Copyright 2003, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

By David Swarts

Lee’s Cycles’ Jeremy Toye started the 2003 Willow Springs Motorcycle Club season off by winning all three races he entered Sunday at Willow Springs International Raceway, including the premiere Toyota Cup Unlimited Formula One race on his Dunlop-equipped Suzuki GSX-R1000 Superbike.

Team Orthopedics’ Jack Pfeifer, riding a Dunlop-shod GSX-R1000, got the holeshot in the 12-lap main event followed closely by Toye and Vincent Haskovec. Racing on 16.5-inch Pirelli slicks for the first time at his home track, Haskovec passed Toye into turn one and Pfeifer into turn three to take the lead on the opening lap.

Haskovec led for three laps while Toye tried to clear his head of the after-effects of celebrating long into the early morning hours following the WSMC banquet Saturday night. “I had goldfish swimming around in my head for the first couple of laps,” said Toye.

Toye passed Pfeifer into turn one to start lap three and used the power of his overbored GSX-R1000 to blow by Haskovec’s GSX-R750 Superbike on the back straight.

“It feel like train pass me when he come by,” said Czech immigrant Haskovec.

While Pfeifer dropped back with what he said were problems with his new boots, Haskovec stayed in Toye’s draft until the second half of the race. That’s when Toye dropped his lap times from 1:21.8 to 1:21.4 and opened up a gap over Haskovec.

Toye won by six seconds over Haskovec, who ran the fastest Pirelli lap times ever at Willow Springs and gave Pirelli its first-ever WSMC Formula One podium finish, according to Pirelli representative Jerry Jirkovski.

Attack Suzuki’s Josh Hayes, at Willow for testing purposes, came from the back of the grid to finish third on the same AMA Formula Xtreme GSX-R1000 that Jason Pridmore used to win the 2002 WSMC Toyota 200-mile race last September. Hayes said the only changes he made to the bike were raising the seat and switching hand grips.

Team Valvoline EMGO Suzuki’s Chris Ulrich, racing a GSX-R1000 AMA Formula Xtreme bike for the first time and also coming from the back of the grid, got stronger as the race wore on and caught and passed Pfeifer in turn three with less than two laps to go. In the final corner, Ulrich spun up his rear Michelin slick, and Pfeifer used a better drive to beat Ulrich to the line for fourth. Ulrich took fifth ahead of emerging star Corey Eaton, veteran fast guy Jeff Stern, Concept Five’s Jason Perez, Canadian young gun Chris Peris and Clinton Whitehouse, III, who rounded out the top 10.

Toye, the 2002 WSMC Champion, also won in Open Superbike and Open Modified Production.

Haskovec took victories in 750cc Modified Production and 750cc Superbike.

Hayes took a close second to Toye in Open Superbike, the only other class Hayes’ Suzuki was legal for.

Pfeifer won Open Superstock, took second in Open Modified Production and rode a Suzuki GSX-R600 to win in 600cc Superstock and to third in 600cc Modified Production.

Riding a GSX-R750, Chris Ulrich finished second to Haskovec in 750cc Modifed Production and 750cc Superbike.

Mark Watts won the Roadracingworld.com 250cc Grand Prix race on a Honda RS250, ahead of Yamaha TZ250 riders Mike Woolaway and John Ulrich.

Perez had a weekend of peaks and valleys. The youngster from Brentwood, California, won the grand prize in the annual WSMC Toyota Cup drawing at Saturday night’s awards banquet – a top-of-the-line, fully-optioned, four-wheel-drive 2003 Toyota Tundra pick-up truck. Perez, who just turned 18 years old and has only had his driver’s license for a few months, said the truck will be the first vehicle he has ever owned.

Perez then started his race day off by winning the 600cc Modified Production race. In the very next sprint, Formula Twins, Perez was closely pursuing race leader Richard Headley on lap two of six when Headley’s bike shut off while accelerating in fifth gear on the back straight. Perez, riding a Honda RC51, couldn’t take evasive action fast enough and collided with the back of Headley’s Ducati 996.

Headley remained on two wheels, but Perez fell at speed and went sliding for well over 100 feet down the pavement while his Honda slid for over 100 yards. Shaken but not deterred, Perez returned later to take eighth in the Formula One final on his Suzuki 600.

The twice-re-started combined Formula Twins/250cc Grand Prix/125cc Grand Prix race was stopped a final time when an automobile wheel came bouncing across the back straightaway — perpendicular to the direction of bike traffic — during the race. The wheel was from a Toyota Celica which crashed during a driving school being held at the nearby Streets of Willow course. Somewhat shocked by the incident, WSMC race control officials said the wheel had to have jumped three fences and traveled hundreds of yards to reach the track and that nothing like it had ever happened before.

No motorcycle racers were injured in the incident.

