd place in the Formula 2 Class on a Buell XB9r and had a commanding 10 lap lead over 3rd place. “We recovered well after being down 9 laps after the crash” Feco said. “After I crashed at the 25 minute mark, I just tried to focus and get the laps back” Gonzales comments. The team is in 2nd place for the Championship points. A Buell is a sport bike powered by a Harley-Davidson engine, competing in a sport dominated by Japanese motorcycles. The Cycle Connection team, known as “Too Much Speed” is in it’s first full season of racing. The Cycle Connection team, Too Much Speed, is carrying on a family tradition. Both Gonzales and Feco have raced on endurance teams with their fathers, and are now carrying on the family-based team tradition by racing together as brothers-in-law. With the support of their families at many of the races, Too Much Speed is unique with only two racers in a setting where teams oftentimes have as many as five riders. Endurance races run 4-8 hours. Feco comments, “You really have to be in good mental and physical shape to run a team with only two riders.” Cycle Connection has announced it’s inability to support the race team at the level they did in 2007. The racers are trying to generate sponsors so they can continue to race a full season. This season, the team received a significant amount of funding from several riders in the local sport bike community. Without these individual contributions, the team would not have been able to race the previous races. Without continued financial support, the team will not be financially capable of supporting this very expensive sport. Cycle Connection has provided a lot of opportunities for this small team in the past, and we hope they will continue their support in the future. These deeds should come as no surprise from a dealership that offers Motorcycle Safety Foundation lessons onsite, hosts MDA fundraisers that raise well over $150,000 per event, and many other community events. The next race will be a 6 hour race at Sugarland Roadcourse on July 5th, 2008. For a full season schedule and more info log on to: www.CMRAracing.com More, from a press release issued by Nadine Lajoie: 7th at Button Willow, CA Button Willow, May 11th, 2008 The female Canadian racer Nadine Lajoie continues her trip in the West Coast with WERA West at Button Willow. Even if she struggled all week-end long to learn this track, her lap times improved a lot on Saturday afternoon and Sunday during the races. Finally, the last race of the week-end, she finished 7th in B Superbike. She was really excited after the race: ” I was chasing a guy and dropped my best lap time of the week-end by more than 2 seconds, consistently. Finally, I got the paste of this track and I will go home with a smile! Racing is not as much fun when you know you are slower than usual…” In Middleweight Solo and C Superbike, she finished 12th and 14th respectively.