Jensen, Batey and Palmer Win During WERA Nationals at Summit Point SUMMIT POINT, W. Va. Robert Jensen and Tray Batey each won two Expert races during Sunday’s WERA/Michelin National Challenge Series sprint races at Summit Point Raceway. Round six of the WERA National Series also featured a six-hour WERA/Bridgestone Endurance race on Saturday. Both of Jensen’s victories came after a challenge from Lee Acree and were the closest races of the day. In the 750 Superstock race, Jensen had a narrow 0.044-second margin of victory over Acree. The 600 Superstock race was just as close, with a gap of only 0.014 separating the two riders. Batey was able to get an edge over Jensen in Open Superstock. His second win came in the final race of the day, Formula 1. In the other Expert races, Jimmy Wood won 750 Superbike and Tommy Aquino took the 600 Superbike trophy. Dennys Passeto got his first Heavyweight Twins Superstock win of the season, while Dane Westby won Lightweight Twins Superstock and Arnold Hastings won Formula 2. In the Novice ranks, the National Challenge Series races belonged to Jason Palmer, who took home first place in 600 and 750 Superstock in addition to 600 and 750 Superbike. Palmer got the advantage over dominant Novice Russell Wikle in most of his races. Wikle took the Open Superstock victory in another close race, finishing 0.149 seconds ahead of Brian Laws. Allan Edwards had nearly as many wins as Palmer, taking the top spot in Heavyweight and Lightweight Twins Superstock as well as Formula 2. During Saturday’s six-hour endurance race, which had no red flags, Vesrah Suzuki took the overall victory and Heavyweight Superbike class win with a whopping eight-lap margin of victory. Mark Junge, Tray Batey and John Jacobi shared the Vesrah Suzuki GSX-R1000. Team Moe’s/TVR finished second overall and first in Heavyweight Superstock with Chuck Ivey, Josh Day and Reuben Frankenfield. Team Maxxis Racing beat Brand X by just 0.01-second to take third overall with Billy Ethridge, Tripp Nobles and Tim Bemisderfer riding. In Mediumweight Superbike, bp Concepts’ Brandon Parrish, Bo LeMastus and Chris “Opie” Caylor won by two laps. The Mediumweight Superstock win went to Team Westby, which featured Dane Westby and Dustin Meador. On the Edge Powersports completed the class victors, taking top honors in Lightweight Superbike. Clint Brenizer, Dan Schmick and Steve Kleinfelter. Round seven of the WERA National Series will be August 17-19 at Talladega Gran Prix Raceaway. More information about WERA can be found at www.WERA.com. More, from a press release issued by Team EMGO USA: Team EMGO USA just returned home from a challenging weekend at Summit Point Raceway in Summit Point, West Virginia where round six of the WERA National Challenge Series just wrapped up. “What a weekend!”, Caylor said. On Friday, after reacquainting himself with Summit Point Raceway after 6 years, Caylor turned a 1:13.7 in Formula One qualifying that was good enough for second on the grid and was only .6 off of the track record. In 750 Superstock qualifying, Opie rode his Dunlop-shod Team EMGO USA GSXR750 to his fifth pole position of the year in that class, with a 1:14.8. Afterwards, Caylor had one more session to get in and went right back out on his GSXR 750 for Open Superstock qualifying. With the timing and scoring beacon halfway down the front straightaway, Opie’s first lap which started on pit road, a 1:17.8, would be his only complete lap in that session as Opie highsided exiting turn one. The one completed lap however put him in 9th position on the grid. Team EMGO USA mechanic Shane Giguere, worked hard all day on Saturday during the Endurance race putting the 750 back together. Opie took the bike out first thing on Sunday morning and found the bike to feel perfect! “Shane did a great job putting her back together! Honestly, if feels like nothing even happened to it in the first place!” In that session and on used Dunlop N-tec tires, Opie went half a second faster than he qualified! Open Superstock was the first race of the day and Opie would start from row 4. Not familiar with Al Wilcox’s start procedure, Opie “slept” at the line and got left behind as the green flag waved. Opie quickly went to work on regaining the positions he lost off of the start plus try to move up a few more and he did just that! Coming from 12th on lap one all the way up to 5th by the end. The 750 Superstock race would be a dogfight! From the start, Opie, Robert Jensen and Lee Acree set a torrid pace and quickly gapped the field. The battle ensued and spectators were treated to an excellent dice. Corner after corner, lap after lap, the three riders moved around each other carefully yet aggressively. Ten laps later, Jensen would come out on top over Acree and EMGO’s own Caylor. The gap at the finish line from Jensen in first to Opie in third was only .094 of a second! Afterwards, Caylor had this to say: ” That was a terrific race! The pace wasn’t all that fast, I actually went just as fast this morning in warmup on used Dunlop N-tec tires! But, what a battle. More than just a couple of times, we were three wide going into turn one, or turn three or turn five or turn ten. I hate I ended up third! It’s so frustrating! It’s like what do I have to do to win one of these races! Lee and Robert are riding really well – I just need to dig a little deeper in my bag of tricks.” The last race of the day was Formula One and rain was not to far away. In fact, it started to drizzle on the warmup lap. Summit Point has a reputation for being a bit slippery in the wet even with rain tires! Before the race, Opie let Shane know that if it started raining, he would pull in. The race got underway and within two laps, it started to drizzle harder. At the end of lap two, Opie decided to pull in. “It’s unfortunate, but that was the decision I made. As it turned out, some other riders pulled in on lap three and then on lap four bikes started hitting the ground. I’ve already done that once this weekend and I wasn’t going to do it again!” In closing out the weekend, Opie had this to say: ” It was a bit of a roller coaster ride but overall, a decent weekend. Even after the bad qualifying and bad start, I still got a decent finish on the 1000. The 750 race was a blast and I made some points up. Which by the way, I couldn’t have done without Mark Junge. He loaned me a pipe, a radiator and a fuel tank shroud. I want to say a big thanks to him. Plus a big thanks to Komodo Leathers, boots, and gloves and Arai helmets! If I didn’t were great gear, I couldn’t have gotten back out there and raced after Friday’s crash. Lee Schwartzentraub from Komodo was there for me with a second Pit Bull designed suit and Bruce from Arai always sends me two helmets. Those guys know we make mistakes sometimes and Lee and Bruce see to it that we get what we need!” Team EMGO USA will be back in action at Talladega Gran Prix Raceway for Round 7 of the WERA National Challenge Series on August 17-19th.