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THE CHECKERED FLAG |
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June 1, 2007 Edition |
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| GREEN FLAG | |
Defending champ opens with podium
After a ten year hiatus, F1 style boat racing returned to Augusta for what became a spectacular race. For Team AMSOIL driver Terry Rinker, it meant a chance to continue his domination of the sport and continue his winning streak.
Defending ChampBoat Series Champion and World Record holder Rinker brought his AMSOIL/Rinker Boats watercraft to Augusta looking to extend his seven-race winning streak. Rinker qualified well, sitting in fifth when the green flag dropped on Sunday's final. The three time champion moved up two spots by the time the checkered flag fell on the field, starting the season with a podium spot in the third position.
The ChampBoat Grand Prix Series heads north for the 20th annual, Bay City River Roar on June 22-24. AMSOIL is also the Official Oil of ChampBoat.
Grant Nabs National Win
Strong start for Team AMSOIL in nationals first two rounds
Hangtown – May
19-20 ~
AMSOIL opened up the 2007 AMA Outdoor Nationals motocross event in Sacramento,
Calif. on May 19-20 as the Official Oil of the AMA Outdoor Nationals. On hand to
represent AMSOIL was the AMSOIL/Factory Connection team with Kevin Windham, Josh
Grant and Jake Weimer leading the way.
Windham took part in the 450 Motocross class, and used his technical riding
style to his advantage. In front of 25,000 fans, Windham finished sixth overall
after scoring a fourth in the first moto and a ninth in the second.
The Motocross Lites division was highly competitive. Grant led the 40-rider pack
off the gate and through the first turn dogleg in moto number one with reigning
National Champ Ryan Villopoto nipping at his red rear fender. Grant would hold
the point for the first four circuits around the 40-turn track before finally
allowing Ryan Villopoto through and into the lead. On lap eight, Villopoto fell
and Grant reclaimed the lead. Villopoto regained the lead and Grant fell back to
fourth. In the second moto, Grant finished in sixth and took home a fourth
overall. Teammate Weimer also rode strong in Hangtown, finishing 15th in the
first moto and improving to ninth in the moto 2 for tenth overall.
High Point – May 26-27 ~ Grant quickly built off his success last weekend. The young AMA "Lites" rider pushed himself into contender status at the second round of the AMA Outdoor Nationals this in Mt. Morris, Penn.
It
took Grant only a few turns to take over the lead in the first Lites moto at
High Point Raceway. After just a few laps, Grant opened up a comfortable lead
over the rest of the field and breezed through for his first win of the season.
With the overall still up for grabs, Grant would need a strong run in the second
moto. Grant grabbed the hole shot in the second round. He held the lead for two
laps before giving way to eventual race winner Ben Townley. Grant would then
battle Supercross Lites champion Ryan Villopoto for second place and the overall
win. Despite some pressure from Ryan Dungey, Grant was able to breeze home to a
third place finish, one spot behind Villopoto, but good enough for his second
national win. After two rounds, Grant sits third overall with 78 points and is
just 13 points behind the leader Villopoto. Grant's teammates are also doing
well in the Lites class. Weimer finished fifth and seventh at High Point for
seventh overall. Billy Laninovich finished 17th overall. In the Supercross
class, Kevin Windham finished sixth and seventh in his two motos and is sixth
overall in the points race. The AMA Outdoor Nationals and its Official Oil,
AMSOIL, will be back on the road next week, June 9-10 in Southwick, Mass. at the
Motocross 338 raceway. The AMA airs all of its races on SPEED.
Dubé Strong in Muddy
Opener
Rain, mud make first round tricky
Marco
Dubé piloted his AMSOIL/KTM to a top ten finish in the first CMRC Canadian
National Series (motocross) in Ste-Julie, Quebec.
Dubé struggled out of the gate in the first moto. He joined a crowded first turn and came out of the mess in 30th. Within two laps he was able to move into 12th. Just after the mid-point of the race, Dubé ran out of tear offs on his goggles and had to ride the remainder of the muddy race without his goggles. He was able to move into seventh by the time the checkered fell.
