Safety First Suzuki Gets Mixed Results at Fontana Arriving at Fontana with Hungarian rider Gabor Rizmayer off in Germany racing, Safety First Suzuki relied on the efforts of 17 year old Bobby Fong to carry the flag for the team during the weekend. Thursday promoter practice found Bobby immediately on pace as he dropped into the high 1:27’s. This was impressive because Bobby was less than a second off of the fastest lap in the race last year and a full 2 seconds faster than his quickest time a year ago. Leading into the weekend, Bobby had joked with team owner, Kevin Hanson, that he would go a second quicker once he got his new leathers. “I’ve been finalizing a deal with RS Taichi over the last few weeks and Bobby kept pestering me every two hours on when his new leathers were going show up. He wasn’t kidding when he said he would go faster. Heck, I’ll give him a new suit every week if it will work,” joked Hanson. “I can’t thank Audrey from Moto Liberty enough for all of her help in bringing RS Taichi on board. The leathers are definitely premium quality and the really cool thing is they come in three different variations for each available size. For example, Bobby is a size thin 40 which is cut different from a standard size 40. The suit showed up fitting him like a glove, but was an off the rack suit”¦..definitely impressive,” explained Hanson. Supersport Qualifying: 14th With Supersport qualifying being postponed to Sunday, Bobby only had 20 minutes to “get er done” Sunday morning. “I started with a race tire for 5 laps to get up to speed and then came in for a zero Pirelli rear. Since the draft is important here for a good qualifying time, I was trying to get a tow from Blake Young, but ended up just in front of him and towed him around for his fast qualifying time. I ended up 14th fastest in the final seconds of qualifying pushing my own air. It worked out great for Blake because he ended up 7th, I need to get better at qualifying because for some reason I get nervous and try and push too hard and go slower,” commented Fong. Supersport Result: DNF (crash) “Man, I’m really bummed about my result. All of my guys worked really hard and I simply screwed up. I got caught behind Michael Beck on the restart and got overanxious trying to get around him and crashed. I’m bummed because everyone on my crew worked hard including Mark Junge who found more power for our bikes this weekend. I gotta thank Mark because these Suzuki’s are freakin’ fast now and I had the speed to run with the factory guys out there this weekend,” stated Fong. “The great thing is we get better and better every weekend with the new Suzuki and the team working together. The race result doesn’t really show how much we progressed this weekend. You begin to realize all of the hard work is starting to fall into place when factory riders are sitting up on Bobby and not towing him around the track,” chimed Hanson. The team heads to Infineon Raceway for the next AMA round which is only 45 minutes from Bobby’s hometown in Stockton, CA. Safety First Racing was formed in 2004 by police officer/racer, Kevin Hanson, based out of Chicago, IL. For 2008, Safety First Suzuki will be competing in the Supersport class in the AMA Superbike series Checkoutt www.SAFETYFIRSTRACING.com to see the latest line of apparel and performance products from Safety First Racing. Kevin Hanson continues to give away Bell bicycle helmets to elementary school children nationwide and educate children about the importance of helmet usage. More, from a press release issued by Corona Extra Honda: VICTORY! CORONA EXTRA HONDA’S HOLDEN FIRST TO THE LIME IN AUTOCLUB SPEEDWAY SUPERSTOCK RACE Jake Holden showed his outstanding talent this weekend, taking his Corona Extra Honda CBR1000RR to victory in a thrilling SuperStock race that was settled on the last corner of the last lap. The historic victory marks the first ever in 1000cc SuperStock for Honda and the first for the new-for-’08 CBR1000RR. Teammate Matt Lynn also had a great weekend, netting a pair of nines in SuperBike. Jake also entered one of the Superbike events in order to qualify for the Laguna Seca event and netted an amazing tenth on his SuperStock machine. SuperBike