DANVILLE, Va. – The No. 46 San Jose BMW R1200 of Brian Parriott of Calistoga, Calif. and Nate Kern of Conshohocken, Penn. scored their first SunTrust MOTO-ST Series victory of the season in the VIR 500k at Virginia International Raceway Sunday.
The pair finished 23.028 seconds ahead of the No. 6 Aprilia USA Aprilia Tuono 1000R ridden by Ty Howard of Weatherford, Tex. and Troy Green of Dallas in the three-hour race around VIR’s 3.27-mile full course. Parriott and Kern completed 86 laps at an average speed of 98.71 mph.
The No. 46 BMW led all but one lap on its way to victory, despite a late race stop-and-go penalty for having equipment outside the team’s pit stall on its final stop. That allowed the No. 6 Aprilia to gain time in the closing laps.
“My strategy at the beginning was to get the holeshot and take off, and I managed to do that,” said Parriott. “At the end I knew Ty was clawing back time. I knew he’d be coming and I needed to put in some hot laps.”
The San Jose BMW team won last October’s inaugural Eight Hours At Daytona, the debut event for the SunTrust MOTO-ST Series, and led most of this year’s season opener, also at Daytona.
“I didn’t have one of my best days,” said Kern. “But Brian went out and showed everybody why we won at Daytona last year.”
With the runner-up finish the No. 6 Aprilia USA team moved into first place in the Buell Motorcycle Company SuperSport Twins (SST) Team point standings after three of six events with 99 points. The No. 46 San Jose BMW squad jumped from fifth into a tie for second with the No. 32 Vallely Racing Suzuki team, which placed third at VIR, with 84 points.
The No. 6 Aprilia lost valuable time during the race’s only full course caution period near half-distance, when Howard dropped a lap behind the No. 46 BMW.
“We got hung up in traffic a few times early in the race and Brian got a gap on me,” Howard explained. “Then I was a little late coming out of the pits during the caution flag and that put us a lap behind.”
The No. 32 Vallely Racing Suzuki SV1000S shared between Mike Himmelsbach of Quakertown, Penn. and Matt McBride from Toronto, Ont finished one lap behind the winners.
Fourth place was taken by the No. 21 Ducati 749 ridden by Gustavo Laya, of Miami, Fla. and Rodolfo Ramirez from Sunrise, Fla. while fifth spot went to the No. 69 RightsForBikers.com Suzuki SV1000S of Mark Crozier from Palm Coast, Fla. and Nathan Dressman of Berkley, Mich. These two teams waged a furious battle for the spot in the closing laps of the race, which was resolved in favour of the Ducati when Crozier had to pit for fuel with five minutes remaining.
Brian Kcraget of Danville, Va. and Melissa Berkoff from Washington, D.C. captured the Sport Twins (ST) class win on their Speed Werks.com Suzuki SV650 after a dominant performance.
The team’s only setback came when Kcraget fell while trying to retake the class lead from Jimmy Filice on the No. 9 Pair-A-Nines Kawasaki EX650.
“I made the pass but was too hot into the next corner and got into the grass,” Kcraget said. “I slowed the bike down but fell, but I was able to get back up. I was riding a little upset after that.”
Filice, from Modesto, Calif., and Jay Springsteen of Lapeer, Mich. settled for second after winning the opening two events of the year on their Kawasaki. Third in ST went to the No. 79 GoBigRacing Suzuki SV650 shared by Ross Millson of Hamilton, Ont. and Keene, Ont. rider Paul Glenn.
The No. 9 Kawasaki team leads the ST standings with 102 points with the No. 79 Suzuki squad second on 92 points.
The battle for the BMW Grand Sport Twins (GST) victory turned into a war of attrition as only the winning No. 8 Richie Morris Racing Buell XB12 of Shawn Higbee and Clint Brotz managed to avoid problems.
Higbee, from Oconomonoc, Wis. and Brotz, from Elkhart Lake, Wis. finished five laps clear of the No. 77 Touring Sport Ducati Supersport 1000DS of Peter Friedland of Columbia, S.C., Brad Phillips from Greer, S.C. and Frank Shockley of Greenville, S.C. Third place went to the No. 89 RightsForBikers.com Ducati PS1000LE of John Linder of Tampa, Fla., and Chris Boy and Jason Edmonds, both of Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
The No. 77 Ducati was in the thick of the lead fight before a split oil cooler put it behind, while the No. 89 Ducati came back from a crash by Edmonds at half distance.
