By David Swarts

In a weekend that saw over 2000 race entries and huge grids, Vesrah Suzuki’s Mark Junge was the big winner at the CCS races at Elkhart Lake April 28-29, taking home over $4700 in purse and contingency money. In Suzuki contingency money alone, Junge’s four race wins on Suzukis paid $3000.

Although the event was a dual sprint weekend with the same races running on Saturday and on Sunday, Junge and other serious contingency chasers used Saturday’s races for practice and concentrated on winning Sunday’s money-paying races. Junge won the SuperTwins race on his TL1000R, the Middleweight Supersport race on his GSX-R600, the Heavyweight Supersport race on his GSX-R750, and the Unlimited Supersport race on his GSX-R1000. In the 600cc and 750cc races, Junge took the wins over his Vesrah Suzuki teammate, Japanese journalist Daigoro Suzuki. In the Unlimited race, Junge bested veteran racer Ray Yoder. Junge said that on his GSX-R1000’s data acquisition system, he was reaching 178 mph on Road America’s long front straight.

On Friday, Junge co-rode with Jerry Russell and Jesse Basile to take the Engine Ice 200-mile Team Challenge Overall and GTO class win on a GSX-R750. During practice for the endurance race, Junge took his GSX-R1000 out to set-up as a back-up bike. During the session, Junge said that the speed difference on the front straight between his GSX-R1000 and the Suzuki SV650 run by Amateur teams was at least 40-50 mph.