Iso, Vivion, Lewis, And Thornton Win Big In Cheese Country
6 July 2008
Elkhart Lake, WI: The USGPRU joined the ASRA at Elkhart Lake, WI this weekend for their annual Festival of Speed weekend. Fireworks and fast bikes were the big shows this weekend and the USGPRU pulled out the big ordinance for this event. With over $25,000 in cash and prizes on the line, the racers pulled out all the stops and the result was some spectacular racing.
In the first of 2 scheduled Moriwaki MD250H races, there was a 5-way battle for the lead from the start, with changes for the front spot happening several times per lap. Rockwall Honda’s Jake Lewis, along with Hayden Gillim, Justin Ducut, Kris Turner, and Miles Thornton swapped paint and kept the crowd on their feet for the entire 5-lap sprint. Intense drafting battles up the front straight were 3-, 4-, and sometimes 5-wide. On the last lap, Kris Turner had an off-track excursion in turn 13 and came back on track right in the middle of the lead pack. This allowed Jake Lewis and Hayden Gillim to pull a little gap and Jake took the win. While Kris narrowly avoided crashing, he did so right in front of Miles Thornton and Justin Ducut. Kris parked his bike in the critical final turn, and held up Justin and Miles. They drag raced to the finish line with Kris in 3rd, and Justin narrowly inching out Miles.
In the second Moriwaki race, three racers split from the pack early. Miles Thornton on his Southern Honda sponsored bike, Hayden Gillim, and Justin Ducut made the break. Miles and Hayden were swapping the lead regularly, and Justin had a front row seat for the battle. The final lap was insane as the three vied for position. The front straight was another drafting battle as all three were locked to each other. Miles squeaked out the win by a narrow .051 seconds over Hayden. And Justin was another thousandth of a second back.
The Rising Sun Cycles 125GP race saw the European Red Bull Rookies Cup racer, JD Beach, charge off to a strong lead. The series Champion, Nobi Iso, got another lack-luster start and was forced to weave his way through the pack to catch up. When he did catch JD, Nobi was able to put a small 1- to 2-second gap between himself and JD and maintained that for the rest of the race. Miles Thornton also worked his way through the crowd and reeled in JD on the final lap. But just as he seemed poised to make a final lap pass, he tucked the front end going into the hard-braking chicane and planted his Honda RS125 in the grass. Scottish racer, Ben Young, and Rockwall’s Jake Lewis had a back and forth battle too with Jake ultimately winning by a wheel to claim the final podium slot.
The Moto Liberty 250GP event saw records broken and firsts occur all around. The race had a surprise winner as Chase Vivion made his debut on a borrowed Yamaha TZ250. He qualified second, behind Melissa Paris on her Honda RS250. She was also a first, as the first lady to claim the pole position in a National 250GP race. The two, along with Adam Roberts from Nova Scotia took off to lead the 26-bike pack. Vivion opened a small lead over Roberts and Paris. On lap 3, Paris crashed her Honda on the outside of Canada Corner and got to watch the rest of the race from the tire wall. The front two racers kept pushing each other and both took turns resetting the ASRA and USGPRU track record for this class. Roberts settled the score with a fastest lap and new record of 2:27.394. But it wouldn’t be enough to catch Chase Vivion as he claimed his first victory on his first time racing in the class.
