ESTOK RIDES BUELL FIREBOLT TO THUNDERBIKE VICTORY AT VIR Bilansky is Second on a Buell, Estok Shares Thunderbike National Series Points Lead ALTON, Va. (June 26, 2005) Millville & Wildwood Harley-Davidson/Buell rider David Estok won the Formula USA Thunderbike National at Virginia International Raceway aboard a Buell Firebolt. The victory is the second of the season for Estok and boosts him into a tie for first place in Thunderbike National series points. Five other Buell riders placed in the top ten, including second-place finisher Hal’s Performance Advantage rider Dan Bilansky. Estok was the top Thunderbike qualifier on Saturday with a 1:33.605 lap, a new qualifying record for Thunderbike at the 2.25-mile North Course at VIR. Weather conditions on Sunday were variable, and the 12-lap Thunderbike race started on a wet-but-drying track. Suzuki rider Darren Danilowicz led the first couple of laps before Bilansky passed him and started pulling away. Estok made a smart decision by choosing an intermediate rear tire, which helped him weave his way through the pack as the track dried out. He overtook Bilanksy about halfway through the race and turned on the steam, winning the race by more than 13 seconds. Danilowicz finished third, ahead of Suzuki rider David Yaakov, who placed fourth. Seven of the 14 Thunderbike qualifiers were riding Buell motorcycles. In addition to Estok and Bilansky, the following Buell riders finished in the top ten; Kenwood/Sirius Satellite Racing rider Sam Rozynski in fifth, Blue Springs Harley-Davidson/Buell rider Walt Sipp in sixth, Daytona Harley-Davidson/Richie Morris Racing rider Clint Brotz in eighth and Kenwood/Sirius Satellite Racing rider Joe Rozynski in ninth. Defending Thunderbike series champion Bryan Bemisderfer, riding for Evo-Twin Racing/Harding Harley-Davidson, qualified fifth but dropped out of the Thunderbike race after four laps due to a mechanical failure. After five of eight Formula USA Thunderbike National events, Estok and Yaakov each have 123 points to share the series points lead. Bemisderfer is in third place with 91 points. Danilowicz has 87 in fourth place, with Joe Rozynski close behind at 83. The next event on the Formula USA schedule is August 12-14 at Barber Motorsports Park near Birmingham, Ala. The Formula USA National Thunderbike series is a horsepower-to-weight ratio restricted class, open to a variety of production-based motorcycles. Buell-mounted riders compete in the eight-event 2005 Thunderbike series race for a share of the $70,500 contingency fund posted by Buell Motorcycle Company. 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. More, from a press release issued by CCS Florida: Martinez Unbeatable on Ducati CCS Florida at Homestead-Miami Speedway June 26, 2005 Marco Martinez was unbeatable on the Desmomaniac’s prepared Ducati 996 at Homestead-Miami Speedway. This winning force, a combined effort between Champion Racing and Desmomaniacs, succeeded in its mission of putting Ducati back on the podium. Martinez took home four first place trophies for his efforts, winning the Unlimited Grand Prix, GTO, Middleweight Superbike and Supertwins classes. The Supertwins race was combined with Unlimited Superbike, which Martinez also entered. He started with the second wave and was able to push his way up front in the Supertwins class and work his way through half of the Superbike field to finish fifth in that class. Desmomanic’s choice of machine for Martinez is Carl Fogarty’s 1999, ex World Superbike, which Martinez exclaimed to be “Unbelievable.” More, from a press release issued by Blue Springs Racing: Sipp has an up and down weekend at VIR! Alton, VA Blue Springs Harley-Davidson rider Walt Sipp finished 6th at round five of the Formula USA Thunderbike Championship, held at picturesque Virginia International Raceway. After missing the first round of practice Friday due to a late arrival at the track, Sipp worked quickly to get on pace. He used the CCS Thunderbike race as a tune-up finishing a respectable 4th place. Saturday practice was even better with him further quickening his lap times; although it wasn’t without incident. “Yeah I was coming out of turn two and just got on the gas a little too hard. The rear spun up and almost high-sided me. I saved it, but I came down on the windscreen shattering it with my chest. From what I hear, the guys behind me got a pretty good show!” Qualifying looked to be even better with the shiny new slicks mounted. However, it was not to be. On the third lap of qualifying a rear brake issue caused the rear end to lock up and come around almost high-siding him again! This time though he was not as lucky as he found his way in to the grass and crashed. All wasn’t lost though, as the one lap Walt did do was good enough for 8th on the grid with a 1:37.260. “I was pretty disappointed with not being able to run more laps in qualifying; I was just getting warmed up. With as effortless as the low 1:37 felt, I’m sure I could have run 1:36 flat,” said Sipp. After two hot, but beautiful days, things changed dramatically Sunday. The rain came and soaked the track along with much cooler temperatures. So with the damage from Saturday fixed, Walt began then to prepare the bike for a wet race. Walt said, “I wouldn’t call myself wet weather specialist, but the rain doesn’t bother me. I think that’s a big part of it, you know keeping a positive attitude.” With full rains mounted he took off for the sighting laps; only one problem though, the rain had stopped and the sun started coming through and drying the track. With no time to change to a different tire, he was forced to start on the super soft rain tires. After getting held up a little bit on the start behind a rider with DOT’s on and falling back to eleventh, he slowly started making his way back to the front. “When the track was still pretty damp I felt good, but as the race wore on and the track got more and more dry I started to get worried about my tires. I caught and passed as many people as I could, but on the last few laps I backed my pace down trying to make sure my rains would last till the end. After the race was over the new Dunlop rains still looked good. I probably could have pushed even harder and caught at least one more person,” said Walt. As it turned out he made his way up to 6th at the end. Not what he was looking for, but it’s something to build on after the tough luck so far this season. Look for Walt and the Blue Springs crew to be back fighting for a podium at the next round August 12-14 at Barber Motorsports Park. Find out more at www.waltsipp.com.