Pianykh and Decker shine at Miller Motorsports Park

Tooele Utah Masters of the Mountains Round 1 at Miller Motorsports Park got off to a fantastic start last weekend with unseasonably warm weather favoring great racing for the opening round of the series organized by the UtahSBA. Brilliant sunshine and clear skies greeted Saturday’s action with the newly implemented Deseret Dash, RacingExperience (mock race for new racers) and the Endurance race.

The club’s efforts in the recent promotion of the RacingExperience greatly paid off with 20 new racers serving their apprenticeship in their first ever race appearance. A proud Steven Marco took his first ever win over Erik Grim in second. Saturday’s action continued in the Deseret Dash with a tightly-fought race between the Suzuki GSX-R1000s piloted by Oleg Pianykh and Clint Warner respectively. Warner pushed Oleg hard but couldn’t get within striking distance for a pass. Pianykh won the race with 0.46 second margin over Warner. Deseret Dash is a new Saturday sprint race with GTO rules and a mixed grid of novices and experts. In its trial run, the race had one of the largest grids in Masters of the Mountains history.

Pianykh’s win of the previous day was dampened after a low-side crash during qualifying on Sunday morning. The Pianykh pit was a hive of frenzied activity as his crew worked quickly to get his machine ready for the much anticipated Open Superbike race. This race would set the stage as former rivals, Jesse Sherstan (KOM champion for 2011 and #1 plate holder), Ryan Brand and Pianykh would grid together for the first time since the close of a highly-contended 2011 season. Whatever confidence Pianykh may have lost (from his qualifying crash) was quickly restored by a hole-shot start into turn one with the Canadian duo of Sherstan and Pete De Graaf hard on his tail. Sherstan worked his machine like a man possessed but could not make a pass that would stick. Following the race Sherstan had this to say; “The bike was really only 80% of what it could be. It’s the first race of the season, and six months since I last raced. The bike has a bone stock motor and we’ve only had possession for 72 hours.” All things considered Sherstan rode a great race.

On his qualifying crash and subsequent win, Pianykh said, “Before I talk about the race, I really want to thank everyone who worked to get the bike ready for the race. There’s too many to list, but without their help I wouldn’t have been out there. Matt Spencer and Fastline Race Tire really got the bike dialed in with some suspension tuning and the Pirelli tires worked great.” Oleg is sponsored by Evolution Machine, Edge Powersports and Fastline Race Tire.

In the King of the Mountain GTU class, Canadian Scott Decker rode a flawless ‘start to finish’ race over Austin Carpenters Yamaha R6 and Jeff Stern’s Kawasaki ZX6R. Decker went on to ride three more victories on his Dunlop shod Suzuki GSX-R600 in the GTU classes. Watching Decker was a lesson in race craft as he carved his EDR GSX-R600 around the 2.24 mile West Course. “The bikes ran good today” he said, “I’ve run the same machine for two years so I’m familiar with it and the track.” Decker said after the event. Decker plans on racing with UtahSBA for remainder of the season and the WERA round in May.

Fans and racers eagerly awaited the premier King of the Mountain GTO race. A pecking order already having been established in the Open Superbike race, the familiar names of Sherstan, De Graaf, Brand, Pianykh, and Jones lining up for what turned out to be a barnstormer of a race. Pianykh again taking the hole-shot with journeyman racer, Peter De Graaf (racing an ex-Blake Young Yoshimura Superbike) close behind. De Graaf exercised every effort he could muster against Pianyk in the process logging the fastest lap of the day at 1:31.353. On the seventh lap, De Graaf made a bold move, taking his bike hard on the brakes and deep into turn 10 in an attempt to pass Pianykh on the outside for a good drive on to the front straight. The bike ran wide and gave Pianykh the breathing room he needed for a clean race to the finish. Further back the field, Stern and Sherstan fought tooth and nail for a third and fourth place finish.

The King of the Mountain Series shall continue on May 19/20 in conjunction with WERA on Miller’s Perimeter Course.

The Masters of the Mountains is a motorcycle road racing series organized by the Utah Sport Bike Association, held at Miller Motorsports Park, and sanctioned by the American Motorcyclist Association (AMA). The UtahSBA is a member-based non-profit organization committed to furthering the sport of motorcycle road racing through racing, rider education and safety. For more information on schedule, rulebook, class sponsors, purses and contingency please visit www.utahsba.com/racing or link to the UtahSBA page on Facebook.

Masters of the Mountains 2012 Round 1 Results

NRE 1. Steven Marco 2. Erik Grim 3. Mark Tschampl 4. Joshua Roberts 5. Dean Cork 6. Kevin Johnson

Deseret Dash 1. Oleg Pianykh (Suz GSX-R1000) 2. Clint Warner (Suz GSX-R1000) 3. Peter De Graaf (Suz GSX-R1000) 4. Eric Jones (Hon CBR1000RR) 5. Douglas Pogue (Hon CBR1000RR) 6. Aaron Hersch (Suz GSX-R750)

Endurance GTO 1. Colton Hicks (Hon CBR1000RR) 2. Riley Hicks (Hon CBR1000RR) 3. Shane White (Suz GSX-R1000) 

Endurance GTU 1. Jim King (Yam YZF-R6) 2. Raymond Clark (Suz GSX-R600) 3. Tim Gallagher (Suz SV650) 

Endurance Relay 1. Clint Warner (Suz GSX-R1000) 2. Zach Austin (Yam YZF-R6) 3. Scott Rybarik (Duc 1198) 

