MRA: Thornton Takes Race of the Rockies Championship, Dear takes RoR GTU Top
Spot
Sept 28, 2021, Dear Trail, CO – The Motorcycle Roadracing Association (MRA)
concluded its 2021 Championship season with Round 7 at High Plains Raceway
over the weekend of September 25-26.
During the previous round, a mechanical problem took front runner Mike
Applegate out of the race giving Ray Thornton a 26 point lead going into
this final round. With the MRA points structure, Thornton essentially had
to essentially take the start to win the championship.
Nyles Gourlie holeshotted Race of the Rockies and led most of the first lap
until Thornton was able to go up the inside of turn 8. Gourlie retook the
lead starting lap 2 in turn 2 and began gapping while Applegate got by
Thornton. The trio of Gourlie, Applegate and Thornton took off from
Phillip Hergenrader in 4th, who was being reeled in by GTU mounted Liam
Grant.
On lap 5, Grant took over fourth from Hergenrader while Applegate clicked
off the fastest lap of the race and took the lead from Gourlie. Thornton
didn’t seem content to sit back any longer and charged to the front by
passing Gourlie then Applegate to take over first going into the crossed
flags.
But Thornton’s lead didn’t last very long as he crashed out on the next lap
in turn 6. This left Applegate leading Gourlie through start/finish with
Hergenrader chasing Grant. Unfortunately, right after halfway, Hergenrader
had some issues in turn 1 and crashed hard bringing out the red flag. The
race was called leaving Applegate with the win over Gourlie for the GTO
class and James Wilkerson rounding out the podium in third.
As was mentioned, Thornton only had to start the race to claim the MRA #1
plate for 2022, so congratulations to Ray!
For GTU, Liam Grant ran off and took the win while battling through the GTO
bikes before finally getting the best of Hergenrader. Dennis Stowers took
second from Ken Yee shortly after the start and was able to hold that
position until the red flag came out. Similarly Yee was unchallenged and
kept third in GTU over the rest of the field.
GTU class points leader Jared Dear had a similar 27 points cushion going
into Round 7. Dear crashed hard on Saturday, repaired & recovered, and made
a very respectable race out of this final round finishing fifth in GTU.
Congratulations to Jared for his first Race of the Rockies GTU championship!
Round 7 concludes the 2021 MRA Championship season. We’ll be announcing the
2022 season schedule in the next few months, so please check our website at
http://www.mra-racing.org/ for the latest information.
Editorial Note: Use the scroll and zoom tools in the bottom left corner of the PDF viewer to better see all of the race results.