SunTrust MOTO-ST Series VIR SunTrust MOTO-ST 500K Virginia International Raceway Alton, Virginia April 26, 2008 Qualifying Results: 1. Aprilia USA 1/Lloyd Brothers Motorsports (Ty Howard/Mike Himmelsbach/Zac Chapman), Apr RSV1000, Super Sport Twins (SST) 1:59.443 2. Bruce Rossmeyers Daytona Racing (Shawn Higbee/Dan Bilansky), Buell 1125R, SST, 1:59.814 3. Touring Sport Ducati (Doug Polen/James Chance III/Frank Shockley), Duc 848, SST, 2:00.820 4. Aprilia USA 6/Lloyd Brothers Motorsports (Zac Chapman/Henry Wiles/Ty Howard), Apr RSV1000, SST, 2:01.282 5. Team Hooters Aprilia (Mike Luke/Andy Deatherage/Benny Carlson), Apr RSV1000, SST, 2:03.582 6. National Precious Metals/Serpent Racing (Jason Temme/Scott Harwood/Calvin Martinez), Duc 848, SST, 2:04.679 7. Speedwerks.com (Brian Kcraget/Ben Walters, Jr./Russell Masecar), Suz SV650, Sport Twins (ST), 2:05.285 8. M4 AVTEQ Racing 67 (Kyle Martin/Dustin Dominguez), Suz SV650, ST, 2:06.236 9. Wagner Motorsports Racing (Gus Holcomb/Mark Reynolds), Duc PS1000LE, Grand Sport Twins (GST), 2:06.420 10. M4 AVTEQ Racing 66 (Dane Westby/Ryan O’Donnell), Suz SV650, SST, 2:06.950 More, from a press release issued by MOTO-ST: Aprilia USA Fastest in First Ever SunTrust MOTO-ST Series Qualifying Session DANVILLE, Va. The defending SunTrust MOTO-ST Series champions Aprilia USA/Lloyd Brothers Motorsports will start on pole position for Sunday’s VIR SunTrust MOTO-ST 500k at Virginia International Raceway in Danville, Va. In the first qualifying session in the series two-year history Ty Howard of Weatherford, Tex. took the No. 1 Aprilia Tuono 1000R around the 3.27-mile VIR track in one minute, 59.443 seconds for an average speed of 98.557 miles per hour. Howard and teammate Mike Himmelsbach of Quakertown, Penn. won the season opening event at Daytona International Speedway and the No. 1 Aprilia leads the standings in the Buell Motorcycle Company SuperSport Twins (SST) class heading into this weekend’s second round of the series. The No. 8 Bruce Rossmeyer’s Daytona Racing Buell 1125R of Shawn Higbee and Dan Bilansky will start second in Sunday’s race. Higbee, from Oconomonoc, Wis. set a time of 1:59.814 in Saturday’s qualifying session. Third fastest was the No. 75 Touring Sport Ducati 848 of Doug Polen and James Chance III. Camarillo, Calif.’s Polen turned the bike’s fastest lap at 2:00.820. The No. 1 Aprilia was also fastest in Saturday’s one-hour practice session with a time of 2:01.020, although Howard said the team had a rough time. “Pretty much the whole deal was a disaster,” he said. “I think I got in three flying laps. Something was wrong with the gearing and that took up a lot of time. Then we had some trouble with the clutch and just before we went out for qualifying a tire warmer got hung up in the brake disc.” The 20-minute qualifying session was held immediately after practice. “I got hung up in traffic a few times,” Howard said of his qualifying laps. “But the bike was running good.” A red flag early in the qualifying session upset the No. 8 Buell team’s plans to run both Higbee and Bilansky on the 1125R, and it was left to Higbee to put in the qualifying laps for the team. “The Buell is running good and we’ve got a good set-up for the race,” Higbee said. “I gave up a couple of laps when I was running close behind one of the Aprilias. I didn’t want to show him anything and I didn’t want to get into a battle with him, so I just hung back a bit.” The No. 75 Ducati finished second at Daytona’s season opener with Polen teamed with Peter Friedland, although for this race Friedland is riding the Touring Sport team’s entry in the BMW GrandSport Twins (GST) class while Chance joins Polen. “The bike is consistent and feels decent,” said Polen, a former World Endurance champion. “As long as we’re starting near the front, that’s all that matters.” Fourth quickest at VIR was the No. 6 Aprilia USA/Lloyd Brothers Motorsport Aprilia Tuono 1000R of Zac Chapman and Henry Wiles, which set a time of 2:01.282. Rounding out the top-five starters for Sunday’s race will be the No. 25 Team Hooters Aprilia Tuono 1000R of Mike Luke, Andy Deatherage and Benny Carlson, which turned a lap at 2:03.582. Seventh fastest overall and fastest in the Sport Twins (ST) division was the No. 86 SpeedWerks.com Suzuki SV650 of Danville, Va.’s Brian Kcraget and Ben Walters of Chesterfield, Va., which set a time of 2:05.285. Second in ST was the No. 67 M4 Avteq Racing Suzuki ridden by Dustin Dominguez and Kyle Martin with a time of 2:06.236 and third fastest was the team’s No. 66 entry shared