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San Jose BMW Wins SunTrust MOTO-ST Series Race at VIR
ALTON, Va. (April 29, 2007) -- The No. 46 San Jose BMW
R1200 of Brian Parriott of Calistoga, Calif. and Nate Kern of
Conshohocken, Penn. scored their first SunTrust MOTO-ST Series
victory of the season in the VIR 500k at Virginia International
Raceway Sunday.
The pair finished 23.028 seconds ahead of the No. 6 Aprilia USA
Aprilia Tuono 1000R ridden by Ty Howard of Weatherford, Tex. and
Troy Green of Dallas in the three-hour race around VIR's
3.27-mile full course. Parriott and Kern completed 86 laps at an
average speed of 98.71 mph.
The No. 46 BMW led all but one lap on its way to victory,
despite a late race stop-and-go penalty for having equipment
outside the team's pit stall on its final stop. That allowed the
No. 6 Aprilia to gain time in the closing laps.
"My strategy at the beginning was to get the holeshot and take
off, and I managed to do that," said Parriott. "At the end I
knew Ty was clawing back time. I knew he'd be coming and I
needed to put in some hot laps."
The San Jose BMW team won last October's inaugural Eight Hours
At Daytona, the debut event for the SunTrust MOTO-ST Series, and
led most of this year's season opener, also at Daytona.
"I didn't have one of my best days," said Kern. "But Brian went
out and showed everybody why we won at Daytona last year."
With the runner-up finish, the No. 6 Aprilia USA team moved into
first place in the Buell Motorcycle Company SuperSport Twins
(SST) Team point standings after three of six events with 99
points. The No. 46 San Jose BMW squad jumped from fifth into a
tie for second with the No. 32 Vallely Racing Suzuki team, which
placed third at VIR, with 84 points.
The No. 6 Aprilia lost valuable time during the race's only full
course caution period near half-distance, when Howard dropped a
lap behind the No. 46 BMW.
"We got hung up in traffic a few times early in the race and
Brian got a gap on me," Howard explained. "Then I was a little
late coming out of the pits during the caution flag and that put
us a lap behind."
The No. 32 Vallely Racing Suzuki SV1000S shared between Mike
Himmelsbach of Quakertown, Penn. and Matt McBride from Toronto,
Ontario finished one lap behind the winners.
Fourth place was taken by the No. 21 Ducati 749 ridden by
Gustavo Laya, of Miami, Fla. and Rodolfo Ramirez from Sunrise,
Fla. while fifth spot went to the No. 69 RightsForBikers.com
Suzuki SV1000S of Mark Crozier from Palm Coast, Fla. and Nathan
Dressman of Berkley, Mich. These two teams waged a furious
battle for the spot in the closing laps of the race, which was
resolved in favor of the Ducati when Crozier had to pit for fuel
with five minutes remaining.
Brian Kcraget of Danville, Va. and Melissa Berkoff from
Washington, D.C. captured the Sport Twins (ST) class win on
their Speedwerks.com Suzuki SV650 after a dominant performance.
The team's only setback came when Kcraget fell while trying to
retake the class lead from Jimmy Filice on the No. 9
Pair-A-Nines Kawasaki EX650.
"I made the pass but was too hot into the next corner and got
into the grass," Kcraget said. "I slowed the bike down but fell,
but I was able to get back up. I was riding a little upset
after that."
Filice, from Modesto, Calif., and Jay Springsteen of Lapeer,
Mich. settled for second after winning the opening two events of
the year on their Kawasaki. Third in ST went to the No. 79
GoBigRacing Suzuki SV650 shared by Ross Millson of Hamilton,
Ont. and Keene, Ont. rider Paul Glenn.
The No. 9 Kawasaki team leads the ST standings with 102 points,
leading the No. 79 Suzuki squad at second with 92 points.
The battle for the BMW Grand Sport Twins (GST) victory turned
into a war of attrition as only the winning No. 8 Richie Morris
Racing Buell XB12 of Shawn Higbee and Clint Brotz managed to
avoid problems.
Higbee, from Oconomonoc, Wis. and Brotz, from Elkhart Lake, Wis.
finished five laps clear of the No. 77 Touring Sport Ducati
Supersport 1000DS of Peter Friedland of Columbia, S.C., Brad
Phillips from Greer, S.C. and Frank Shockley of Greenville, S.C.
Third place went to the No. 89 RightsForBikers.com Ducati
PS1000LE of John Linder of Tampa, Fla., and Chris Boy and Jason
Edmonds, both of Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
The No. 77 Ducati was in the thick of the lead fight before a
split oil cooler put it behind, while the No. 89 Ducati came
back from a crash by Edmonds at the halfway point.
"The other guys had some bad luck but we kept our head down
and kept a steady pace," Higbee said. "Our pit stops were a
lot better this weekend and that helped us on the track."
With the victory the No. 8 Buell extended its lead in the GST
team standings to four points over the No. 77 Ducati, 100-96.
This year's SunTrust MOTO-ST Series will continue with the Road
America 500K, July 7-8 at Road America, the Iowa Speedway 500K
at Iowa Speedway July 12-14, and the 8 Hours At Daytona Finale,
October 19-20 at Daytona International Speedway.
MOTO-ST 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.
The MOTO-ST advisory board features some of the most respected
individuals in the world of motorsports, including Hall of Fame
members, respected motorcycle racing journalists and renowned
officials from various forms of road racing. Learn more about
MOTO-ST at www.moto-st.com.
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