The USGPRU would like to thank the CCS / Road Race Southwest team for another great weekend. This weekend wouldn’t have been possible without the support of the 2008 USGPRU National Series sponsors: RoadracingWorld.com, Rising Sun Cycles, Moto Liberty, Motion Pro, Repsol Lubricants, REV’IT, Bridgestone Tires, Dunlop Tires, EBC Brakes, GP Tech, Rich Oliver’s Mystery School, Powerstands, Chicken Hawk Tire Warmers, Hjelm Motorsports, Michelin Tires, Regina Chains, and Starlane by Yoyodyne. Full race results as follows:
125GP race results 1. Nobi Iso (Apr RS125) 2. JD Beach (Hon RS125) 3. Jake Lewis (Hon RS125) 4. Ben Young (Hon RS125) 5. Lloyd Ramsey-Worrell (Hon RS125) 6. Hayden Gillim (Hon RS125) 7. Fernando Ferreyra (Yam TZ125) 8. Jacob Cunningham (Hon RS125) 9. Chase Vivion (Hon RS125) 10. Garrett Gerloff (Hon RS125) 11. Boyd Bruner (Hon RS125) 12. Jake Quick (Hon RS125) 13. Nick Hansen (Hon RS125) 14. Al Campbell (Hon RS125) 15. Charles Boyd (Hon RS125) 16. Justin Ducut (MD250H) 17. Steven Nickerson (Hon RS125) 18. Pat Bartlett (Hon RS125) 19. Frankie Lee Gillim (Hon RS125) 20. Kenny Riedmann (Hon RS125) 21. Shannon Anderson (Hon RS125) 22. Lee Hollimon (Hon RS125) 23. Hector St. John (Hon RS125) 24. Wayne Bishop (Hon RS125) 25. Brian McLaughlin (Yam TZ125) 26. Jason Damico (Hon RS125) 27. Miles Thornton (Hon RS125) 28. Michael Lainhart (Hon RS125) 29. Shellie Matthews (Hon RS125) 30. Paul Hoyt Nelson (Hon RS125)
250GP race results 1. Chase Vivion (Yam TZ250) 2. Adam Roberts (Yam TZ250) 3. Perry Melneciuc (Yam TZ250) 4. Mike Aboyoun (Hon RS250) 5. Matthew Cooper (Hon RS250) 6. Eddy Brunet (Hon RS250) 7. Daniele Lenarduzzi (Yam TZ250) 8. Al Campbell (Yam TZ250) 9. Sean Wray (Yam TZ250) 10. Jim Bergey (Hon RS250) 11. Bruce Lind (Yam TZ250) 12. Michael Danielson (Yam TZ250) 13. Angus Borland (Yam TZ250) 14. Kenny Riedmann (Hon RS125) 15. Jamie Worthington (Apr RS250) 16. Jake Quick (Hon RS125) 17. David Matthews (Yam TZ250) 18. Paul Hoyt Nelson (Hon RS250) 19. Pat Bartlett (Hon RS125) 20. Ofir Abergal (Yam TZ250) 21. Jon Cone (Yam TZ250) 22. Zachry Lee (Hon RS250) 23. Patrick Dowd (Yam TZ250) 24. Melissa Paris (Hon RS250) 25. Corey Rech (Yam TZ250) 26. Mark Stiles (Yam TZ250)
Moriwaki MD250H Powered by HONDA race 1 results 1. Jake Lewis (MD250H) 2. Hayden Gillim (MD250H) 3. Kris Turner (MD250H) 4. Justin Ducut (MD250H) 5. Miles Thornton (MD250H) 6. Garrett Gerloff (MD250H) 7. Nick Hansen (MD250H)
Moriwaki MD250H Powered by HONDA race 2 results 1. Miles Thornton (MD250H) 2. Hayden Gillim (MD250H) 3. Justin Ducut (MD250H) 4. Jake Lewis (MD250H) 5. Garrett Gerloff (MD250H) 6. Kris Turner (MD250H) 7. Nick Hansen (MD250H)
More, from a press release issued by M2S Agency:
Another AFM Podium Finish for Garrett WIllis
The AFM Series made its first visit of 2008 to Thunder Hill Park in Willis California this past weekend. Being one of his favorite tracks meant Garrett was looking forward to having a good time and hopefully laying down some very competitive lap times.
First up for Willis was the 600 Production class. While racing in the front when a yellow flag came out, Garrett responded to a little earlier than the other riders which caused some subsequent shuffling of the rider order under the yellow. When the race went back to green Willis managed to hang on to 4th but felt a prime opportunity for better result had slipped by.
Later in the afternoon it was time for the other class Garrett has been focused on at AFM, 600 Superbike. Running 1-2 with fellow Honda CBR600RR rider Jeff Tigert for almost the entire race the duo made sure it stayed that way for the finish with Willis unable to make a move on Tigert for the victory and finished the race in 2nd.
Although frustrated with himself at his 600 Production class result the young speedster was upbeat about his overall result for the weekend, “Although there was a lot of confusion when the yellow flew and I wish it would’ve worked a little more to my advantage I’m still happy to be leaving here with the point lead in both the 600 Production Class and 600 Superbike and I will be looking for a better result down the road and will be working in that direction. I’ve been training more and last weekend in Las Vegas and then again this weekend I could really feel an improvement in how my body handled the heat and it makes me want to work even harder to gain more of an advantage in that regard.”
The next race on the schedule for Garrett is a WERA West round at California Speedway in Fontana on August 3rd.