“The other guys had some bad luck but we kept our head down and kept a steady pace,” Higbee said. “Our pit stops were a lot better this weekend and that helped us on the track.”
With the victory the No. 8 Buell extended its lead in the GST Team standings to four points over the No. 77 Ducati, 100-96.
This year’s SunTrust MOTO-ST Series will continue with the Road America 500K, July 7-8 at Road America, the Iowa Speedway 500K at Iowa Speedway July 12-13, and the 8 Hours At Daytona Finale, October 19-20 at Daytona International Speedway.
MOTO-ST is organized and sanctioned by Professional Motorsports Productions (PMP) of Toronto, Ontario, Canada and the Grand American Road Racing Association, based in Daytona Beach, Fla., provides the series with administrative and commercial support. The MOTO-ST advisory board features some of the most respected individuals in the world of motorsports, including Hall of Fame members, respected motorcycle racing journalists and renowned officials from various forms of road racing. Learn more about MOTO-ST at www.moto-st.com.
RESULTS
SUNTRUST MOTO-ST VIR 500K (500 kilometers/86 laps):
OVERALL: 1. San Jose BMW (Brian Parriott/Nate Kern), BMW R 1200 S, Super Sport Twins, 86 laps; 2. Aprilia USA 2 (Ty Howard/Troy Green), Apr Tuono RSV1000R, Super Sport Twins, 86 laps, -23.028 seconds; 3. Vallely Racing 32 (Michael Himmelsbach/Matt McBride/Tom Vallely), Suz SV1000S, Super Sport Twins, 85 laps; 4. Team Florida (Gustavo Laya/Rodolfo Ramirez), Duc 749, Super Sport Twins, 85 laps, -59.620 seconds; 5. Rightsforbikers.com 69 (Mark Crozier/Nathan Dressman), Suz SV1000S, Super Sport Twins, 85 laps, -64.194 seconds; 6. Vallely Racing 33 (Frank Trombino/David Loikits/Tom Vallely), Suz SV1000S, Super Sport Twins, 84 laps; 7. Wagner Motorsports Racing (Mark Reynolds/Gus Holcomb), Apr Tuono RSV1000R, Super Sport Twins, 83 laps; 8. Team Zyvax (J.B. Layman/Scott Layman/Steve Green), Suz SV1000S, Super Sport Twins, 83 laps, -0.501 second; 9. R & R Racing (Mike Luke/Andrew Deatherage), Apr Tuono RSV1000R, Super Sport Twins, 82 laps; 10. Speedwerks.com (Brian Kcraget/Melissa Berkoff), Suz SV650, Sport Twins, 82 laps, -5.349 seconds; 11. Richie Morris Racing (Shawn Higbee/Clint Brotz), Buell XB-12R, Grand Sport Twins, 82 laps -56.936 seconds; 12. Pair-A-Nines (Jay Springsteen/Jimmy Filice), Kaw EX650, Sport Twins, 82 laps, 67.137 seconds; 13. Go Big Racing (Ross Milson/Glenn Keene), Suz SV650, Sport Twins, 81 laps; 14. Blue Ridge Performance (Ben Walters, Jr./Justin Garvin), Kaw EX650, 81 laps, -107.446 seconds; 15. Team Old Pros Racing (Paul Schwemmer/Brett Ray), Apr Tuono RSV1000R, Super Sport Twins, 80 laps.
BUELL MOTORCYCLE COMPANY SUPER SPORT TWINS: 1. San Jose BMW; 2. Aprilia USA 2; 3. Vallely Racing 32; 4. Team Florida; 5. Rightsforbikers.com 69; 6. Valelly Racing 33.