Formula 5 1. Aj Amman (Suz GSXR750) 2. James McKay (Suz GSXR750) 3. Tim Johnson (Suz GSXR750) 4. Carey Fougere (Yam YZF-R6) 5. Aaron Hansen (Suz GSXR750) 6. David Peterson (Suz GSX-R-750)

Super Twins 1. Michael Bradshaw (Duc 1098S) 2. Justin Bradshaw (Duc 1098) 3. Jeff Healy (Duc 848) 4. Scott Rybarik (Apr RSV-1000) 5. Brad Moore (Suz SV650) 6. Brian Childree (Moriwaki MD250H)

Middleweight Superbike 1. Scott Decker (Suz GSX-R600) 2. Dylon Husband (Kaw ZX-6R) 3. Austin Carpenter (Yam YZF-R6) 4. Kane Lasky (Kaw ZX-6R) 5. Chad Swain (Kaw ZX-6R) 6. Brad Moore (Suz GSX-R600)

Moto 3 1. Don Roberts (Yam TZ125) 2. Brian Childree (Moriwaki MD250H) 3. Dana Wilson (Hon RS125) 4. Brooke Bailey (Suz SV650) 5. Lindsay Willis (Suz SV650)

Novice GTU 1. Jeremy Ross (Yam YZF-R6) 2. Derek Festevan (Hon CBR600RR) 3. David Haak (Yam YZF-R6) 4. Austin Berard (Yam YZF-R6) 5. Roger Gunn (Hon CBR600F4) 6. Briar Handly (Yam YZF-R6)

Open Superbike 1. Oleg Pianykh (Suz GSX-R1000) 2. Jesse Sherstan (Suz GSX-R1000) 3. Peter De Graaf (Suz GSX-R1000) 4. Ryan Brand (Suz GSX-R1000) 5. Talmage Thornton (Hon CBR1000RR) 6. Eric Jones (Hon CBR1000RR) 

Twins O 1. Jeff Healey (Duc 848) 2. Brad Moore (Suz SV650) 3. Brian Childree (Moriwaki MD250H) 

GP250 1. Bruce Lind (Yam TZ250) 2. Don Roberts (Yam TZ250) 

Combined GTO 1. Rob Kaufman (Yam YZF-R1) 2. Carey Fougere (Yam YZF-R1) 3. David Purcell (Yam YZF-R6) 4. Douglas Pogue (Hon CBR1000RR) 5. Scott Rybarik (Apr RSV1000) 6. Aaron Hansen (Suz GSX-R750)

King of the Mountain U 1. Scott Decker (Suz GSX-R600) 2. Zach Austin (Yam YZF-R6) 3. Jeff Stern (Kaw ZX-6R) 4. Chad Swain (Hon CBR600RR) 5. Dylon Husband (Kaw ZX-6R) 6. Gerald Hicks (Hon CBR600RR)

Twins U and Combined U 1. David Purcell (Yam YZF-R6) 2. Derek Festevan (Hon CBR600RR) 3. Jeff Healy (Yam YZF-R6) 4. Danny Egbert (Yam YZF-R6) 5. Austin Berard (Yam YZF-R6) 6. David Haak (Yam YZF-R6)

Twins GTU 1. Brad Moore (Suz SV650) 2. Brian Childree (Moriwaki MD250H) 3. Don Roberts (Yam TZ250) 4. Tim Gallagher (Suz SV650) 5. Lindsay Willis (Suz SV650)

Open Superstock 1. Ryan Brand (Suz GSX-R1000) 2. Jesse Sherstan (Suz GSX-R1000) 3. Talmage Thornton (Hon CBR1000RR) 4. Shane White (Suz GSX-R1000) 5. Tim Johnson (Suz GSX-R1000) 6. Doug Pogue (Hon CBR1000RR)

Heavy Weight Superstock 1. Scott Decker (Suz GSX-R600) 2. Dylon Husband (Kaw ZX6R) 3. Kane Lasky (Kaw ZX6R) 4. James McKay (Suz GSXR750) 5. Chad Swain (Hon CBR600RR) 6. Harith Albadri (Yam YZF-R6)

Sportsman 1. David Haak (Yam YZF-R6) 2. Aaron Nourbakhsh (Tri 675) 3. Colt Staake (Yam YZF-R1) 4. Kevin Irving (Hon CBR600RR) 5. Briar Handly (Yam YZF-R6) 6. Cody Steggell (Hon CBR600)

Novice GTO 1. Trent Owens (Hon CBR1000RR) 2. Jeremy Ross (Yam YZF-R6) 3. Aaron Hanson (Suz GSXR750) 4. Derek Festevan (Hon CBR600RR) 5. David Haak (Yam YZF-R6) 6. Colt Staake (Yam YZF-R1)

Middleweight Superstock 1. Scott Decker (Suz GSX-R600) 2. Austin Carpenter (Yam YZF-R6) 3. Chad Swain (Hon CBR600RR) 4. Gerald Hicks (Hon CBR600RR) 5. Brad Moore (Suz GSX-R600) 6. Darrel Cherry (Hon CBR600RR)

King of the Mountain O 1. Oleg Pianykh (Suz GSX-R1000) 2. Peter De Graaf (Suz GSX-R1000) 3. Jeff Stern (Hon CBR1000RR) 4. Jesse Sherstan (Suz GSX-R1000) 5. Ryan Brand (Suz GSX-R1000) 6. Talmage Thornton (Hon CBR1000RR)

Formula 40 1. Peter De Graaf (Suz GSX-R1000) 2. Michael Bradshaw (Duc 1098S) 3. Tim Johnson (Suz GSX-R1000) 4. John Hopperstad (Suz GSX-R1000) 5. Carey Fougere (Yam YZF-R1) 6. Doug Pogue (Hon CBR1000RR)