Odenton, MD. Virginia International Raceway track specialist, Brian Kcraget, came out of pseudo-retirement to decimate the field of 125GP qualifiers in the sweltering summer sun. He set a blistering qualifying time of 1:35.561, nearly a full 2 seconds faster than his closest competitors Nobi Iso and Alex Welsh. In the 250GP qualifying, Canadian Alex Welsh, proved unstoppable as he set the fastest time of 1:34.441, almost a full second ahead of Nobi Iso, and Bill Himmelsbach. The 125GP race started with Nobi Iso nailing the start and gapping the field into turn one. Kcraget got a very un-characteristic bad launch and had to do some turn one braking heroics to catch back up to second place. Brian was able to pass Nobi late in the first lap and it appeared like he would pull another disappearing act at his home track. But the horsepower advantage that Nobi has aboard his Aprilia RS125, proved to be more than enough to keep up with Brian’s Honda. During lap 5 of 12, Kcraget was forced to retire as his motor expired in turn 3. Nobi kept his head down and maintained about a 4 second gap over the injured Alex Welsh. John Hjelm and Mike Orien battled for the final podium position, with Hjelm winning that honor in the end. By far, the best battle of race was between Dave Celento, and Scott Smallwood. Scott had crashed in the CCS GT Lights race on Saturday and was riding injured on a bike held together with duct tape and safety-wire. But he was #2 in the National points chase and had to go for it. Dave and Scott were perfectly matched and came across the line dead even almost every lap. Dave led out of the final turn, and appeared to have the advantage when Scott popped out of the draft and narrowly beat Dave to the line by a half a wheel to claim 5th place overall and put himself in the lead for the national points. At the start of the 250GP race, an approaching dark cloud loomed ominously on the horizon. The starter threw an extremely fast flag and caught most of the field off guard. But Canadian Alex Welsh was quick on the draw and leapt out to a substantial advantage over the rest of the field. Bill Himmelsbach put his sights on young Alex, and was able to reel him in on lap 3. Just when Bill appeared to have the advantage he suddenly started fading and Alex opened the gap to about 2 seconds. Nobi Iso had a terrible start and was in 5th place into turn 1 but rode his Yamaha TZ250 masterfully to work his way up to 3rd by lap 3. He then started closing the gap to the leaders by about 2 tenths per lap. On lap 8, he passed Bill for second place and closed the gap to Alex to less than a second. Just then, the winds picked up, and the rain started falling. And just as Nobi was exiting the final turn, the back end stepped out and threw him over the top. Unbeknownst to Nobi, the ASRA race director very wisely stopped the race due to the winds picking up several canopies and throwing them toward the front straight. A few brave spectators jumped on the runaway canopies, narrowly stopping them from blowing in front of the rapidly approaching race pack. That red flag meant that the prior lap race order would be the final for that event. Nobi retains his second place finish behind Welsh, and ahead of Himmelsbach. 125GP Results 1. Nobi Iso (Apr RS125), 12 laps 2. Alex Welsh (Hon RS125) 3. John Hjelm (Hon RS125) 4. Mike Orien (Hon RS125) 5. Scott Smallwood (Hon RS125) 6. Dave Celento (Hon RS125) 7. Steve Scott (Yam TZ125) 8. John Klaras (Hon RS125) 9. Glen Pison (Hon RS125) 10. Richard Kjar (Hon RS125) 11. Merle Eschman (Hon RS125) 12. Michael Santelia (Hon RS125) 13. John Lemak (Hon RS125) 14. Mark Dennis (Hon RS125) 15. Brian Burton (Hon RS125) 16. Scott McNew (Hon RS125) 17. Chris Vest (Hon RS125), -1 lap 18. Rebecca Henn (Hon RS125), -1 lap 19. Marcus Matthews (Hon RS125), -1 lap 20. Allen Campbell (Hon RS125), -1 lap 21. Ryan O’Donnell (Hon RS125), -4 laps, DNF, mechanical 22. Bruce Lind (Yam TZ125), -5 laps, DNF, mechanical 23. Brian Kcraget (Hon RS125), -7 laps, DNF, mechanical 24. Christopher Terheyden (Hon RS125), -10 laps, DNF, crash Motion Pro Cables & Tools 250GP Results 1. Alex Welsh (Hon RS250), 6 laps 2. Nobi Iso (Yam TZ250) 3. Bill Himmelsbach (Yam TZS250) 4. Matt Cooper (Hon RS250) 5. Bruce Lind (Yam TZ250) 6. Thomas di Nardo (Yam TZ250) 7. Jim Bonner (Yam TZ250) 8. Daniele Lenarduzzi (Yam TZ250) 9. Mike Wright (Yam TZ250) 10. Dave Celento (Hon RS125) 11. Jim Bergey (Hon RS250) 12. Michael Schafer (Apr 250) 13. Joseph Melchionda (Yam TZ250) 14. Jerry Berkey (Hon RS250) 15. Chris Mann (Apr 250), -1 lap The 2006 USGPRU National Series sponsors include Roadracingworld.com, Rising Sun Cycles, Revit Leathers, Bridgestone Motorsport, CCS, AGVSport, EBC Brakes, Hjelm Motorsports, Ian Emberton Engineering, Motion Pro Cables and Tools, Dunlop, Power Stands, Redline Cycle Imports, Regina Chain, Repsol YPF, and VP Fuel. About USGPRU The USGPRU is the officially recognized Motorcycle 125 Grand Prix National Championship ® and 250 Grand Prix National Championship TM series. The USGPRU emulates true World MotoGP racing experience and serves to attract young riders to gain experience in a professional environment and provide a path to world-class motorcycle racing. The USGPRU structures events with extended length grand prix racing exclusive to the GP machines, timed qualifying and strong contingency and sponsor support. For additional details, visit www.USGPRU.net