Copyright 2002, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

By David Swarts

Tray Batey, Geoff May, Robert Jensen and Brian Kcraget took victories in final rounds of the WERA National Challenge Series Saturday at Road Atlanta.

Vesrah Suzuki’s Batey pushed his Pirelli-equipped GSX-R750 hard to win the 750cc Superstock race despite having the season Championship clinched long before coming to the WERA Grand National Finals. Brian Stokes pushed Batey in the early part of the race before cruising home in second, 3.7 seconds behind Batey. Jensen collected third while Team America’s Jason DiSalvo took fourth on his factory Yamaha YZF-R6. John Jacobi, Scott Harwell, Scott Carpenter, J.J. Roetlin, A.R. Hoshmandy and Tomas Bauchiero filled the rest of the top ten positions.

Batey’s teammate Mark Junge took the holeshot and led the first five laps of the eight-lap Open Superstock sprint. Team Embry/Roadracingworld.com’s May, however, came from behind to pass Junge on lap six and pull away to win by 1.6 seconds on his Pirelli-sponsored GSX-R1000. Needing only to finish ahead of title rivals Harwell and Carpenter to win the Open Superstock Championship, Junge settled for second place in the race in front of Jensen, Carpenter, Harwell, DiSalvo again on his Yamaha 600, Billy Ethridge, Roetlin, Shannon Moham and Marcus McBain.

Butler Machinery’s Jensen came from behind in 600cc Superstock on Michelin-shod GSX-R600 to pass Harwell, Jacobi and Brian Stokes and win by 2.5 seconds. Second-place Stokes said Jensen came by him on the back straightaway like he had a 750 motor in his bike, but Jensen said that Stokes and Harwell running side-by-side down the back straightaway made it easy for him to draft past. Harwell finished third with Jacobi, Reuben Frankenfield, 16-year-old Danny Eslick, Jeff Tigert, Ricky Ford, Michael Garofalo and David Yaakov rounding out the top ten.

Jacobi clinched the WERA 600cc Superstock National Championship just past the halfway point of the season.

NESBA.com/Speedwerks’ Brian Kcraget wrapped up his WERA 125cc Grand Prix National Championship with a flag-to-flag runaway victory Saturday at Road Atlanta. Fifteen-year-old Texan Ryan Andrews finished second on his Aprilia 125. Fellow young gun Taylor Knapp came out on top of a five-rider battle for third.