between Dane Westby and Ryan O’Donnell with a time of 2:06.950. The No. 20 Wagner Motorsports Racing Ducati PS1000LE of Boston rider Gus Holcomb and Mark Reynolds from Woodstock, Conn. led the way among the GST qualifiers with a time of 2:06.420. Second fastest was the No. 77 Touring Sport Ducati PS1000LE of Frank Shockley, Friedland and Brad Phillips, whose time of 2:08.258 just edged the No. 7 Richie Morris Racing Buell XB12R of Clint Brotz and Mike Smith, which set a time of 2:08.326. The SunTrust MOTO-ST Series VIR 500k gets the green flag at 9:15 a.m. Sunday. The race is scheduled for 96 laps or two and a half hours. The SunTrust MOTO-ST Series is organized and sanctioned by Professional Motorsports Productions (PMP) of Toronto, Ontario, Canada and the Grand American Road Racing Association, based in Daytona Beach, Fla., provides the series with administrative and commercial support. Learn more about MOTO-ST at http://www.moto-st.com/. More, from a press release issued by MOTO-ST: Aprilia rider Wiles working overtime at SunTrust MOTO-ST Series event Danville, Va. — Apparently a 96-lap SunTrust MOTO-ST Series race isn’t enough action in a weekend for Blanchard, Mich. rider Henry Wiles. So while by day the Aprilia USA/Lloyd Brothers Motorsports rider is preparing for the VIR SunTrust MOTO-ST 500k at Virginia International Raceway, the second round in the road race endurance series, by night he’s racing in the Carolina Short Track Championship, a flat track event down the road at Coleridge Speedway in Asheboro, N.C. Wiles qualified at Coleridge Speedway Friday night, then returned to Danville right after so he would be ready to run in practice and qualifying for the SunTrust MOTO-ST Series race at VIR first thing Saturday morning. After a riders’ meeting at VIR Saturday afternoon Wiles was set to drive back down to Asheboro for the feature night of racing on the dirt track before returning to Danville for Sunday morning’s 500k SunTrust MOTO-ST Series event. “I was ready to go first thing this morning,” said Wiles after qualifying at VIR. “Asheboro’s just a little south of Greensboro. It’s about an hour and a half drive. But I felt good out there today.” Wiles’ background is in dirt track but last year he started mixing in some road racing, and he has shown a good turn of speed in both disciplines. Although not a round of the AMA’s national dirt track championship, the Asheboro event carries a healthy purse and is located right in the middle of a big gap between the series opening rounds in Daytona Beach in early March and Springfield, Ill. over the Memorial Day Weekend. Top riders like Jared Mees and Kenny Coolbeth were scheduled to be competing at this weekend’s event. “There are a lot of fast guys down there [in Asheboro],” Wiles said. “It’s like a mini-national. It’s a short track, just a little bull ring, but the surface is good.” Wiles is also finding the event an ideal opportunity to get acquainted with his new Jones Brothers / Troy Lee Designs Kawasaki team. “We’re trying some different stuff,” said Wiles, who qualified just outside the top 10 on Friday night. “It’s a different program for me, a different motorcycle, and that makes it tough. We got caught a little behind the eight-ball. We were changing the gearing and as the sun went down the track got faster and we needed to take more teeth off.” Things went better for Wiles at VIR Saturday morning, and he and teammate Zac Chapman qualified their Aprilia Tuono 1000R fourth for Sunday’s race. “We made some changes right before qualifying,” he explained. “We were trying to figure out the gearing and we definitely figured it out, because the times instantly came down. For the most part we’ve got a good set up. “I’ve done some training, some riding with [teammate] Ty Howard in Texas. He’s been a great help. This is the best I’ve felt on the bike. It’s been a real confidence builder.” The VIR SunTrust MOTO-ST 500k gets the green flag at 9:15 a.m. Sunday. The race is scheduled for 96 laps or two and a half hours. The SunTrust MOTO-ST Series is organized and sanctioned by Professional Motorsports Productions (PMP) of Toronto, Ontario, Canada and the Grand American Road Racing Association, based in Daytona Beach, Fla., provides the series with administrative and commercial support. Learn more about MOTO-ST at www.moto-st.com. More, from a press release issued by VIR: No. 10 SunTrust Pontiac/Dallara On VIR Pole After Rough Mexico City Race DANVILLE, VA. – Max Angelelli and Michael Valiante won the pole for Sunday’s Bosch Engineering 250 