Copyright 2002, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.
By Beth Wyse
Vesrah Suzuki won the second round of the WERA/G.M.D. Computrack National Endurance Series, a 6-hour race at North Florida Motorsports Park Saturday, by two laps. Army of Darkness finished second. The riders for Vesrah included Mark Junge, Tray Batey and John Jacobi.
The 32 teams entered in the race had to deal with hot and humid weather, with temperatures near 90 degrees.
Army of Darkness finished second overall and first in the Mediumweight Superbike class on a Suzuki GSX-R600 with Jim Williams and Mark Crozier sharing the riding duties.
Third overall and second in Mediumweight Superbike was the Vesrah Suzuki II team of Mark Junge, Brian Stokes, David Yaakov and Darryl Saylor. The team finished a lap down from Army of Darkness, and was already a lap-and-a-half down when Junge was hit by another rider bike in turn one, knocking out the Vesrah II bike’s rear axle pin. The team lost more time when officials required the team to make an extra stop with Saylor on board, to replace the missing pin.
Jesse Basille and Jerry Russell of J&J Motorsports won in the Heavyweight Superstock class entry, finishing fifth overall on a Suzuki GSX-R750.
The Lightweight Superbike class was won by MB Motorsports, which finished sixth overall and seven laps ahead of the second-place Lightweight Superbike team. Bradley Champion, Bernie Hunt, Rich Conicelli and Brian Livengood were riding the MB Motorsports Suzuki SV650.
Seventh overall and first in Mediumweight Superstock class was taken by the Team Velocity Suzuki GSX-R600 ridden by Paul Aalderks, Chuck Ivey, Steven Breckenridge and Scott Gardner. The riders attributed their victory to the pit crew, which changed the rear wheel in less than 90 seconds.
Batey started the race on the Vesrah Suzuki GSX-R1000 Heavyweight Superbike entry. He battled during the early part of the race with Mike Smith on the Team Xtreme Suzuki GSX-R750 before pulling a small gap over the field.
By lap 7, the leaders had already caught lapped traffic on the 2.0-mile course.
The first red flag came out in the third hour of the race for a bike lying on the track. It was quickly cleaned up, a new grid was formulated, and the race continued, with Vesrah Suzuki again taking the lead.
The race was red-flagged a second time with 40 minutes left to go, and the race was called complete when clean-up could not be completed prior to the last 30 minutes of the race.
RESULTS:
1. Vesrah Suzuki, Suzuki GSX-R1000, HSB, 226 laps
2. Army of Darkness, Suzuki GSX-R600, MSB, 224 laps
3. Vesrah Suzuki II, Suzuki GSX-R600, MSB, 223 laps
4. Team Xtreme, Suzuki GSX-R750, HSB, 221 laps
5. J&J Motorsports, Suzuki GSX-R750, HSS, 215 laps
6. MB Motorsports, Suzuki SV650, LSB, 215 laps
7. Team Velocity, Suzuki GSX-R600, MSS, 215 laps
8. Team Chicago, Yamaha YZF-R6, MSS, 214 laps
9. 14k The Movie, Suzuki GSX-R600, MSB, 214 laps
10. Team Life, Yamaha YZFR6, MSS, 213 laps
POINTS AFTER ROUND TWO, OVERALL:
1. Vesrah Suzuki, 217.34
2. Army of Darkness, 186.4
3. Team Xtreme, 170.62
4. J&J Motorsports, 159.24
5. Vesrah Suzuki II, 156.66
In National Challenge Series sprint races on Sunday, 11 races had 11 different winners.
Mike Smith won the Open Superstock race on board a Suzuki GSX-R1000 after a red flag on lap four. Smith was riding with Team Xtreme for the weekend. During the race, Smith set a new track record of 1:17.20, but was later protested for running Showa GSX-R750 forks instead of the stock Kayaba GSX-R1000 forks.
Vesrah Suzuki’s John Jacobi took the win in the Dunlop 600cc Superstock race on board his Suzuki GSX-R600. Jacobi had a gap over the rest of the field, leaving Scott Harwell and Lee Acree to battle for second place. After several laps of close racing, Harwell took second.
Bradley Champion won the Lightweight Twins race on the MB Motorsports Suzuki SV650 endurance bike. Champion crashed in morning practice and was loaned the endurance bike for his sprint race.
In the 125cc GP race, Jason Peters won by a big gap over Brian Kcraget, both riding RS125 Hondas. Kcraget had made some suspension changes to the bike just before the race and was unable to ride as well because of them.
John Haner passed Tray Batey at the halfway point in the 750cc Superstock race and went on to win.
Donald Tingle, Jr. won the Formula 2 race on is Yamaha TZ250, with Kcraget again finishing in second. Peters had a clutch failure on the start and did not complete the race.
Shogun rider Adam Coco won the 600 Superbike race after being loaned a Suzuki GSX-R600 by Crazy Cajun Racing. Coco crashed his bike in practice the day before the race.
In Heavyweight Twins, Tray Batey won by the length of the entire front straight on his Suzuki TL1000R. Batey was happy to get the win after having taken second in 750 Superstock.
Ken Snyder won the 750 Superbike race on his Suzuki GSX-R750. He had an early battle with David Yaakov, who was also on a GSX-R750. In the final laps of the race, Yaakov barely held off Andy Caldwell to take second.
Formula One was the final race of the day, and Geoff May finished first on his Suzuki GSX-R1000. Keith Holleman got the lead on the first lap, but May had the first spot by lap three and held onto it for the rest of the race.
Because of the extremely hot weather during the event, pieces of the track were coming up through some of the tighter sections. Riders were having problems running through the holes left by the asphalt coming up and with running over the little pieces of pavement left lying on the track.
Corrected Post: Vesrah And AOD One-two At North Florida WERA 6-hour, Mike Smith Sets Lap Record In Sprints But Gets Protested For Illegal Forks
Corrected Post: Vesrah And AOD One-two At North Florida WERA 6-hour, Mike Smith Sets Lap Record In Sprints But Gets Protested For Illegal Forks
© 2002, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.
![Corrected Post: Vesrah And AOD One-two At North Florida WERA 6-hour, Mike Smith Sets Lap Record In Sprints But Gets Protested For Illegal Forks](/wp-content/themes/racing-map/images/No_image_available.png)