Barnes Wins AMA Pro Vance & Hines XR1200 Race at Homestead-Miami Qualifying Crash Ends XR Showdown Contender Wyman’s Season Milwaukee (September 23, 2012) KLR Group/Spyke’s Harley-Davidson rider Michael Barnes won his second AMA Pro Vance & Hines XR1200 series race of the season Sunday at Homestead-Miami Speedway, a day after his teammate Kyle Wyman’s season come to a disappointing end after a qualifying crash. Barnes battled polesitter Tyler O’Hara (Bartels’ H-D/Scrubblade) and Travis Wyman (Harv’s Harley-Davidson), who rounded out the podium spots, along with Suburban Motors H-D’s Benjamin Carlson and MOB Racing’s Jake Holden throughout the 11-lap contest. After leading the third and fourth laps of the race, Barnes fell back to third behind O’Hara and Wyman, who traded the lead for the next several laps. But on lap ten, Barnes picked off Wyman for second, setting up a decisive move for the lead and eventual win on the final lap, when he passed O’Hara on the back straight. With yellow flags out for a crashed rider on the last lap, Barnes was able to hold that lead through the final few corners and fend off O’Hara’s late draft-pass attempt at the start/finish line by 0.132 second. “It’s been a real emotional rollercoaster weekend with Kyle getting hurt yesterday,” Barnes said. “It affected the whole team but it made us dig that much deeper, and I know Travis was digging deeper for his brother out there too. He was riding hard. It was hard to out-brake him, but I needed to get by Travis in order to get by Tyler. I dug deep for that one.” On Saturday, XR Showdown contender Kyle Wyman (KLR Group/ Spyke’s Harley-Davidson) high-sided in damp track conditions during qualifying and was air-lifted to a local hospital for observation. Wyman was released later that evening and returned to the track to root for his teammate Barnes on Sunday, but decided to call an end to his season to recuperate after several hard crashes in recent races. With Wyman out of contention, the fight for the XR Showdown title will likely come down to a battle between Barnes, O’Hara, and Carlson, who are separated by eight points with one race remaining in the series. The AMA Pro Vance & Hines XR1200 series concludes October 6-7 at NOLAMotorsportsPark in New Orleans, La. Homestead-Miami Race Result: 1. Michael Barnes (KLR Group/Spyke’s H-D), 11 laps 2. Tyler O’Hara (Bartels’ H-D/Scrubblade), +0.132 second 3. Travis Wyman (Harv’s H-D), +0.515 second 4. Benjamin Carlson (Suburban Motors H-D), +1.843 seconds 5. Michael Corbino (XP Motorsports/Rossiter’s H-D), +14.014 seconds 6. Shane Narbonne (MOB Racing/Teterboro Rams LLC), +25.216 seconds 7. David Estok (Ruthless Racing/Deeley H-D Racing), +32.734 seconds 8. Barrett Long (Longevity Racing), +53.345 9. Josh Chisum (Bartels’ H-D/Scrubblade), +53.350 seconds 10. Eric Haugo (MOB Racing/Teterboro Rams LLC), +1:20.960 11. Jake Holden (MOB Racing/Teterboro Rams LLC), 10 laps, mechanical 12. Ray Delaney (Fury Offshore Racing Team), +1:26.767 13. Gerry Signorelli (Kuryakyn), +39.124 seconds, 9 laps 14. Kyle Wyman (KLR Group/Spyke’s H-D), DNS XR1200 Showdown Points Standings 1. Michael Barnes, 1,090 2. Tyler O’Hara, 1,088 3. Benjamin Carlson, 1,082 4. Michael Corbino, 1,064 5. Kyle Wyman, 1,062 6. Travis Wyman, 1,062 7. David Estok, 1,049 8. Josh Chisum, 1,042 9. Gerry Signorelli, 1,018 10. Darren James, 1,000 More, from a press release issued by Effenbert Liberty Racing Team: “This fifth place is like a victory,” these are the words of the CEO of Effenbert Liberty Racing, Mario Bertuccio, about the excellent results achieved by Brett McCormick in race 1. The Team Owner also said – I am very happy with the race today, our team has faced during this difficult time in 2012, one of these was undoubtedly the injury of Brett at Assen. The whole team has waited for him with confidence and now he has paid off giving us this joy made this Gp, absolutely unforgettable. Brett McCormick, like the Liberty Racing team has proven to never give up, and how it is possible, remaining united, overcome any obstacle The racing day has been completed by the ninth place conquered by the Canadian in Race 2 in front his teammate, Italian Lorenzo Lanzi. Great satisfaction for the Team Liberty has signed in this exciting way the penultimate round of the World SBK. Since warm-up on Sunday morning, which took place in a real flood, the two riders of the Czech team have shown, making good lap-time, to know how to adapt perfectly to a track in such really critical conditions. The rain has continued until the first race, forcing the race direction to declare “Wet Race”. At the traffic lights go out, both McCormick and Lanzi, started respectively 13th and 21th position, have made a good start, recovering positions on opponents. McCormick has attacked the lead group and settled in fifth position, and the