VESRAH SUZUKI DOUBLES IN BACK TO BACK ENDURANCE RACES AT SUMMIT POINT MOTORSPORTS PARK AND VIRGINIA INTERNATIONAL RACEWAY Vesrah Suzuki won both the 6th round of the 2009 WERA National Endurance Series at Summit Point Motorsports Park in Summit Point, WV and the 7th round at Virginia International Raceway. The races being only 1 week apart combined with strong performances from other teams and shortened practice days due to Mother Nature challenged the team. Summit Point: The start of the race saw Tray Batey in a tight battle with a rival team. Vesrah Suzuki had to pit before the 1 hour mark putting Cory West on the Vesrah GSX-R 1000. Due to the rival team being in the lead Team owner Mark Junge had Tray Batey get back on the bike at the second pit stop. The 2 teams traded the lead back and forth staying on the same lap until the strong challenger’s final pit stop which was lengthy due to caliper issues during a front wheel change and Vesrah Suzuki was able to build a 1 lap 30 second lead with a final pit stop still to go. The competition was able to get back on the same lap when Vesrah Suzuki pitted to put Cory West on for the last 40 minute stint. Although the contending team was gaining Cory was able to manage the gap and bring the victory home with a 26 second margin after 6 hours of racing. Tray Batey “Summit’s always a fun track and I look forward to coming here each year. I’m glad the weather was nice for our race the last 6 hour of the year for us. This was a tough one A rival team recruited 2 riders who are probably the 2 fastest privateers in the country right now and we had to ride very hard to be competitive with them. Our pit stops as always were perfect and Nancy Junge gave us accurate pit signals all day. At the end of the day the margin was less than 30 seconds and we were in second place for much of the day. Everyone on this team being good at their job definitely made the difference today!” Cory West “Today’s race was one of the toughest I’ve been a part of in a while. The competition had very strong riders and it was all we could do to hold them off. The Vesrah crew worked their butts off to keep us competitive by making very good pit stops. My hat goes off to them and my teammates Tray and John. “ VIR: Several AMA riders entered the VIR endurance race for track time before the upcoming AMA weekend but the team’s strategy was to run its normal pace in order to work towards securing its 8th WERA National Endurance Championship. Tray Batey started the race for Vesrah Suzuki while the challenger in the previous round ran into problems right at the beginning of the race. An AMA team led until they pitted and Tray was able to take the lead and build up a big enough gap that after Vesrah Suzuki’s pit stop the team was still in the lead with Cory West now on the Team’s Suzuki GSX-R 1000. Cory was able to establish a 1 lap lead during his stint and handed off to John Jacobi who added another lap to the team’s lead during the 3rd hour of the race. Tray Batey rode the final stint for Vesrah Suzuki and brought home the win with a 2 lap margin. Tray Batey “We haven’t been to VIR since 2005 and it was great to be back. It took awhile to figure the track out again. But the highlight of the race had to be getting to ride with Jason Disalvo, Josh Hayes, and Ben Bostrom pretty cool.” Cory West “Everything went according to plan during the endurance race, but we also caught a few lucky breaks. With the challenger from the previous round having issues, all we had to do was keep our noses clean and stay out of trouble. Everyone did their jobs well and we cruised home to another win. Thanks to everyone for their hard work and hopefully we wrap up the title at Barber.” John Jacobi “The race was pretty uneventful Tray and Cory did a great job putting time on the competition. I just worked to maintain the split. Thanks to the whole team for the hard work and great pit stops.”