Team EMGO USA kicks off 2007 with strong showing at Roebling Road Team EMGO USA’s Opie Caylor got off to a quick start at Roebling Road Raceway in Savannah, Georgia this past weekend by qualifying on the front row’s of each of the four classes that Opie is racing in this year. Using a 2006 Suzuki GSXR 750, Opie qualified in second position in Formula One and took pole in both the 750 and 1000 Superstock classes. He then rode his 2006 Suzuki GSXR 600 to third place on the grid for the 600 Superstock race. After qualifying Caylor had this to say; “I’m pretty happy with our qualifying results. Pole in all four would have been great, but as long as we are on the front row, then we’ll be okay! As far as the 600 goes, I’m pretty happy with third on the grid. The forks on the bike are completely stock right now! Thermosman is building the forks with those real good 25mm Ohlins cartridges, so once those are done, we’ll be going a lot faster!” Saturdays are always endurance day during a WERA/AMA National Challenge weekend and Team EMGO USA uses those Saturdays as a workday. Team EMGO USA’s newest member, mechanic Shane Giguere, spent all afternoon prepping the teams bikes for Sundays sprint races, including the installation of the Thermosman built forks and fresh new Dunlop tires. On Sunday, Opie got a great start and stormed into the lead as the green flag dropped for the 1000 Superstock race and was passed by only one of the faster GSXR 1000’s, ridden by Tray Batey. The two began to separate themselves from the rest of the field. Opie didn’t know it at the time, but Canadian factory rider Clint McBain was stalking him. McBain got around Opie on the long front straight but Opie held onto the back of McBains faster GSXR1000. On the last lap, in the second to the last corner, the two came up on a slower rider. McBain stayed behind the slower rider and Opie swept to the outside and passed both of them! Opie got a great run through the last corner and held onto second position. The 600 Superstock race was next. Caylor didn’t get that same good start as in the 1000 race but quickly went to work on passing as many riders as he could. As he approached a pack of riders directly behind the leaders, Opie started looking for a way past. Opie committed to his line and leaned in while another rider slid up underneath the rider Opie was going around. When that happened, the rider in the middle stood up and left Opie no where to go. Opie tucked the front and slid off the edge of the track. “I picked the bike back up and tried to get back in it but the left clip-on broke off so it is was game-over.” Luckily for Caylor, he was wearing Komodo’s latest version of their excellent FX-series leathers. Without even a bump or bruise, Caylor hopped back on the 750 and started that race from pole. Two hole-shots and two red flags later, the race was finally under way. On the third start, Opie got into turn one in fourth and settled in for the five-bike battle royale! At the halfway point, Caylor decided that it was time to go. He moved past Jacobi and Jensen into third position. Two turns later, the leader Lee Acree and second place rider James Chance collided, which sent both riders off the track. The remaining three went back and forth for the rest of the race with Team EMGO USA’s Caylor taking third. ” Man, that was a really fun race! I hate that Lee and James got together over there in five. I hope that both of them are okay! I tipped over there a little while ago. But after they went out, I still had my hands full with Robby and Jacobi! We were going back and forth that was the funnest race I had in a long time!” One tenth of a second covered the top three riders at the finish. The last race for Caylor and Team EMGO USA on the day, was the last race of the day, Formula One. Again, on his 750, Caylor got a great start. Jensen, Batey and Opie separated themselves from the rest of the field. Turning nearly identical fastest laps, each riders best lap time was a 1:12.0. Jensen and Batey swapped the lead several times with Jensen coming home first, Batey second and Team EMGO USA’s Opie Caylor finishing third. “I knew that riding the 750 against the 1000’s here would be tough. But overall, I am really pleased with how things turned out. In F1, I could turn the lap times I just couldn’t get past them and have any chance of leading at the finish line. What was keeping me doing the times though were the Dunlop tires. The new DBG front that Dunlop has come out with is awesome. That and the motors that Grant Matsushima at MPT Racing has built me!” More, from a press release issued on behalf of American Suzuki: Vesrah Suzuki Captures Milestone 50th WERA Endurance Victory BREA, Calif., (March 21, 2007) American Suzuki Motor Corp. (ASMC) congratulates the Vesrah Suzuki Racing Team for its 50th Bridgestone/WERA National Endurance win in the series’ season-opening round at Roebling Road Raceway in Faulkville, Ga., on Saturday, March 17, 2007. The five-man Vesrah Suzuki team, which raced a GSX-R1000 to this landmark victory, includes Mark Junge, Tray Batey, John Jacobi, Lee Acree and Chris Ulrich. Founded in 2000 by team owner and rider Junge, the 2006 Bridgestone/WERA National Endurance Championship-winning Vesrah Suzuki Racing Team has five WERA National Endurance titles and is currently working toward its sixth. “I think that getting 50 wins is certainly a milestone,” said Junge. “It’s an accomplishment that I wasn’t expecting to get when I started endurance racing. I have to give credit for these wins to the team and to Suzuki. It’s a combination of a quality bike in the Vesrah Suzuki GSX-R1000 and a strong sense of team work. Now, we’re just looking to be consistent for the rest of the season and to make sure that our