DUCSHOP’S GRAND SEASON FINALE Ducshop Performance Center’s Mike Smith won both the Battle of the Twins Formula One and Sound of Thunder races at AHRMA’s final round at Barber Motorsports Park on Saturday. Racing the air cooled two-valve NCR Millona, Smith, who was still recovering from a virus that forced him to sit out the previous week’s WERA Grand National Finals, easily won against more powerful 749Rs and a Daytona 675. Sponsored rider Garrett Rick won the CCS Amateur Supertwins race at Daytona on his Ducshop prepped Ducati 749R. While Ducshop technician Zach Southard proudly helped the BMW Atlanta team to a historic victory in the Moto-ST 8-hour endurance race. This was the icing on the cake after Brian Stokes’ national Heavyweight Twins SB championship win on Ducshop’s Aprilia RSV Mille the previous weekend at the GNF, with Ducshop sponsored Dennys Passeto in third and a win for novice rider Tom Esposito. Ducshop also prepped the winning 1000SS and supplied the pit crew for WERA’s 4-hour Lightweight Superbike endurance race winners, Touring Sport Racing. Ducshop proudly supports at least fifteen riders nationwide who, combined, have won copious championships. For more information visit ~http://www.ducshop.com/ducshop_racing.php~ More, from a press release issued by Team Morse Racing: TEAM MORSE RACING ON THE PODIUM AT MILLER MOTORSPORTS PARK CHAMPIONSHIP ROUND! Dave Gallant of Team Morse Racing closed the 2006 season in spectacular fashion by qualifying on the front row and placing on the podium in all of his races at this past weekend’s championship round at Miller Motorsports Park. This special round in the “Masters of the Mountains” series was held in conjunction with the USGPRU finals, and a record number of entrants took the grid to race the twenty-three-turn 4.5 race course in picturesque Tooele Utah. Competitors from around the country showed up for the Friday morning practice and were greeted by brisk early morning temperatures. By mid afternoon however, all in the paddock were treated to clear skies and mid-sixty degree temperatures. After a full day of practice on Friday, Pirelli once again proved they had the best tire for the tricky 4.5 mile race course and the cool track temperatures. After the final suspension and gearing change was made on Friday, Dave Gallant was confident in his setup going into Saturday’s and Sunday’s racing schedule. Saturday morning temperatures were slightly cooler than Friday’s, however that did not slow down the competition. In the “King of the Mountain” race on Saturday, a premier race with double the laps, Dave Gallant was able to latch onto the leaders from the very start of the race and rode hard to a strong 3rd place finish. “Many of us are still figuring out how to put in really fast laps around this huge track. It flows quite well, but I am finding that my normal setup is just not quite right and it is mentally exhausting trying to remember where the perfect line for every corner is. Thanks to Aaron Clark of ClarkieMotoWorks.com the bike is now running perfect, so now we just have to find some time in the setup. Clarkie and Pirelli have some setup ideas for tomorrow, and we will test them out in qualifying tomorrow morning” commented Dave Gallant after his podium finish in King of the Mountain GTU. Sunday greeted race fans to slightly warmer temperatures, and by mid-afternoon the weather was perfect for some serious racing. As hoped, the suspension changes suggested helped Dave Gallant shave off 2 full seconds during qualifying and that performance was enough to put him on the front row for his afternoon races. With a fresh set of Pirelli tires, Dave Gallant stormed off the line in his first Sunday race to challenge Shane Turpin for the lead into turn one. While Shane’s times were just out of reach of Dave Gallant’s, no one was else was able to match the pair at the front as they pulled out a sizable gap over the rest of the field. At the line, Dave Gallant was in a comfortable 2nd place and had dropped another two seconds off the previous days times. “The bike was flawless today. I did everything I could to stay with Shane, but he is an amazing rider and it was just not to be. This was a fantastic end to the season however, and this is great motivation going into the off season testing to perfect what we have working now. Scott Morse and Team Morse Racing have some exciting plans for 2007 and I can not wait to start preparing for them! I want to congratulate Aaron Clark and Pirelli on winning the number one plate in the Masters of the Mountains series here in Utah. All of the competitors raced hard this year, but Aaron deserves it more than anyone” added Dave Gallant of Team Morse Racing. To close out the 2006 season and under much cooler temperatures, Dave Gallant once again put in a stellar ride to finish second in Middleweight Superbike behind Shane Turpin. More, from a press release issued by Team Motorrad: TEAM MOTORRAD TAKES CHECKERED FLAG AT INAUGURAL DAYTONA SUNTRUST MOTO-ST EVENT On Saturday October 21st at 9pm the checkered flag fell at the conclusion of eight intense hours of racing in the SunTrust MOTO-ST Series inaugural event at Daytona International Speedway. Team Motorrad/Touring Sport BMW crossed the line with rider Frank Shockley on board, finishing 16th overall and 10th in the premier SST class. Starting from Pole Position, Team Motorrad was one of three BMW R1200S entries in the SST class, all of which finished the race, with San Jose BMW in the coveted 1st position, and Daytona BMW in 4th position. Team Motorrad ran as high as 6th during the race, before a battery failure forced the team to a halt in lap 81. The R1200S shut down in the chicane with owner/rider Ivan Messina at the controls. After losing more than 15 laps returning to the pits, diagnosing, and repairing the problem the team was back out on track with rider Brad Phillips working to regain lost positions. “The battery problem was bad luck for us,” said Ivan. “We ran two 4-hour races prior to this race with no issues whatsoever, and this problem was a surprise for sure. Our pit crew was great, getting us in and out quickly during our tire changes and fuel stops, and without them we couldn’t have come back as far as we did from such a debilitating failure.” The team arrived in Daytona late Wednesday night, and took to the track on Thursday for practice. The day was spent adjusting the R1200S and monitoring fuel usage to help determine pit strategy, as well as testing some new components. “Cee Bailey’s Aircraft Plastics gave us a huge windscreen to test and it worked great. At first I thought it might be too big, but once behind it on the banking I couldn’t have been happier. We had absolutely no wind buffeting at all behind that screen, which helped all of us from suffering too much fatigue during our stints,” said Ivan. The team also used the available dyno time and their Wunderlich/Techlusion fuel injection controller to fine tune fuel usage. “We were able to get a little more fuel range without sacrificing drivability or power, and it is so easy to adjust I was able to do it in just a few seconds between dyno runs,” said Ivan. Friday the team worked on general service to the R1200S and lighting installation. PIAA USA helped the team to install a 4600K H.I.D. Super Cobalt PIAA lighting system on Saturday Morning. The light made a huge difference during the race, enabling the team to run similar lap times during the two hours of darkness to the times they did during daylight hours. “MOTO-ST did a decent job of lighting the track, but in the chicane and turn 5 in particular where the track was a little dark, the PIAA light really made a difference picking out the apexes and exits of the corners,” said Ivan. Another concern for the team during the race was oil usage in the big air/oil cooled 1200cc motor. “We thought the engine might be 1-2 quarts down at the end,” said Ivan. “Our Rock Oil equipped engine only burned about half of a quart of oil over the entire race. I was shocked when we checked the oil level after the finish and really have to thank Rock Oil for supplying us with a premium synthetic lubricant that kept the engine running cool and strong under such intense demands.” Team Motorrad plans to contest the entire MOTO-ST season in 2007.