Grand Am Rolex Sports Car Series presented by Crown Royal in post-qualifying technical inspection after the initial pole winners fell short at impound. Scott Pruett and Memo Rojas led the field after qualifying for the right up to the time series officials checked the rear wing on the No. 01 Lexus Riley. When the wing failed to meet specifications, the car’s qualifying times were disallowed and the winners of the first two races in the season will start Sunday’s feature race from the rear of the pack. The No. 99 Pontiac Riley driven by Alex Gurney and Jon Fogarty suffered a similar fate, moving the cars behind them up another spot as well. The starting grid will have The Angelelli/Valiante Pontiac Dallara on pole, flanked by Brian Frisselle and Mark Wilkins. The Porsche Riley team is followed by a pair of Crawford chassis with the inside row belonging to Bill Auberlen and Joey Hand in their Porsche engined car while the outside row has Jared Beyer and Ricky Taylor joined by racing veteran Andy Wallace in a Ford powered Crawford. The two youngsters are both 18, while British driver Wallace is nearly thirty years their senior. Crawford has won the Grand American prototype category at VIR before, in 2002. The day’s feature race, for the SCCA Pro Racing SPEED Touring Car Championship went to Kumo Wittmer in his Real Time Acura TSX over Seth Thomas’ BMW. James Clay followed Thomas in a second BimmerWorld BMW 325i. Bole winner Chip Herr dropped his Tindol Motorsports Mazda6 back to fifth at the finish. This was Wittmer’s first win in the series. Qualifying for the MOTO-ST motorcycle races put the Aprilia Tuono 1 ridden by Ty Howard on pole position for Sunday morning’s 500 kilometer race for the super twin bikes. Local rider Brian Kcraget put his Suzuki SV650 seventh on the starting field and first in the ST class. Racing starts at VIR’s 3.27 mile road course at 8:30 Sunday morning with a final practice for the combined Rolex Series sports cars, then the SunTrust MOTO-ST motorcycles take to the track for their race. The Bosch Engineering 250 for Rolex Sports Car Series presented by Crown Royal Cask No. 16 takes to the track at 1:00 for their race. The final race of the weekend is the inaugural race for the Volkswagen Jetta TDI Cup series. These Diesel-powered racers are wheeled by thirty young drivers with the championship paying $100,000 to the winner, plus an additional $150,000 if that driver signs a contract for a professional road racing ride within six months of the championship. The new series has been certified ‘carbon neutral’ by CarbonFund.com and is one of the ways Volkswagen highlights their clean diesel technology. Virginia Governor Timothy M. Kaine plans to attend the inaugural race of the Jetta TDI Cup. The racers in the series range from 16 to 26 and were selected from several hundred applicants. VIRginia International Raceway is a multi-purpose road racing facility, located on the Dan River between Danville and South Boston, Virginia. Reopened in 2000, VIR hosts a wide range professional and amateur auto and motorcycle racing and track events, and is well established as “America’s Motorsport Resort.” In addition to its historic 3.27 mile natural-terrain road racing circuit, VIR is the cornerstone of VIR Club, America’s first motorsports country club; the VIR Raceplex Industrial Park and Motorsports Technology Park, which includes the Virginia Institute for Performance Engineering and Research (“VIPER”); the Plantation Valley Kart Track, a 5/8 mile paved natural terrain karting circuit; an expanding variety of on-site lodging (including 45 hotel rooms and the trackside Villas which are for sale); Camp Motorsport for enthusiasts of all ages; and the Oak Tree Tavern, a full-service restaurant located within the circa-1840 Plantation Clubhouse. The next event on VIR’s calendar for 2008 is the “Wings and Wheels” air and car show joined with the Heacock Classic Historic Races vintage weekend, June 6-8.The AMA Big Kahuna Superbike National on August 15-17 brings America’s best Superbike racers to VIR’s North Course; GT Live and the KONI Challenge bring a combination of motorcycle stunts, drifting, track attack and endurance sports car races; all combined with a wide variety of amateur and vintage road racing throughout the year. The season ends with the US Kart Grand Prix, December 12-14. Season passes include preferred parking and access to the major spectator events. For information on the track and other event schedules, call 434-822-7700 or check our web site at www.virclub.com.