By Michael Gougis

AMA Pro Racer Benny Solis Jr. jumped on a Yamaha YZF-R1 and won both Motoyard/Dunlop/NEXX-USA Open Pro races in the brutal Southern California desert heat at Willow Springs International Raceway.

In temperatures that reached 107 degrees F (with track surface temps measured at 139 degrees F), Solis, Chris Duran and Scott Tillery, who had qualified on pole, battled for the entire length of the first 15-lap contest around the 2.5-mile main track.

Duran led initially, but Solis managed to be ahead on the fourth circuit. Duran, on his Yamaha YZF-R1, got back ahead of Solis on the next lap and led through lap 13. But Solis and Tillery were never far behind, and on the next-to-last lap, Solis was ahead and held off Duran to the line by 0.035 seconds after 37.5 miles of hard racing.

Tillery took third on his Kawasaki ZX-10R, 1.318 seconds off the win, with Rocky Caceres on his Suzuki GSX-R1000 the only other finisher.

In the second Motoyard/Dunlop/Nexx-USA Open Pro race, it was Solis from start to finish, the youngster finishing nearly 25 seconds ahead of Tillery, with Mike Pond the only other finisher.

“The track was kind of greasy, but it was still a lot of fun,” Solis said. “It was a bike that Ben Bostrom and Chris Clark rode, an ex-Team Zyvax Yamaha YZF-R1 that had some Graves stuff on it. It was pretty fast. I liked it a lot. The track is fast, and having an R1 there is fun because it’s got a lot of power.”

Duran took the win in the first Motoyard/Dunlop/NEXX-USA 600cc Modified Production race over Yamaha YZF-R6-mounted Bryce Prince and Jeremy Simmons, with Prince taking the second win over Chris Schatz and his Honda CBR600RR and Jon Appelt’s YZF-R6.

The unique event, put together by Motoyard, a track day provider in Southern California, required racers to compete on Dunlop tires. Dunlop stepped up and provided sponsorship and technical support to the racers at the event. For the Open Pro races, Dunlop provided a UK-made ATQ08-6680 made for Willow Springs as far back as 2009 and is also used at Phillip Island and Road Atlanta.

Motoyard says more than $32,000 in cash and prizes were available to racers. Motoyard owner Greg Nulman called the event “a runaway success” despite a low turnout racers said that heat and weather played a role in holding down attendance.

Additional sponsors included Octane, Controlled Chaos, CrotchRocket.TV, Dainese D-Store Orange County, RentADucati.com, Shorai Batteries, 111 Ink, Built-Well Roofing Company, The Palmdale Hotel, Willow Springs International Raceway, Concept 27, Performance Motorcycle Service, Motoyard Track Days, Lindemann Engineering and Dunlop Track Tire Service, organizers said.

Results as provide by Motoyard (in chronological order):

SATURDAY:

MOTOYARD/DUNLOP/NEXX-USA 600cc STREET: 1. Travis Goldstein (Yam YZF-R6) 2. Seng Moua (Yam YZF-R6) 3. Chris Gardell (Yam YZF-R6)

MOTOYARD/DUNLOP/NEXX-USA OPEN STREET: 1. Travis Goldstein (Yam YZF-R6) 2. David Castaneda (Yam YZF-R1) 3. Alejandro Vargas (Kaw ZX-10R)

MOTOYARD/DUNLOP/SHORAI BATTERIES OPEN NOVICE: 1. Mike Ripley (Hon CBR600RR) 2. Desmond Ramos (Suz GSX-R750)

SUNDAY:

MOTOYARD/DUNLOP/NEXX-USA 600cc MODIFIED PRODUCTION RACE ONE: 1. Chris Duran (Yam YZF-R6) 2. Bryce Prince (Yam YZF-R6) 3. Jeremy Simmons (Yam YZF-R6) 4. Chris Schatz (Hon CBR600RR) 5. Jon Appelt (Yam YZF-R6) 6. Omar Smith (Yam YZF-R6)

DAINESE D-STORE ORANGE COUNTY NINJA 250 CUP (all on Kaw Ninja 250R): 1. Vision Hayes 2. Michael DeJohn 3. Wendy Newton

MOTOYARD/DUNLOP/NEXX-USA OPEN PRO RACE ONE: 1. Benny Solis (Yam YZF-R1) 2. Chris Duran (Yam YZF-R1) 3. Scott Tillery (Kaw ZX-10R) 4. Rocky Caceres (Suz GSX-R1000) 5. Michael Martin (Yam YZF-R1)

RENTADUCATI.COM 250cc GP: 1. Alex White (Yam TZ250) 2. Tom Sera (Yam TZ250)

BUILT-WELL ROOFING 600cc SUPERSTOCK: 1. Brian Schiff (Yam YZF-R6) 2. Jon Appelt (Yam YZF-R6) 3. Omar Smith (Yam YZF-R6)

OCTANE/CONTROLLED CHAOS 550cc SUPERBIKE: 1. J.C. Gibbs (Yam FZR400) 2. Russ Granger (Hon Hawk) 3. Mike Root (Hon Hawk)

MOTOYARD/DUNLOP/NEXX-USA 600cc MODIFIED PRODUCTION RACE TWO: 1. Bryce Prince (Yam YZF-R6) 2. Chris Schatz (Hon CBR600RR) 3. Jon Appelt (Yam YZF-R6)

CROTCHROCKET.TV FORMULA 40: 1. Mike Martin (Yam YZF-R1) 2. David Price (Suz GSX-R1000) 3. Brian Schiff (Yam YZF-R6) 4. Jaime Mantel (Hon CBR1000RR) 5. Rocky Caceres (Suz GSX-R1000)

MOTOYARD/DUNLOP/NEXX-USA OPEN PRO RACE TWO: 1. Benny Solis Jr. (Yam YZF-R1) 2. Scott Tillery (Kaw ZX-10R) 3. Mike Pond (Yam YZF-R6) 4. Mike Martin (Yam YZF-R1)