“Damage limitation” is how Taree’s Damian Cudlin described the 3rd round of the IDM German Supersport Championship at the Nurburgring on the weekend. Riding the SKM-Bike Promotion Yamaha, Cudlin adapted quickly to the circuit he’d never seen before, qualifying 8th for the two Supersport races, however a lack of straight line speed hampered his podium charge in the race, finishing a hard earned 5th in the opening 17 lapper. “It was a tough race losing so much time between the turns, but luckily the R6 has good brakes and we were able to stay in the hunt, unfortunately it wasn’t enough for a podium today.” Cudlin explained. “We plan on making a few changes for race two.” Cudlin’s SKM-Bike Promotion Yamaha squad worked frantically on the bike in an effort to close the gap before Sunday’s second leg, but the performance seemed to worsen and Cudlin was merely 20th after the drag to the first corner. In a gritty fight back, the Aussie clawed his way back with some spectacular passes during the race, eventually finishing in 10th place. “Our bikes were out paced here this weekend but we made the best of a bad situation and worked hard as a team” Cudlin enthused after the race. “We’re still 2nd in the championship and although Tode has stretched his points lead on us, we’re not out of this yet. I know we’ll have a competitive engine at the next round and with a strong result at Sachsenring we can really take it to the Triumph. There’s a lot of racing left.” Cudlin sits 35 points adrift of Triumph’s Arne Tode in the series with 8 races remaining. The next round of the championship will be held at the Sachsenring on the 21/22nd of June. More, from a press release issued by Misti Hurst: Slednecks Racers Misti Hurst and Josh Galster 32nd and 18th in this weekend’s AMA 600 Supersport race, at Miller Motorsports Park. Salt Lake City, Utah- Slednecks Racer and California Superbike School Coach Misti Hurst finished 32nd out of 39 riders in the Sunday morning AMA Supersport Race this weekend at Miller Motorsports Park. Teammate and fellow riding coach, Josh Galster finished 18th, his third consecutive top 20 finish. Running the full course configuration for the first time, both Hurst and Galster, on their 2007 Kawasaki ZX6R’s had to learn the tricky 26-turn track in only a few practice sessions. Hurst struggled with the triple apex corners in the infield and by the end of Thursday’s practice session was still over 10 seconds off the pace that she would need in order to even make the grid. On Friday, she took 9 seconds off her previous time for a 3:09.9, but still needed two seconds more in order to make the race. “I missed out of the race last year because there were so many guys trying to make the show. Even though I made the cut off time no problem, I was 47th and they only take 44 for the grid. I was determined to make the cut this year, whatever it took!” On Saturday morning, even without a warm up session, Hurst went out on her EDR prepped, Dunlop shod Kawasaki and in her second lap banged out a 3:06.9, which would easily qualify her for the race. “I was so stoked to make the show! My fiancée and mechanic John Parker was super helpful as was Eric Dorn, Chris “Poo”, Zack, MG, Bev and Michael. The team helped so much in getting me onto the grid and through the race. They were awesome!” On the grid in 39th position, Hurst rocketed off the start and gained 13 positions by turn 1. The only female rider in the race, Hurst stayed up in 26th place for the first two laps before being passed by some of the top privateers in the AMA. She rode strong and smooth and got down to a best time of 3:05.2 before crossing the finish line in 32nd position. “The race was pretty amazing. My Kawasaki ZX6 worked great, the Dunlop tires held up awesome and my new Arai helmet improved my vision tremendously! Thanks to my team, my sponsors, all our helpers and all the fans that came by to offer support!” Slednecks teammate, Galster qualified in 29th position with a time of 3:02.1, even after missing out of 25 minutes of qualifying due to an electrical issue. “I was heading into turn one when my bike completely died,” explained Galster. “I had to be brought into tech, fix the wiring, and then head back out. I was glad to qualify but I knew I could do a whole lot better.” Gaslter, right off the bat, also got an incredible start and by turn one was in 24th position. From there he began to pick off riders one by one for the remainder of the race and was even battling with the likes of Nicky Moore and Pinson for 17th position. Suddenly, on lap 5 out of the very fast tight turn 9 the rear went lock to lock sideways and the suspension violently bucked him up and out of his seat. His tires were done already. “Minor details,” said Josh after the race “Ya the suspension was working overtime and the tires were pretty done, I just rode around it and pushed the Kawasaki as hard as it could go. Having the new EDR motor made a huge difference and the race was great!” Galster finished 18th, his third top 20 finish in the AMA Supersport Series this year with an incredible time of 2:59.8. This puts him in 16thposition overall with 53 points and well in the hunt for the AMA Supersport Rookie of the Year Award. They are currently making the epic drive from Salt Lake City to Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin for round 6 in the series and will race Road America June 6-8th. Keep up with their progress via www.mistihurst.com or www.slednecks.com