PROGRESS FOR GOBERT AND ROCKWALL HONDA Rockwall Honda’s Aaron Gobert finished a solid seventh in the Formula Xtreme race at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California last weekend. He was 12th in the Supersport race, but gained a noticeable improvement in speed on his Honda CBR600RR in both classes since the last event. Gobert raced with a three-rider pack in contesting fifth place in FX. Although his result was one position lower than last weekend at Barber Motorsports Park, Gobert finished 13.429 seconds behind the leader — ten seconds closer than he was in Alabama. The former AMA Superstock champion earned valuable points and is now ninth in class after three rounds. “I think the team did a good job this weekend,” said the Australian racer. “Not every result was what we wanted but we made some good progress. The field in Formula Xtreme is quite fast these days and we made a big jump in our lap times, even though the results might not show all of our improvements. We found ten seconds over the race distance since last weekend and that’s promising. Supersport has us puzzled a bit and we need some more consistency in the lap times. I think we’re working in the right direction. Our goal is to run up front.” “This weekend was a big positive direction for us. We learned a lot and have a good direction for the next race at Infineon,” said Rockwall Honda crew chief Gary Medley. “We’re going to spend the time working on our engines and want to get little more power. With that, we’ll continue to work on our suspension, too. In the Supersport race, we had some traction problems but we have some good data and good ideas. We’re headed in the right direction. We just started out a little behind, but the crew and the rider are both working hard and we see progress.” Gobert and Rockwall Honda will next race at Infineon Raceway May 16-18. More, from a press release issued by Misti Hurst: Slednecks Teammates, Misti Hurst and Josh Galster Enjoy Successful AMA Supersport Finishes at Both Barber and Fontana. Fontana, California, Slednecks Teammates Misti Hurst and Josh Galster, both coaches with the California Superbike School, raced their Kawasaki ZX6’s to excellent finishes this weekend, with a 23rd and 18th finish respectfully. Hurst, the only female rider on the grid for the past three AMA rounds, overcame several challenges over the weekend in order to qualify in 29th position. On Friday morning she crashed going into the tight turn 3 after losing the front, and on Friday afternoon, her team, headed this weekend by EDR Performance’s Eric Dorn, replaced a blown shock with a completely new Ohlins. The short 20-minute Saturday morning practice was spent trying to relearn and re-set up the bike on the unfamiliar track. Having only ridden at Fontana once before the race weekend, she faced a high learning curve to figure out the difficult circuit, get her suspension sorted, and get her times down enough to qualify. “I started the weekend running high 36’s which I knew wasn’t going to cut it. We worked pretty hard to get down to a 1:33.5 in qualifying.” Said Hurst. “Eric was awesome help and made excellent choices in regards to the Dunlop tires we chose to run. My Kawasaki ran great and was very fast!” During the race, Hurst got a good start after a red flag forced a re-start of the race. She worked her way up from 29th place to a solid 21st and was reeling in the guy in front of her when she tucked the front into turn 5 with only 2 laps remaining. “I was pretty frustrated at myself,” she said, “I was doing so well!” Hurst finished with a 23rd place and is currently 35th overall in the Supersport Championship with 9 points. One weekend earlier, Hurst raced the AMA Supersport at Barber Motorsports and moved up an impressive 11 spots from her 41st place qualifying position to finish an excellent 30th, despite the fact that it was also the first time she had ever raced at that track. Teammate Josh Galster, a great candidate for the Rookie of the Year this season, finished an impressive 18th at California Speedway this weekend. Working his times down from low 1:33’s to a 1:31.15 he qualified 22nd and was able to move up four positions in the race. “I got a good start right off the bat, better than I normally get and was able to stay nice and consistent.” said Galster. Skipping out of Thursday’s promoter practice to save money, Josh spent Friday and Saturday practice working on his drives coming out of the corners and in getting the Kawasaki dialed in. “A huge thanks to Eric Dorn from EDR Performance for helping us out over the weekend, and to everyone else that supported us in the pits and in the stands.” He said. The weekend earlier at Barber Motorsports Park, Galster moved up an incredible 9 places from his qualifying position of 30th to finish 21st. He had his work cut out for him during the race, his first ever at the Barber circuit, after running of the track in turn one right off the start. “I went into turn one a little bit hot and ran slightly wide,” He said, “Suddenly I was off the track in the grass. I could have finished top 20 I’m sure if I hadn’t done that!” See the Slednecks Racing Team, Misti Hurst and Josh Galster during the next round of the AMA Supersport at Infinneon Raceway May 16-18. For more information please visit www.mistihurst.com or www.slednecks.com www.mistihurst.com www.myspace.com/mistihurst More, from a press release issued by M2S Agency: Willis Makes Another Podium Appearance at AFM This weekend the AFM second round of the 2008 went off under clear sunny skies at the Infineon Raceway in Sonoma California. Having previously raced at this track in an endurance event this was Garrett Willis’s first sprint race at Infineon Raceway. Garrett once again used the Formula Pacific class to gain valuable track time and set up information so that he could make the most of his 600 specific class racing. His first race was the 600 Superbike class where he ended the first lap in the sixth position and worked his way into an eventual 4th place finish. The highlight of the race for Garrett was the fact that only he and race winner Lenny Hale dipped into the 1:41’s during the race. At the start of the 600 Production race Garrett got his Honda CRR600RR off to good start on came around in fifth position on the opening lap then he went to work on getting to the front. By lap four he had moved into the 2nd place position and managed to close up a big chunk of the gap eventual race winner Lenny Hale had opened up. After the race Garrett commented “It was another great race weekend filled with good close racing, a lot of fun moments on the track and a whole lot of learning. I’m becoming more confident in my feeling for the bike and being able to use that information to improve my set up. This weekend was also fun because a lot of my family got to come watch since we live pretty close and it’s always nice when your Grandmother can tell you she’s proud of your results and to get a haircut all at the same time.” The next race on the schedule for Garrett is the WERA West round at Buttonwillow Raceway Park on May10th &11th 2008. Garrett Willis would like to thank are the sponsors that support his racing and help him pursue his dream of being a professional road racer.