BMW GRAND SPORT TWINS: 1. Richie Morris Racing; 2. Touring Sport Ducati (Peter Friedland/Brad Phillips/Frank Shockley), Duc 1000SS, 77 laps; 3. Rightsforbikers.com 89 (Jason Edmonds/John Linder/Christopher Boy), Duc PS1000LE, 57 laps; 4. James Gang (Paul James/Jeffrey Johnson), Buell XB-12R, 42 laps; 5. Drummer Racing (Tracy Church/Marty Beshears/Casey Church), Buell XB-9R, 39 laps; 6. Team Ducati New York (Eric Helmbach/Eric Schnorrbusch/Eric Wilson), Duc PS1000LE, 19 laps.
SPORT TWINS: 1. Speedwerks.com; 2. Pair-A-Nines; 3. Go Big Racing; 4. Out Of The Blue Racing (Travis McNerney/Mark Ervy), Suz SV650, 78 laps; 5. Edge Racing (Tim Luporini/Chris Myerle/Don Rankin), Suz SV650, 78 laps; 6. Rightsforbikers.com 16 (Eric Spector/Nicole Hoffman/Mark Crozier), Suz SV650, 78 laps, -80.699 seconds.
More, from a press release issued by VIR:
Kern and Parriott Ride Competition into the Ground in VIR500 Motorcycle Race
DANVILLE, VA., April 29 The riding team of Nate Kern and Brian Parriott started from third place on the grid but took the lead in Turn One of the 500-kilometer VIR500 for the SunTrust MOTO-ST Series race over VIRginia International Raceway’s scenic 3.27-mile road course.
In a race that seemed almost decided after the first turn, the No. 46 San Jose BMW BMW R1200 led nearly all the 500-k/three-hour race, dropping out of the lead only when the team made pit stops for fuel, tire and rider changes. The first full-course caution of the 2007 racing season for MOTO-ST occurred when the No. 89 RightsforBikers.com Ducati PS1000LE ridden by Jason Edmonds crashed in Turn One. Edmonds was checked and released at the track’s medical center after the hard crash.
A pit stop during the caution by the No. 6 Aprilia Tuono 1000R from Aprilia USA, ridden by Ty Howard and Troy Green, dropped them a lap down to the leading BMW. The Italian machine wasted little time in working back onto the lead lap, thanks to pit stop cycling, but after the three-hour time limit, ten laps short of the scheduled distance, was still just over 23 seconds behind the German twin.
The top nine positions at the finish were held by SuperSport Twins (SST) class bikes, with tenth spot overall and class win in the SportTwins category going to the No. No. 87 SpeedWerks.com Suzuki SV650. Riders Brian Kcraget, from Danville, teamed with Washington, D.C.’s Melissa Berkoff to put the car in 32nd on the grid before moving steadily through the field. They were followed in eleventh overall by the seventeenth-qualifying No. 8 GrandSport Twin Richie Morris Racing Buell XB12. The American bike qualified at x
Parriott turned the fastest lap of the race, a blistering 1:59.238 at an average speed of 98.727 mph. The next best time was set by the second-place Aprilia, at 0.178 second slower.
In other racing action, the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series Presented by Crown Royal Special Reserve 400-kilometer race for Daytona Prototype sports cars went to the No. 10 SunTrust Racing Pontiac Riley driven by Wayne Taylor, Max Angelelli and Jan Magnussen. Moving up from their fifth starting position, the multi-national team moved the car into the battle for second about a third of the way into the race, They took the lead for good at lap 53, just 24 laps from the finish and were never headed for the remainder of the race. Finishing second was the pole-winning team of 18-year-old newcomer Colin Braun and Max Papis, veteran of Formula One races. Third went to the Porsche Riley driven by David Donohue and Darren Law.
VIRginia International Raceway is a multi-purpose road racing facility, located just on the Dan River between Danville and South Boston, Virginia. In addition to its 3.27 mile natural-terrain road racing circuit, VIR is the cornerstone of VIR Club, America’s first motorsports country club; the VIR Raceplex Industrial Park; the Plantation Valley Kart Track, a 5/8 mile paved karting circuit; The Lodge at VIR, a 27-room trackside hotel; the VIR Paddock Suites and Garages, with 18 dual-purpose hospitality/lodging units and garages; Camp Motorsport; and the Oak Tree Tavern, a full-service restaurant located within the circa-1840 Plantation Clubhouse