main focus is winning another championship.” The Bridgestone/WERA National Endurance Series is co-sanctioned by the AMA and is the premier class of WERA Motorcycle Roadracing, Inc. The series is the longest-running endurance series in the world, with races ranging from four to 24 hours. This team sport incorporates pit stops and rider changes. Team Vesrah Suzuki will return for round two of the Bridgestone/WERA National Endurance Series on May 5, 2007, at Barber Motorsports Park in Birmingham, Al. More, from a press release: PETER LENZ ROLLS WITH THE PUNCHES AND TAKES 4 WINS IN SMRRC SEASON OPENER When you add up one highside, a trashed Arai helmet, a completely roached rear tire, and 126 race laps what do you get? You get a very busy and eventful weekend that resulted in 4 wins, a 2nd, a 3rd and an 8th for Metrakit Canada (www.metrakit.ca) backed Peter Lenz (www.peterlenz.com) at the SMRRC season opener this past weekend. Having first turned a wheel at the Stockton, California track Saturday afternoon, Peter was instantly on pace at the Bay Area’s mini hotbed, home to both AFM regulars and Hopper Racing’s junior rider Vision Hayes. The track was cold at the start of Sunday morning and Peter’s warm-up was finished before he completed his first lap. Peter highsided his Metrakit 80 on his out lap landing squarely on his Arai Helmet. “I want to thank Bruce (Porter) of Arai, he gave me a really good helmet. When I crashed I put it to really good use and I think we did a really good job (destroying the helmet) this time. I highsided and hit my head and now (the helmet) is all gone but at least I saved my head,” explained Peter after the crash. After taking a break and being looked over by the trackside medical staff, Peter headed out in the last warm-up session of the morning looking no worse for wear. Though the same thing couldn’t be said of his Z Leathers or the retired Arai Helmet. When the green flag dropped you couldn’t tell he had been tossed across the track just an hour earlier. Peter jumped out front in his first heat race and took his first win of the morning securing a straightaway lead by the end of the eight lap heat. He followed that up with several other performances that saw him move through traffic resulting in him securing front row starts in all seven of his classes. After winning both the Formula 50 and Super 50 classes by a good margin, Peter had a difficult time in the 80 class. This wasn’t the result of an aftershock of highsiding the bike earlier, but rather because he found himself at the back end of the pack after a poor start. He worked himself up to fourth position only to find himself in seventh after having his front wheel chopped as he drove underneath a rider that didn’t expect him to be there. He recovered and began again to work his way up into fifth when Peter again had a close encounter that saw him drop back to ninth, this time behind a torquey supermoto. Having never raced against a fast supermoto rider while on a MiniGP racer, Peter spent the next five laps figuring out how to pass someone that was three times as wide going into the corner (due to being sideways) and had 4-stroke torque coming out. Peter finally got underneath him on the last corner to take a hard fought eighth place finish. The closest race for a win came when Peter and ex-AMA Pro Racer, Bryan Edginton, slugged it out in the Expert Trophy Dash. “I was stuck behind him and couldn’t get by. He kept changing his lines and I couldn’t fit. I rode on the grass a couple times when I tried to pass him on the outside. And when I went underneath, he would pinch me off. He gave me a real good race, I want to come back again and race him,” explained Peter. Peter was fired up after that close race and put his head down and won the Junior Stars race by a whopping 18 seconds. Next up was the Formula Extreme race. After taking the holeshot, Peter fell off the pace when the very abrasive surface of the Stockton track took Peter out of the running. His flat track grooved rear tire shredded causing massive rear chatter resulting in Peter dropping three seconds off his pace from earlier. “I couldn’t keep the gas on, the rear was bouncing all over. Whenever I turned the throttle and leaned over the rear would start hopping. It started to hurt (my bottom) it was bouncing so much,” commented Peter. He conceded his lead and let both Bryan Edginton and Hopper Racing rider Vision Hayes go by for a comfortable third finish while D+W Images supported junior rider Josh Serne brought his Kawasaki motard home fourth after spending most of his practice learning his new Metrakit MiniGP 50. The last race of the day was the NSR Cup. Peter grabbed the early lead, pulled a gap, and maintained the gap as necessary based on what was communicated to him. “I rode hard until I had a three second lead then backed off. Then I just watched what my dad showed me my gap was. If he showed me two fingers (showing a two second lead) then I would turn a quick lap to get it back up to three fingers,” explained Peter. Having never rode the track prior to Saturday afternoon Peter was happy with the results: four wins, a challenging second, an effortful eighth and a tire induced third for the day. Peter remarked on the day, “I think we did good. I’m glad my Grandma and Grandpa where there to see me race. My dad had to fix Phil’s (Phil Gaze of Metrakit Canada) 80, I hope he doesn’t get mad that I crashed it. I am going to put my Arai in my room and take it to school to show them that it was a big crash and it saved my brain. I want to come back!” Peter is scheduled to race next in Vancouer, BC for the Canadian national mini road race series season opener April 15th. You can keep up with Peter via his website: ~http://www.PeterLenz.com~