qualifying saw both the yellow Corona SuperBike and the green SuperStock machine on the track and both quickly up to speed! Eventually Matt took ninth with Jake a tick behind in tenth. Most impressive was the fact that both machines were well into the 1m 25’s with only 0.6 second separating Jake from 7th qualifier Eric Bostrom on the factory Yamaha! At the green flag for the first race the Corona bikes were in the thick of the action and in with the front pack. Matt spent much of the race dicing with Miguel Duhamel, leading him from lap nine through twenty three with Jake right behind and looking for any mistake to make a pass! Miguel got past Matt and managed to break away over the last four laps leaving Matt to settle for ninth with Jake a scant few seconds behind. Matt said: “We opted for a soft tire and it went off near the end so I couldn’t keep up my pace and Miguel got by me!” Jake was happy with his tenth place finish: “The bike ran great. We made some changes before the race and they worked well. It was tough because the bikes in front all had a lot more horsepower and kept gapping me on the straights!” he said. In the second SuperBike race, Lynn again battled with the factory bikes of DuHamel, DeSalvo and Hacking until an electrical gremlin slowed down his charge. He limped the bike home, and in a race dramatic for its attrition, got himself an excellent ninth place at the checkered flag. These finishes move Lynn up to eighth in the SuperBike championship. The SuperStock race was the talk of the weekend. Holden had qualified second on the grid, a red flag which terminated qualifying early having preventing his final qualifying “Q tire” run. At the green flag Jake dropped a couple of positions but quickly worked back up to second before a red flag came out. In the full race restart, he fluffed his start and found himself in fifth on lap one. But there was no stopping Jake as he picked off one rider at a time through the race, getting fourth on lap four, third on lap eight, second on lap ten and passing leader Robertino Pietri for the lead on lap fourteen. Barber race winner Aaron Yates chased him to the front and put on a terrific fight for the lead over the last couple of laps. It all came down to a banzai pass by Yates on the last but one corner but which pushed him a fraction wide and giving Jake the opportunity to dive inside and hold the pass to the checkered flag and 0.17 seconds in front of Aaron. An elated Holden said: “I made a couple of mistakes on the last laps and Aaron caught me. He tried a pass at the end, I was thinking he’s going into the corner too hot so I went inside and got the drive to the flag!” On the top of the box Jake credited his crew and the “fantastic’ CBR1000RR. He finished with his signature “Rock and Roll” rendition to the delight of the crowd. Then it was off to the lime and ice cold Corona’s for celebration!!!!!!! Jake is currently second in the championship points. More, from a press release issued by Tim Knutson’s publicist: IN WHAT COULD OF BEEN A SEASON ENDING WEEKEND, PRIVATEER TIM KNUTSON SHOWED JUST HOW MUCH COURAGE AND DETERMINATION HE POSSESSES Arriving Thursday, Tim took advantage of the Suzuki Privateer Appreciation practice, using the time to fine tune his newly built Lee’s Cycle Suzuki GSXR1000. “Getting off the bike after the first practice, I thought, Man that’s the fastest bike I’ve ever been on.” Throughout Thursday practice Tim’s lap times began to drop with Robert “Tre” Schultz tuning the chassis to handle the fresh engine. Weather was near perfect with little wind and cool temperatures. In the last session of the day Tim was already under the Superbike cutoff times. The weekend was off to a good start. With some overnight chassis adjustments things look to be good for the opening of AMA Superbike practice Friday morning. Tim headed out and was quickly up to speed with the new chassis settings and was a half second faster by the 5Th lap when the red flag came out for KWS rider Ben Thompson crashing in the turn 20 area. After a brief clean up, the track went green again and Tim headed out with the rest of the Superbike competitors. The Lee’s Cycle Suzuki GSXR1000 was very fast and competitive in