Team Velocity Racing riders Ruben Frankenfield, Mark Crozier and Chuck Ivey took the overall and Heavyweight Superstock class win in the fifth round of the Dunlop/WERA National Endurance at Las Vegas International Speedway’s Classic Course, Saturday, June 25th.
Vesrah Suzuki led the 25-rider field at the start of the 4-hour race, followed by Red Star, Team Eclipse and Velocity Racing. Vesrah Suzuki quickly pulled away with rider Tray Batey turning laps in the low 1:19-range to put a one-lap lead on Velocity Racing at the end of the first hour.
But just past the one-hour mark the Vesrah Suzuki GSX-R1000 experienced an electrical problem, dropping the team back 15 laps on Red Star, the new leader when Velocity Racing pitted 62 minutes into the race
Yamaha YZF-R6-mounted Red Star continued to put in a strong run, leading until the just over an hour to go when Velocity Racing recovered from a slow first pit stop to retake the lead. Shortly thereafter Red Star suffered an engine failure, 130 laps into the race.
As this went on, Vesrah Suzuki reeled in the leaders at a rapid pace until the electrical gremlin showed up again, costing the team several more laps and resulting in a finish of 20th overall.
Team Velocity went on to take the overall and Heavyweight Superstock win, completing 171 laps in four hours, becoming the first team other than Vesrah Suzuki to win a WERA National Endurance Series race this season.
Velocity Racing was followed at the line by the Advance Kawasaki team of Robbie Dowie, Stuart Smith and Will Eikenberry, just over two laps back, in their second-ever WERA endurance race, while Nathan Dressman and Randy Sherman took the Bell’s ARNCHU Suzuki team to their first overall podium, finishing third, and taking first in the Heavyweight Superbike class.
Recovering from a fall mid-race, Army of Darkness riders Ben Walters, Scott Fisher and Sam Fleming took the Middleweight Superbike win, finishing fifth overall, just over five laps down. Derek Keyes, Chris Pyles and Bruce Stranford rode the Dixie Mafia Suzuki GSX-R600 to the Middleweight Superstock win, finishing just over 27 seconds behind AOD in sixth overall.
Blue Ridge Performance’s Martin Musil and Zoran Vujasinovic took the Lightweight Superbike class win, finishing 12th overall on their Suzuki SV650, 11 laps down on the overall leaders.