Canadian would have certainly improved but in the seventh lap, the race director has exposed the red flag in order to allow the marshals to clean the track from the oil with which Brignola, crashed down, had fouled a corner. The second start saw McCormick start in the second row from the sixth position on the grid ahead of Guintoli, and followed by Sykes and Camier. The Canadian after duel with Spaniard Carlos Checa, has set its sights on the former world champion and the championship leader Max Biaggi. The challenge was completed only under the checkered flag with Biaggi and Brett separated by a blink of an eye, the Canadian author of a spectacular performance especially remembering that he is back on track after a long convalescence from the bad injury at Assen only at the Germany GP and still in physical recovery. In race 2 Brett McCormick, started well, had to surrender opponents like Carlos Checa while Lorenzo Lanzi after detached John Hopkins have found his race pace followed the companion McCormick. Under the checkered flag, Brett McCormick closed ninth and Lorenzo Lanzi tenth. Now the focus is on the last race of the World Championship where the two riders, Brett McCormick and Lorenzo Lanzi will be ready to get on track with the determination that characterizes the Liberty Racing Team. Brett McCormick # 68 “Race one was fantastic, to be in the top five was really exciting, I have no words to describe the happiness of the moment. The bike was working very well and I had a good feeling, I was very fast. Even in race two, the bike was very good and I felt comfortable, the ninth-place is still a good result. This weekend has been a success, and I am happy to share it with my staff and the team”. Lorenzo Lanzi # 57 “In the warm up with the rain we had some good lap-times, and I hope to do well in race one, but in the second restart the track conditions changed, and I didn’t find a good feeling with the bike. In race two the things went better, the pace was not fast but I was constant. Now we will go to France, where the track is relatively simple, having the advantage of a good base of four heats rode. We continue to improve, and I am very comfortable with the team and thank all for the support and the opportunity given to me. ” More, from a press release issued by Team Hammer: WESTBY SECOND AT HOMESTEAD M4 Suzuki’s Dane Westby demonstrated his wet weather prowess on Sunday at Homestead-Miami Speedway en route to collecting his ninth podium result of the 2012 AMA Pro Daytona SportBike season. Westby immediately sliced his way to the front in the wet from his Row 2 starting position and led the race’s opening nine laps. Expecting the track to dry relatively quickly, the Oklahoman allowed a competitor to overtake him without presenting a significant challenge. Westby thought the race would ultimately reward his approach as riders’ tires took a beating on the changing surface. However, the track stayed wet longer than anticipated, preventing Westby from mounting a late charge for the win aboard his GSX-R600. He did have enough in reserve to rip free from a bid for his position and consolidated his runner-up ranking in the ’12 championship with another second-place run. “I was being conservative with the tire,” Westby explained, “I thought it would dry off faster than it did. I knew that we were going to walk away and I was just trying to take it easy on the tire and ended up being a little more conservative than was necessary. We still ended up with some tire left at the end.” “I wasn’t too worried about trying to keep up with the leader after I was passed. I figured he’d come back when the tire went away but it stayed wet so there wasn’t any of that.” Westby’s M4 Suzuki teammate, Chris Ulrich, and Team Venezuela’s Robertino Pietri, meanwhile, had to deal with a fast drying circuit in the subsequent Superbike race. Ulrich and Pietri made stirring charges up through the pack as the track continued to change. Pietri made his way up from 13th early to take the checkered flag in 6th, matching Ulrich’s stellar result from the previous day. The Californian battled his way up from 17th at the conclusion of the opening lap to move into 7th by lap 12 of 23. While Ulrich crashed in the tricky conditions and lost a number of the hard-earned positions, he picked his GSX-R1000 back up and clawed his way back up from 11th to eighth in the end. Suzuki SportBikeTrackTime.com’s Elena Myers completed the Team Hammer’s perfect run of top ten results on the day, racing to ninth in the day’s abbreviated SuperSport contest. Myers was embroiled in a multi-rider pack when the race was red flagged and called complete following 10 of 18 laps. Team Hammer will conclude the 2012 AMA Pro Road Racing season in two weeks’ time as the campaign concludes at NOLA Motorsports Park in New Orleans, LA on Oct 5-7.