West Coast GP Cycles Celebrates Wins, Championships at WSMC Season-Ender

West Coast GP Cycles-backed riders took a series of wins and wrapped up a pair of class championships at the final race event of the year for the Willow Springs Motorcycle Club.

Riding a Michelin-shod, Track Daz-backed Suzuki SV650 developed and tuned at West Coast GP Cycles, Andy Palmer won the Formula Twins Lightweight race which West Coast GP Cycles sponsors and the 550 Superbike event.

Tony Moniz took his West Coast GP Cycles-tuned, Michelin-shod KTM supermotard to a win in 660cc Singles and second in Formula Singles, securing the championship in both classes.

Michael Gougis, riding a West Coast GP Cycles-tuned, Twin Works Factory-built Suzuki SV500 on Dunlops, took the win in Lightweight Twins and for the second year in a row, finished second in the class.

West Coast GP Cycles is located at 11900 W. Pico Blvd. in Los Angeles, 90064, and offers performance tuning and accessories for street and race motorcycles. For more information, contact the shop at 310.477.0997.

More, from a press release issued by Nadine Lajoie:

3rd and 4th in California Willow Springs, CA – December 16th

That is a good start for Nadine Lajoie, from Montreal, who will race in California this winter. In Middleweight category, she started 10th and was able to race in 3rd place almost all race but she lost that position during the last lap, finishing 4th .. She had great starts in both races.

After her race, she said: “I knew I had somebody behind me and he got me in corner 2, my worst corner where a lot of people passed me this week-end. Willow Springs is an awesome track, and with faster corners that I never saw anywhere else before”. She was really happy for her best lap time, dropping at 1.31.9 instead of her best practice time at only 1.34.1. A lot of people at the track were impressed to see her at this level, only after 3 days at this track.

In Heavyweight class, they let her race with her 600cc, which is not allowed usually with 750cc, so even if she got the 3rd step on the podium, that doesn’t count…

Considering her problems and her stress during the lunch, her brakes didn’t work anymore, she is really grateful: “A chance that Dave Moss, from CRS Tuning and Elka Suspension helped me to take all my brake parts from my street bike to fix it.”

Next race will be Wera at California Speedway, January 12th-13th.

More, from a press release issued by SWIGZ Racing:

SWIGZ.COM Race Team Rebuilds Following Comprehensive Theft of the Team’s Racebike, Tow Vehicle and Related Equipment in Las Vegas

ORANGE COUNTY, CALIFORNIA — WERA and AFM Expert William “Chip” Yates and his wife and crew chief Julie have rebuilt their road racing team from the ground up and are ready to attack the 2008 WERA and AFM seasons following the devastating theft of their entire race team’s equipment on November 5, 2007.

Yates finished 4th in the 2007 WERA West A-Superstock Novice Championship on his 9-year-old Suzuki GSX-R750, which was stolen within one hour of the final WERA race of the season at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Yates was affectionately known around the WERA and AFM paddocks as the new guy with the “old-school GSX-R.”

Based on his top-5 Novice results, Yates received his Expert racing license at the end of the 2007 season and is embarking on an ambitious 12-race season in 2008 in an attempt to improve his racing skills and earn his AMA Pro-Expert license for 2009.

The team’s 2007 novice season was somewhat remarkable in that former SCCA Pro-Rally driver William Yates had never set foot on a paved racetrack of any kind prior to January 2007 and was not a regular streetbike rider. Yates approached 2007 as a learning year and was pleased to finish with no crashes and no DNFs following 8 race weekends and a number of trackdays.

The Yates’ were able to rebuild their team from scratch following the theft because of the responsiveness of their insurance companies, Allstate (personal belongings, tools, riding gear), State Farm (1998 GSX-R750 Racebike), and Geico (2006 Denali tow vehicle and trailer), and also from support received from fellow racers and sponsors.

“We’d like to thank everyone who helped us to be so resilient in the face of this pretty crummy situation,” said William Yates. “Fastrack Riders employees Matthias Jezek and Christina Silva, Jimmy Summers at Mach 1 Motorsports, Dale Keiffer at Racer’s Edge, and WERA leaders Sean and Evelyne Clarke all stepped up to help me get a new bike and get back on my feet,”, continued Yates.

Julie Yates had this to add, “We highly recommend that all racers check their insurance to be sure they are adequately covered. We found that our homeowner’s policy with Allstate did a wonderful job of covering our personal belongings including leathers, helmet, tools, laptop, camera, etc. and they settled with us very quickly and fairly.”

The team’s title sponsor SWIGZ (www.swigz.com) is owned by William and Julie Yates and has launched the world’s first dual beverage fitness bottle allowing active people to carry any two beverages of their choice in a single sports bottle.