Aprilia USA 2 Wins Iowa Speedway 500K
NEWTON, Iowa (July 14, 2007) -- The No. 6 Aprilia USA 2 entry of Troy Green, Ty Howard and Henry Wiles won the inaugural Iowa Speedway 500K with a dominating ride on their Aprilia Tuono 1000R at Round 5 of the 2007 SunTrust MOTO-ST Series, winning by one lap over the second place team of the No. 69 RightsforBikers.com team of Mark Crozier and Nathan Dressman on their Suzuki SV1000. Third place went to the No. 55 Team Motorrad Touring Sport team of James Chance III and Brad Hendry on their BMW R1200. The top three teams finished in that order in the Buell Motorsports Company SST class.
Ty Howard on the No. 6 Aprilia jumped out to an early lead ahead of the No. 32 Vallely Racing entry with Mike Himmelsbach on board their Suzuki SV1000 and the No. 69 RightsforBikers.com SV1000 with Mark Crozier at the controls, all three riders turning 48-second lap times.
Himmelsbach and Crozier battled for the next hour until they both pitted for fuel and tires. The No. 21 Team Florida entry of Armando Ferrer, Gustavo Laya and Rodolfo Ramirez systematically moved their way to second place by lap 80, but a small crash set them back three laps later. This allowed the No. 55 Team Motorrad Touring Sport BMW XPLOR team to move into third place.
The No. 69 RightsforBikers.com Suzuki solidified second place when the No. 32 Vallely bike encountered problems with their lighting system, eventually pushing their bike behind the wall. The No. 55 BMW held onto third place for their first podium of the season.
The battle for the ST class was fierce, with the No. 9 Pair-A-Nines Kawasaki EX650 of Jimmy Filice and Jay Springsteen slicing through the field and the No. 87 Speedwerks.com Suzuki SV650 entry of Scott Ryan and Brian Kcraget hot on their heels. The No. 9 bike finished an amazing fourth overall, eventually pulling a lap ahead of the No. 87 Suzuki, who finished a lap ahead of the No. 16 RightsforBikers.com Suzuki SV650 of Justin Filice and Robert Fisher.
Eighth overall and first in the BMW GST class went to the No. 8 Richie Morris Racing Buell XB12 of Shawn Higbee and Dan Bilansky, who finished three laps ahead of the No. 70 James Gang Racing Buell XB12 of Paul James and Jeff Johnson, one lap ahead of the Ducati Supersport 1000 of the No. 77 Touring Sport Ducati team.
The race was called on lap 166 with about 30 minutes remaining after an accident involving Higbee, of Oconomowoc, Wis., and the No. 87 SpeedWerks.com Suzuki SV650 of Brian Kcraget, of Danville, Va. Higbee was entering Turn 2 when he crashed into the outside retaining wall. His motorcycle continued further down the race track after the impact and burst into flames and the bike was later hit by Kcraget's bike. The race was immediately red flagged and later declared complete.
According to attending Iowa Speedway staff medical physician D.O. Lenard Kerr, Higbee is in serious condition and has been transported by ambulance to Mercy Medical Center in Des Moines, and Kcraget is in critical condition and has been transported by air flight to the same hospital.
Higbee was leading the GST class at the time by more than a lap, and he and Bilansky were awarded the victory. Kcraget was running second in the ST class at the time of the accident and he and Scott Ryan finished in that position.
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.
|