In Sunday's second moto,
Dubé started in fourth after turn one. A bobble pushed him back two spots early
on before the dirt once again caused havoc in his eyesight. A chunk of mud was
lodged inside his goggles, blurring his vision. While trying to adjust his view,
he dropped three more spots to ninth, his finishing position. Overall, Dubé
finished the weekend in sixth.
"I’m confident," said Dubé. "I got the speed, the bike is really good and the
shape is there, so, with good starts I’ll get into the front of the pack."
The CMRC Canadian Nationals will continue its series at Gopher Dunes in Courtland, Ontario on June 3.
Smith Running Strong
Midwest treating AMSOIL driver well
Brady Smith traveled south
over the Memorial Day weekend to compete in the 15th Annual O'Reilly 'Show-Me
100' at the West Plains Motor Speedway in West Plains, Missouri.
On Friday Smith posted the 16th fastest lap in qualifying prior to winning his
competitive heat race over Billy Moyer and Bill Frye. The impressive heat race
victory would give the Solon Springs, Wisconsin native the outside second row
starting spot for the $41,000 to win feature event on Saturday evening.
Making his first 'Show-Me 100' feature start, The Deuce geared up for the
100-lap A-Main on Saturday night. He ran solidly inside of the top five
throughout the early stages of the race, eventually getting up to second
following a lap 60 restart. However, another caution came out negating the pass
for second and Smith lined up third for the restart. This time, the driver of
the AMSOIL Late Model fell back several spots when the green flag unfurled.
Smith kept laying down fast laps even after falling back to sixth and was able
to leave West Plains with a strong fifth place effort.
“It was a great weekend for our AMSOIL team,” commented Smith following his
strong run at West Plains. “The car performed well all weekend and it was great
to run up front against that kind of competition. Any time you can run top five
in what is considered one of the crown jewels of Dirt Late Model racing that is
a big accomplishment and kind of puts a feather in your cap. We will work hard
in the shop for the next several days to get ready for Dream at Eldora and
hopefully we can run up front in that event as well.”
The Brady Smith Racing team will be taking the June 1-2 weekend off from Dirt
Late Model action to prepare for the rapidly approaching ‘Dream 100.’ The
$100,000 to win event will be held at the famed Eldora Speedway in Rossburg,
Ohio on June 8-9.
AMSOIL Super Team Runs
Double Duty
Company supports WSORR, CORR
The
World Series Off Road Racing faced a major hurdle two weekends ago as it went
head to head with the NBC backed Championship Off Road Racing series. AMSOIL
rolled out its plan to support both series by breaking up the AMSOIL Super Team
of Scott Douglas, Dan Vanden Heuvel and Mike Oberg. Douglas and Vanden Heuvel
headed to the west coast for the CORR event in Pomona, Calif. Douglas rolled out
his Pro-4, four-wheel drive Ford F-150 for the two rounds of racing. In
qualifying, Douglas grabbed the seventh spot as the top eight Pro-4 trucks
qualified within two seconds of each other. In Saturday's Jason Baldwin Cup
Qualifier, Douglas started in the middle of the pack and was soon battling for
third position. The veteran driver got caught up in lapped traffic and
eventually finished in fifth. In Sunday's points race, Douglas qualified again
in seventh. In the 14 lap race, Douglas put the Pro Power horsepower to the
Kumho Tires. By lap ten, the #7 AMSOIL Ford F-150 was in second place. Douglas
was looking to take the top spot away from the leader, Johnny Greaves.
Unfortunately, Douglas pressed too hard, got out of shape, allowing three trucks
to get by. With time running out, Douglas came home with a well fought fifth
place.
"The wholesale changes we made to the truck were right on," said Douglas. "The
Kumho Tires worked well, AMSOIL kept our Pro Power engine running cool and
strong, and my crew gave me a truck that had a shot at the win. Today was just
awesome. There was a lot of passing, everybody raced clean, and it was really
fun out there today.
Vanden
Heuvel, meanwhile, was the talk of the Pro-2 class all weekend long. Vanden
Heuvel started sixth in Saturday's point's race. After a red flag restarted the
race, The Flying Dutchman tried to gain a spot each lap. He moved to 5th, and
was going for 4th with 3 laps left when contact was made with another truck and
damage was done to the left front shocks. Not wanting to cause more harm to the
truck, he pushed the Pro-2 # 77 as hard as he could on the straight-aways and
corners while easing it over the jumps for the last 2 laps. At the checkered
flag, Dan came in sixth.
