From a press release issued by South Central Race Center: This past weekend at Motorsports Ranch Cresson Bridgestone invaded the CMRA grid. Bridgestone tires supplied by South Central Race Center helped their riders run up front. Starting Saturday with the Mini Sprints. With 12 possible podium spots; Bridgestone riders claimed 8 podiums including 2 class wins by Derek Wagnon and Austin Gore. Further action Saturday included the second round of the Mini Endurance series where Bridgestone teams Desert-Mice claimed the 1st place overall and Excel Racing took the 2nd place overall. Four classes competed with Bridgestone shod bikes taking 2 class wins. The opening round of the big bike endurance series started after lunch on Saturday and the action was fast and close. Bridgestone shod bikes competed in 5 classes coming away with 2 class wins and 5 podium positions. Class wins were accomplished by Lone Star Trackdays Team in C Superstock riding on the BT-002 Pro’s and Faltless Racing in Formula 2 riding on 250GP slicks. Both teams completed the 4 hour race on one set of tires. Sunday saw the sprint action taking place. Expert Bridgestone riders posted wins in Formula 40 Heavyweight by Mike Nellis, Conner Blevins in Supermotard and Robert Marsh in Classic Unlimited. All included, expert Bridgestone riders claimed 14 podium positions; including a hard fought 2nd place finish by the 2007 AMA Sports Top Novice Dustin Doucet in B Superbike. Sunday’s Novice action saw Bridgestone dominate the grid. Novice Bridgestone riders won 10 of 14 classes including complete podium sweeps in B Superstock, C Superstock, C Superbike & Formula 40 Heavyweight. The Bridgestone shod bikes of Charles Sackey (4 wins), Shawn Adams (1 win) and Blair Krogh (5 wins) lead the charge. South Central Race Center is the regional Bridgestone racetire supplier for Texas, Louisiana and Oklahoma. For more information see our website at www.scracecenter.com More, from a press release issued by Uel Duncan Racing: Excellent start to 2008 season for Johnson Uel Duncan Racing got their season underway over the Easter weekend with outings at both Bishopscourt and Kirkistown in Northern Ireland. The meetings, hosting the first two rounds of the Irish Superbike Championship, gave new signing Gary Johnson his first opportunity to race the new Robinson Concrete Honda’s and the Lincolnshire rider certainly impressed with a succession of high class results. Despite the extremely cold temperatures, which made track conditions treacherous, particularly on Easter Monday, and despite never having seen one of the circuits before or having ridden the team’s new 600cc Honda, Gary got to grips with all the new variables immediately and got quicker and quicker with each and every outing. The action commenced on Easter Saturday at Bishopscourt, where Gary had had a few shakedown laps a few days prior to the event and he opened his account with 10th place in the first 600cc event. He improved to 9th in the first ISB race on the Honda Fireblade and things got better still with 7th in the second of the 600cc encounters. All Gary changed on the ex-Ian Lougher machine was the handlebar settings but his times were more than comparable to the front runners and he was only a few tenths off the fastest lap of the race. With his circuit knowledge improving all the time, Gary was proving more than a match for his rivals, which included all four of the Relentless by TAS Suzuki’s and a whole host of Ireland’s finest short circuit specialists, and this could be seen when he placed a superb 5th in the feature Enkalon Trophy race. He completed an excellent day’s racing with yet another fifth place in the second Superbike race. The action moved on to Kirkistown on Easter Monday where conditions were even worse with the track temperature close to zero and grip levels practically non existent but Gary was soon lapping below the one minute barrier and looking well placed to rack up some more fine results. The first 600cc race got proceedings underway but the red flag came out on the fifth lap due to a crash and the result declared at four laps, with Gary in a solid seventh place. That proved to be his only race of the day because, after consultation between the organizers and the riders, the meeting was abandoned on safety grounds. Speaking about their opening meetings of 2008, team principal Uel Duncan commented: “The weekend couldn’t have gone any better for us and we’re all over the moon with Gary’s performances; for him to get the results that he did and lap at the speeds that he did with such limited track time and against such experienced Irish competitors was fantastic and, if anything, he exceeded our expectations. We haven’t had much track time with the Superbike and the first time he sat on the 600cc machine was Saturday morning but he was on the pace almost straightaway and was soon lapping at similar times to riders who have far more knowledge of racing at Bishopscourt and Kirkistown. There was serious competition out there on the grid, none more so than the four TAS boys, but Gary took some notable scalps and received some deserved praise from many of his fellow competitors. Obviously, the weather wasn’t the greatest for anyone and the right decision was made to call an early halt to Monday’s racing but we’re all delighted with how the two days went and it bodes extremely well for the rest of the season.” Gary’s next outing will be at Mondello Park on April 12th/13th, where he will be competing in the new ‘Mondello Masters’ Superbike Championship.