Toyota Cup Unlimited Formula One Results:

1. Jeremy Toye, Suzuki GSX-R1000
2. Vincent Haskovec, Suzuki GSX-R750
3. Josh Hayes, Suzuki GSX-R1000
4. Jack Pfeifer, Suzuki GSX-R1000
5. Chris Ulrich, Suzuki GSX-R1000
6. Corey Eaton, Suzuki GSX-R750
7. Jeff Stern, Suzuki GSX-R1000
8. Jason Perez, Suzuki GSX-R600
9. Chris Peris, Honda CBR600F4i
10. Clinton Whitehouse, Suzuki GSX-R750
11. Stephen Hewitt, Suzuki GSX-R1000
12. Stoney Landers, Suzuki GSX-R750
13. Barry Burke, Yamaha YZF-R1
14. Chris Siglin, Suzuki GSX-R600
15. Jody Hendley, Suzuki GSX-R1000
16. Marte Cooksey, Suzuki GSX-R750
17. Jeff Longbottom, Yamaha YZF-R6
18. Matthias Jezek, Yamaha
19. Chris Crowell, Honda
20. Alan Gann, Suzuki

Other Results

500cc Superstock
1. Spencer MacGillivray, Suzuki
2. Mel Smith, Yamaha
3. Michael Gougis, Kawasaki

600cc Singles
1. Kevin Jump, Honda
2. Joshua Welch, Ducati

500cc Singles
1. Danny Farnsworth, Honda
2. Larr Cochran, Honda
3. Mick Ofield, Ducati

600cc Modified Production
1. Jason Perez, Suzuki
2. Chris Peris, Honda
3. Jack Pfeifer, Suzuki

Formula Twins
1. Claudio Szyszowski, Ducati
2. Stuart Smith, Suzuki
3. Jody Hendley, H-D

Roadracingworld.com 250cc Grand Pix
1. Mark Watts, Honda
2. Michael Woolaway, Yamaha
3. John Ulrich, Yamaha

125cc Grand Prix
1. Kevin Murray, Yamaha
2. David Vecht, Honda
3. Tiffanie Ragasa, Honda

Open Superstock
1. Jack Pfeifer, Suzuki
2. Tyler Paulson, Suzuki
3. Clinton Whitehouse, Suzuki

750cc Modified Production
1. Vincent Haskovec, Suzuki
2. Chris Ulrich, Suzuki
3. Corey Eaton, Suzuki

Aprilia Challenge
1. James Mann
2. Chris Kelley
3. Zina Kelley

Vintage Heavyweight
1. Dennis Fryer, Honda
2. Mick Ofield, Ducati
3. Lloyd Johnson, Ducati

Lightweight Twins
1. Kevin Jump, Honda
2. Spencer MacGillivray, Suzuki
3. Michael Gougis, Kawasaki

Formula 40 Heavyweight
1. Clinton Whitehouse, Suzuki
2. Stephen Hewitt, Suzuki
3. Barry Burke, Yamaha

Formula 40 Lightweight
1. Kenny Kopecky, Yamaha
2. Michael Woolaway, Yamaha
3. John Ulrich, Yamaha

Formula 50
1. Howard Lynggard, Yamaha
2. Chris Crowell, Honda
3. David Molitor, Suzuki

Middleweight Twins
1. Scott Cleff, Suzuki
2. Rick May, Suzuki
3. William Finnerty, Buell

Lightweight Vintage
1. Aaron Barry, Yamaha
2. Craig Beecher, Yamaha
3. Danny Farnsworth, Honda

Heavyweight Twins
1. Stuart Smith, Suzuki
2. Jody Hendley, H-D
3. Ives Sosa, Honda

500cc Modified Production
1. Mel Smith, Yamaha
2. Alfred Jung, Yamaha
3. Gayathri Kamath, Yamaha

600cc Superstock
1. Jack Pfeifer, Suzuki
2. Jason Perez, Suzuki
3. Chris Peris, Honda

550cc Superbike
1. Scott Cleff, Suzuki
2. Rick May, Suzuki
3. Kurt Spencer, Suzuki

Formula Singles
1. Lloyd Johnson, Yamaha
2. Jeff Rheaume, Suzuki
3. Danny Farnsworth, Honda

Lightweight Novice
1. Richard Moore, Ducati
2. Michael Pastore, Aprilia
3. Ruben Archilla, Aprilia

Formula 2
1. Robbie Dowie, Suzuki
2. Chris Peris, Honda
3. Jeff Dixon, Yamaha

Open Superbike
1. Jeremy Toye, Suzuki
2. Josh Hayes, Suzuki
3. Stephen Hewitt, Suzuki

750cc Superstock
1. Corey Eaton, Suzuki
2. Stoney Landers, Suzuki
3. Hawk Mazzotta, Suzuki

Middleweight Novice
1. Christian Gabriel, Yamaha
2. Eric Pinson, H-D
3. Irv-Gunther Abueg, Yamaha

650cc Superbike
1. Jeff Dixon, Yamaha
2. Chris Siglin, Suzuki
3. Kenny Kopecky, Yamaha

750cc Superbike
1. Vincent Haskovec, Suzuki
2. Chris Ulrich, Suzuki
3. Jeff Stern, Suzuki

Open Modified Production
1. Jeremy Toye, Suzuki
2. Jack Pfeifer, Suzuki
3. Tyler Paulson, Suzuki