acceleration, Tim’s session came to an abrupt end entering turn 5 when the #1 bike of Ben Spies came up the inside under a standing yellow flag and hit Tim’s left handlebar pulling Tim off of his bike and onto Ben’s rear tire. Watching the replay you can see Tim’s arm run up the rear tire and followed by his leg as he was thrown up into the air and unceremoniously hitting the ground hard with his head and back at about 100mph, sliding to a stop some 250ft from the initial impact. Amazingly enough Tim popped up to his feet with just a burn on the inside of his left arm and some bruising of the ribs, thanks to his Suomy helmet, Spidi leathers and Sidi boots. The most unfortunate part of the event was Tim’s Lee’s Cycle GSXR1000 remained upright and continued on veering off to the left and impacting a tire protected wall head on snapping the frame in half, bending the forks and front wheel and pretty much making the bike a write off. After a standard trip to the infield care center Tim returned to the pits bruised and battered and visibly upset. “You know it’s a real let down to put in as much work as I do on my own program, working 50hrs a week delivering packages for UPS to come out here and have it all taken from you in an instant because the 2 time defending AMA Superbike Champion makes an error in judgment. I don’t have another bike to jump on and soldier on with. It will be 6 months before I can put that bike back together not to mention all the contingency races that I will miss in the mean time that I can actually make money at.” After cooling off Tim headed to the riders meeting, standing less than 10ft. from Mr. Spies, figuring would say something to him exiting the meeting. “I know Ben doesn’t know me from Adam, but I thought he or somebody from his team would come over and check to see if I was ok, and apologize for the incident. I guess past champions and future MOTO GP riders are exempt from this common courtesy” With only an hour and a half till Superbike qualifying Tim began packing some of his stuff up when Jeremy Toye said “Hey you can put tires on my bike and go out and see what you think”. Jeremy had brought his personal 2006 Lee’s Cycle GSXR 1000 for display purposes, and wouldn’t be riding it, due to the fact he was competing on a RoadracingWorld.com CBR1000. Being a competitor, Tim rolled the bike over to his side of the garage, took the wheels off and had some fresh Dunlops put on for qualifying. “I’m just going to go out and run laps and see if the bike is decent and see what happens” Tim did just that and went out to familiarize himself with Jeremy’s bike. By the end of the qualifying session Tim had recorded 1:30.2 on the unfamiliar bike which was only 1.1 seconds off of his time from this morning and only .2 of a second from making the Superbike cutoff time. “It pretty much went as I thought it might, this bike is set up for Willow Springs and Jeremy Toye and we just have a completely different feel for the bike. But the Lee’s Cycle motor just makes up for so much around here. We didn’t bother mounting a soft tire on because we still have the morning session which will be much cooler and hopefully less wind”. Saturday morning came and it was much cooler but the winds were not, it was blowing with gusts up to 30mph. After waiting around all morning, came the news that the 2ND Superbike Qualifying session had been canceled and grid was posted. Tim knew that this meant his 130.2 would be .2 of a second short of making the grid. Tim went to race director and pointed out that he was well under the cutoff on his own bike before having been taken out by Ben Spies in morning practice, borrowed a bike and was just off the cutoff within 15 laps on the bike. After verifying the practice times the Race Director put Tim in the last spot on the grid. At least some justice had prevailed and Tim would be allowed to race. Race 1 Tim had a poor launch but was able to come around the first lap in 18Th place. After a few tough laps fighting with headshake everywhere with the bike Tim came into the pits for some adjustments. Out of contention to race for any positions, Tim wisely used the remainder of the race to go out turn some laps and make adjustments