The first event of Sunday was the Jason Baldwin Memorial Cup Qualifying race.
Vanden Heuvel started in the pole position and took command of the competition
until the 29 truck passed him in turn seven. While they fought for the lead,
behind them were two other trucks battling for position and one went over the
wall. Shortly after the leader started slowing and Dan saw the opportunity to
take back the lead.
The AMSOIL Kumho Tires Pro-2 proved to be a tough truck to pass as they raced
side by side for two laps before the #48 truck spun out. Vanden Heuvel quickly
pulled away from the field until the mandatory yellow flag on the eighth lap.
Vanden Heuvel relinquished the lead on the restart, he held on for the 2nd
position at the finish. “It was great to put the AMSOIL/Kumho Tire truck in the
lead for most of the race and I wanted the win so bad in front of the sold out
crowd, but getting to the finish line was just as important," said Vanden Heuvel.
"We’ll take 2nd and be back here again for the 4th round of Pro-2”
In
the next Pro-2 points race, Vanden Heuvel took the lead into turn two as the #10
spun, causing the field a delay in their chase. The 2nd & 3rd position trucks
were about five truck lengths behind when one flipped end over end and landed on
the wheels. He continued to race while the fourth place truck got by both and
chased down Vanden Heuvel. They went back and forth until one lap before the
yellow flag when Vanden Heuvel fell to third.
When the green flag waved again, Vanden Heuvel got an incredible jump on the two
leaders and had passed both by the end of the front stretch and once again
regained the lead. He continued to lead with three laps to go before the #41
truck was looking for a slight mistake by Vanden Heuvel. He bobbled slightly and
fell into second, keeping the position through the finish line.
While
Douglas and Vanden Heuvel were playing in the California sun, it was their
teammate who was picking up four podiums in two different classes in the
Midwest. The WSORR held its season opener, The Owantonna Nationals, in
southeastern Minnesota. Scott Douglas had fellow AMSOIL Super Team member, Mike
Oberg drive his secondary PRO-4 truck in the WSORR event. Oberg and his Jason
Baldwin Memorial Cup winning ride is a regular competitor in PRO-2WD division.
In a show of support for short-course off-road racing, Douglas arranged for
Oberg to represent Douglas Motorsports, and their sponsors, at the Midwest
event. Oberg made Douglas Motorsports proud as he took the #71 AMSOIL Ford F-150
to victory in both rounds of racing at the Steele County Fairgrounds. Oberg also
was a top driver in the Pro-2 division, taking his Chevy to a second and third
place finish during the two days of racing.
"We felt that it was important to our sponsors and our sport, to find a way to
compete at both events this past weekend," said Douglas. "Fortunately, Mike and
I have many of the same sponsors, so there wasn't a conflict. Jeremy Meyer,
motorsports coordinator for AMSOIL, liked the idea, so we put it in motion. I
think I said it before, but there's tradition in this sport that needs to be
respected. After the Mickey Thompson series ended, the Midwest off-road
promoters really cultivated the short-course version of off-road racing. Now we
are back racing on the West Coast, where it all began with Mickey. Hopefully, we
can create a huge national traveling series that incorporates all participants."
The next event on the CORR schedule is the Chula Vista Raceway, just outside San Diego, CA on June 9-10. All of the Super Team members will race together at the Crandon International Raceway on June 23-24 for the next round of the WSORR.
Autumn Woods Goes 1-2
in Lima
Dedick, Brantley battle for top spot
AMSOIL
was the class of the show at the Lima, Ohio's Allen County Fairgrounds. The 22nd
Annual Tough Truck Challenge proved to be a great weekend for Autumn Woods
drivers Jeff Dedick and Rickey Brantly.
The number one and two qualifiers lined up against each other on the “S” style course for Sunday’s final. Dedick took the upper hand against Brantley, taking the win in the four-wheel drive Chevy.
Dedick and Brantley will make an appearance in Springfield, IL June 23-24, 2007.
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