Dominguez, Howard and Cockrell Heat Up Hallett Motor Racing Circuit

Round five of the Central Motorcycle Roadracing Association’s championship series moved outside the Texas border for the first time this year, making the first of two stops at Hallett Motor Racing Circuit near Hallett, Oklahoma, this past weekend. Dustin Dominguez topped the sprints wins list, claiming an amazing eight wins on the weekend. His feat, however, was almost matched by novice racer Nemo Cockrell, who grabbed seven sprint wins. Meanwhile, Ty Howard maintained his perfect sprint season by winning his three sprint classes, and setting a new lap record in the process.

Hot, but otherwise perfect weather greeted over 450 sprint entries at the 1.8-mile facility over the Memorial Day weekend as Dominguez turned in his dominating performance, claiming wins in the LMSTrackdays.com B Superstock, SASuperbike.com B Superbike, South Central Race Center C Superstock, Island Racing Services C Superbike, D Superstock , D Superbike, RentMyNinja.com E Superstock and Lightweight Twins Expert races. Dominguez’s perfect weekend was spoiled when he took second to Conner Blevins in the Exel Transportation Formula 2 expert race. After the race, Dominguez said, “Conner always rides well, but this weekend he really has his Honda RS250 running well. His bike is fast, too fast for my Suzuki SV650 to catch today.”

And while Dominguez left town with the most wins, it was Ty Howard who turned the fastest times. Riding his KTM RC8R, Howard set a new lap record in the Formula 1 race, posting a 1:15.536 to undercut Dane Westby’s 2008 record by 0.035 seconds. Howard wasn’t finished, however, and returned in the AVTEQ A Superbike race to lower record even more, turning a 1:15.398 on the second lap of the race. Amazingly, Howard set his lap records on a “dirty” track caused by serious oiling of the track earlier in the day, an oil spill that took race control almost an hour to clean up. When asked about his feat, Howard said, “I just went out and rode it hard. I didn’t know what to expect of the track, but it was pretty good. I’m wishing I would have put fresh tires on the bike because I probably could have gone faster.”

Ultimately, Howard came away with wins in all three 1000 races: the AVTEQ A Superbike race, Formula 1 race and RaceworX A Superstock race.

James Camacho Jr. and Conner Blevins continued their battle in the ultra-competitive GMAN Productions 125 GP race, with Camacho turning the tables this time to beat Blevins by 6.49 seconds in the eight lap showdown.

Earlier in the day, Blevins topped Dominguez to win the Exel Transportation Formula 2 race, beating the fellow Okie to the line by 6.418 seconds, while Tony Ta finished third over 10 seconds back.

In a battle of close finishes, Alonzo Contreras edged Cameron Kirk by 0.112 seconds to win the Ridesmart Rookie Expert race, while Ronnie Hay nipped Craig Montgomery by 0.235 to win the Heavyweight Twins race.

Meanwhile, Rick Kirk took the win over Eric Falt in the Formula 40 Lightweight Expert race; and Dewayne Davis beat John Orchard to win the Formula 40 Heavyweight Expert race.

Other Expert-class winners included Ryan Ambrose (Road & Track Suspension Clubman), Alan Phillips (Super Motard), Jon Francis (Unlimited Motard), and Cameron Kirk (Road & Track Suspension Classic Unlimited).

In the Novice divisions, Nemo Cockrell almost matched Dominguez’ feat, claiming seven wins in all. Cockrell’s wins came in the Road & Track Suspension A Superstock, Lone Star Track Days B Superstock, Moto Liberty C Superstock, Ridesmart C Superbike, Road & Track Suspension Formula 1, A Superbike race, and B Superbike races.

Other multiple race winners in the Novice classes were Jordan Scott, who won the Ridesmart Lightweight Twins race and the Road & Track Suspension D Superbike race; and Isachar Perez, who won the OnRoad OffRoad Cycles D Superstock race and the Road & Track Suspension Formula 2 race.

Meanwhile, Brad Feltes won the Road & Track Suspension Heavyweight Twins race.

In Saturday’s 4 hour Big Bike Endurance race, Moto Ace (Derek Wagnon, Jeremy Kidd, Joe Prussiano, Dustin Dominguez, Dustin Meador) took the win by a four lap margin over Village Idiots (John Orchard, Chris Headley, Chad Tieszen, Brandon Cleland) with D2 Cycles (Dean Thimjon, Kurt Stock, Jason Swan) finishing third another three laps behind. Moto Ace had to win the race without the services of Jeremy Kidd (who was injured in a Friday practice crash) and Joe Prussiano (who didn’t make the trip to Hallett). Team owner Dickie McFarland explained that they were a little lucky, saying “At the last minute we had to swap fuel tanks because of a vent problem on our usual fuel tank. The tank we used wasn’t built like our set-up, it vents in a different way; it has never been used before on our bike before. We had no idea what to expect of it, but it worked fine and we rode well all day long. The two Dustins (Meador and Dominguez) and Derek (Wagon) rode flawlessly all day. It was an awesome day!”

Double D Express (Daniel Dominguez, Les Banta, Dewayne Davis, Darnell Dorsey) won the Classic Endurance class with an eighth overall finish, while Faltless Racing (Daniel Dominguez, Les Banta, Dewayne Davis, Darnell Dorsey) topped the Sonic Springs Formula 2 division in 10th overall.

After the 4 hour Big Bike Endurance race was over, the minis took to the track to get in a little sprint action. Conner Blevins edged out Marcus Beedle to win the Road & Track Suspension – Jon Broom/Zac Chapman Road to Recovery Formula 4 race, while Roger Albert topped Jay Newton to win the OnRoad OffRoad Suspension Formula 6 race.

The OnRoad OffRoad Suspension Formula 5 race was won by Britten Geary, with second place once again going to Beedle, while the Formula 7 win went to Wyatt Sperry, with Allan Voigt II finishing second.

Josie Carey won the Junior Motard race on a TTR50.

As soon as the Mini Sprints had finished their racing, 27 Mini Endurance teams gridded up for the 3 hour Mini Endurance race. Close racing and mechanicals was the order of the day for several top contenders, but when the checkers flew, it was Team Gleam (Marcus Beedle, Conner Blevins, Bryan West, Ryan Andrews) who crossed the stripe first with 113 laps, one lap up on the second place team, Howlie Boyz (Dean Thimjon, Jason Swan, Kurt Stock, John Orchard). Redline Roadracing (Austin Gore, Joey Howells, Brandon Altmeyer, Ryan Max Johnson) rounded out the top three, six laps behind the winners.

The CMRA returns to action on July 9-11 at Motor Sport Ranch in Cresson, Texas, for a full slate of sprint racing, plus a 6-hour Big Bike Endurance race. Go to www.cmraracing.com for more info.