all the time staying out of the way of any of the riders battling for position. “I didn’t want to waste the track time cause I definitely wanted to have a more competitive safer bike for me to ride tomorrow.” By the end of the race Tim had completed 17 of the 28 laps leaving him in 18Th position. Race 2 As the lights went green Tim dropped the clutch perfectly and moved up quickly coming around in 13Th after the first lap. Then Tim settled into a rhythm and just clicked off lap after lap consistently within tenths of each other. Tim rode a smooth and calculated race to bring home the Lee’s Cycle Suzuki GSXR 1000 11Th after some help from attrition. “I definitely couldn’t afford to crash that bike so I just a decent pace nothing spectacular and brought the bike home as best I could. I’ve got to thank Lee’s Cycle and Jeremy Toye for stepping up and letting me finish out the weekend on their bike.” At this time Tim doesn’t know when he will be competing again as his bike is in 2 pieces. Stay tuned to see what happens next. Tim would also like to thank all of his sponsors: Lee’s Cycle, Motorcult, Dunlop, Maxima, Spidi, Sidi, Suomy, Hot Bodies Racing, Leo Vince, GPR Stabilizer, Rockstar energy drinks, VP race fuels More, from a press release issued by Skunk Racing: LENNY HALE AFM #139 SWEEPS 600 RACES AT INFINEON RACEWAY Skunk Racing’s #139 Lenny Hale had a dominating weekend at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma CA for the second round of the 2008 AFM season. Hale, on his Pirelli shod ’08 Yamaha R6, was recovering from a bad WERA West event in Las Vegas two weeks prior where an engine failure plagued his weekend in the opening race. In the opening race [750 Superbike] Hale tucked into a comfortable second place after the green flag dropped, but yellow flags and lap riders prevented him from capturing the win. In his second outing [600 Superbike] Lenny started from the front row and by turn two had the lead and began his sprint away from the pack. By the half way mark Hale had a commanding 4 second lead, which he held to the checkered with no problems. After the race Hale commented “Starting on the front row is definitely easier, not as fun, but a lot easier!” In Formula 1 Lenny led from flag to flag nursing used tires to another victory. In the final race [600 Production] Hale hole-shotted his stock [engine] R6 and from the word go had victory in his sights. After securing his position out front he comfortably set the cruise control and brought home another win. Hale at the end of the weekend’s events stated: “I thought for sure Garrett [Willis] or [Brant] Wiwi were coming for me so I hammered as hard as I could without getting all scooby-noodle to try and lay a gap down. I just tried to go fast and I guess it worked. I’d like to thank everyone for all the help this weekend; Pirelli, Graves, CRG, C-5, Shoei, NJK, and Bike911.com”¦Oh, and Pablo also, the owner of Skunk Racing, for helping me so much this year!” More, from a press release issued by Buell: RMR BUELL WINS GRAND SPORT TWINS CLASS AT MOTO-ST VIR 500K Sipp Wins Close ASRA Pro Thunderbike Race at Topeka Danville, Va. The No. 7 Richie Morris Racing/Hal’s Harley-Davidson/Buell XB12R ridden by Mike Smith and Clint Brotz won the BMW Motorcycles GrandSport Twins class at the VIR SunTrust MOTO-ST 500K at Virginia International Raceway April 27 over the Rights for Bikers Ducati 1000. The No. 70 James Gang/Hoban Brothers Racing Buell XB12R, sponsored by H-D/Buell of Appleton and ridden by Paul James and Jeff Johnson finished in third place. Damp pre-race conditions and a threat of rain caused several teams to gamble on tire choice early on, but the entire race distance was completed in dry conditions that favored the Buell teams that started on Pirelli Diablo Supercorsa DOT tires. “The Buell was a pleasure to ride,” said RMR’s Mike Smith of Canton, Ga., who flew in early Saturday morning just in time to qualify the No. 7 in the third position on the grid. “It’s been a long time since I’ve ridden at VIR especially in the rain. But the team gave us a great bike.” “We were a little cautious early on in the damp conditions, but solid pit stops and consistent riding got us back on the box again,” said James Gang/Hoban Brothers Racing’s Paul James. After two rounds, the RMR Buell team leads the GST class championship with 65 points, followed by the James Gang/Hoban Brothers Racing Buell team in second with 62 points and the Wagner Motorsports Ducati in third with 60 points. In the Buell Motorcycle Company SuperSport Twins (SST) class, the Bruce Rossmeyer’s Daytona Racing Buell 1125R ridden by Shawn Higbee and Dan Bilansky qualified second and led the race for several laps, but was sidelined with suspected clutch problems after the first pit stop. The SST class win and overall victory went to the No. 1 Aprilia USA Aprilia Tuono 1000R. The next stop on the MOTO-ST schedule is at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wis., on June 7 during the AMA Suzuki Superbike Doubleheader weekend. Sipp Wins ASRA Pro Thunderbike Race at Topeka Walt Sipp made a last-lap pass stick and rode his Buell XB12R Firebolt to win the second round of the 2008 American Sportbike Racing Association (ASRA) Pro Thunderbike National series at Heartland Park Topeka raceway April 27. It was the first pro-level win for the 31-year-old racer from Kansas City. Sipp qualified second for the Pro Thunderbike National behind BMW rider Nate Kern, who posted a lap of 1:49.619. Defending ASRA Pro Thunderbike champion Dave Estok posted a faster lap in qualifying but was bumped to the back of the grid when his Deeley H-D/Buell Canada/Ruthless Racing Buell XB12R would not start for a post-qualifying dyno test. Estok was not set back for long, as the rider from New Smyrna Beach, Fla. moved up to second position behind Kern on the first lap of the 12-lap national and took the lead on lap two. Sipp had slipped back to fifth position after a bad start. “I wanted to get a good start because I know Kern is always fast on cold tires, and I didn’t want him to get away,” said Sipp. “But I missed my shift to second gear on the start and fell behind.” Estok opened a gap on Kern, as Sipp worked through traffic. Sipp passed Kern on lap eight and then suddenly found himself in the lead when Estok’s motorcycle stopped running and he left the track. “I had really used up my tires catching those guys, and I had a good lead on Kern so I went into tire-conservation mode,” said Sipp. Sipp’s slower pace allowed Kern to catch him, and he passed to take the lead on the first turn of the final lap. “I was not going to let him take this win away from me,” said Sipp. “I ran as hard as I could and got past him and held him off at the line. It was really exciting to get my first pro win here at my home track in front of my family.” Both Sipp and Kern rode their fastest laps on the final circuit of the race, and both were under the previous track record for the Pro Thunderbike class. Sipp led by less than a bike length at the finish. Third place went to Hal’s H-D/Buell/Hal’s Speed Shop rider Dean Hagemann on a Buell XB12R. Hagemann, who is usually the team mechanic for Pro Thunderbike regular Dan Bilansky, rode Bilansky’s XB12R at Topeka as Bilansky was racing at the MOTO-ST event in Virginia. After two ASRA events, Kern holds the lead in Pro Thunderbike points with 66. Sipp is second with 58 points, followed by Estok with 42. The next stop on the eight-race ASRA Pro Thunderbike schedule is the Summit Point Festival of Speed, May 24-26, at Summit Point Motorsports Park, Summit Point, W.V. Spaulding Rides Buell to Eight CCS Wins In a double-header weekend of MotoSport.com Championship Cup Series (CCS) sprint racing at Topeka, Joel Spaulding of Huntley, Ill. rode his Hal’s Speed Shop Buell XB12R to wins in eight of 10 classes he entered, including double wins in Amateur Lightweight Superbike, Amateur Lightweight Grand Prix, and Amateur Thunderbike, and single wins in Amateur SuperTwins and Amateur GT Lights. Kegel H-D/Buell rider Jay Smith of Machesney Park, Ill., rode his Buell XB12R to two wins in Amateur Lightweight SuperSport. Estok won Expert Thunderbike on Sunday. To learn more about Buell motorcycles, visit your local Buell dealer today and experience the pure streetfighter attitude, style and performance only found on board a Buell. For the Buell dealer nearest you, pull into www.buell.com.