Crozier Motorsports and Touring Sport Ducati Win Moto-GT at VIR
ALTON, Va. (August 15, 2009) - Prevailing in a race that was high in both attrition and drama, the No.
14 Crozier Motorsports Triumph Daytona 675 of Mark Crozier and Dave Estok and the
No. 77 Touring Sport Ducshop Ducati PS1000LE of Ryan Elleby and Corey Rech
extended their respective AMA Pro SunTrust Moto-GT Championship leads with a
pair of victories Saturday at the Suzuki Big Kahuna Nationals at Virginia
International Raceway.
Both teams steered
clear of the major trouble that befell the majority of their competitors to
score victories that could prove to be pivotal in their championship bids with
two races left in the season. The Crozier
team scored its second overall and GT1 class victory of the season after first
hitting the top podium spot in May at Barber Motorsports
Park. This weekend the team recovered from Crozier's
lowside incident in Friday's qualifying session to take the win.
"We knew we had
some ground to pick up so we made some changes to the bike," Crozier said. "We were really trying to put down a good lap
time and with the championship thing every point counts. I had my head down and just lost the front and
kind of ran out of talent and didn't hold it.
It created some extra work for the crew, but we learned a lot from that,
and they worked really hard to put it back together. Today we still didn't have
the speed of some of the other guys, but it was a day of attrition and it was
kind of a Tortoise and the Hare thing."
Estok brought the
winning Triumph to the checkered flag.
"Mark brought us
into the lead and he was the attrition man today," Estok said. "He worked his tail off today and did two
stints in a row. He gave me the bike
with a lap lead and from there my only job was to not crash."
The No. 14 team now
has an 11 point lead in the GT1 standings, 140 - 129, over the No. 41 Liberty
Waves Racing/Kowgo.com Buell 1125R of Eric Pinson and Eric Haugo, which
finished second at VIR two laps behind the leaders.
"We just tried to
stay on our path," Pinson said. "With
our crew and everybody, this thing was just flawless. The Buell was just working great and I want
to thank all those Liberty Waves people.
Without these guys we wouldn't be able to do anything."
The GT1
championship leaders were aided by several setbacks for some of their top
competitors. The pole-winning Westby
Racing team of Dane Westby and Dustin Meador (No. 13
Westby Racing Yamaha YZF-R6) retired with apparent mechanical issues while leading in the first 15
minutes of the race. The new team had
gone a perfect two for two with victories in the last two rounds at Mid-Ohio
and Topeka. From there, Josh Day and Dominic Jones (No. 27 Four Feathers Racing Yamaha YZF-R6) led until
just before the race's halfway mark only to retire after a lowside incident in
Turn 3. The No. 14 took the lead at that point and stayed up front until the checkered
flag.
Third place in the
GT1 class went to Paul Schwemmer and Brett Ray (No. 37 Old Pros Racing Aprilia
RSV1000R). The result also boosted the No. 37 team to third in the GT1 standings
with 112 points.
The No. 77 Ducati
continued to be the class of the field in GT2 and joined the winning No. 14 GT1
team in overcoming its biggest challenge before the green flag even
dropped. Elleby was caught up in a
lowside incident in this morning's warm-up session, but the Touring Sport
Ducshop team quickly got the No. 77 back in race-winning form.
"We had a little
boo boo this morning," Elleby said.
"Everything went well, the guys hustled really hard all weekend to get
the bikes in perfect condition like they always are. It was a good long, hard race. It was definitely a roller coaster, with a
lot of incidents going on. I'm glad we
could finish it up, stretch the lead out a little bit and have a little room to
breathe."
Rech won his
third-consecutive race with the Ducshop team and his second straight on the No.
77 Ducati. His run was hardly trouble
free, however, and a minor lowside incident in the middle of the race left the Ducati
with bent handlebars.
"The race went
well," Rech said. "Ryan rode the first
stint and everything was going good. The
front tire got a little shag after Ryan got off it and I went through a turn
and just tucked the front. That was
about the biggest thing I had a problem with.
We had a bent handlebar but it bent right back to where I could ride
it. The Ducshop is a really good team,
they put a lot of time in the bikes and I have a good teammate."
Despite the
setback, the No. 77 team still finished an impressive third overall and one
minute ahead of second place GT2 riders Kenny Rodriguez and Trey Yonce (No. 10
East Coast Powersports Suzuki SV650), who were fourth overall. Fernando Ferreyra and Robertino Pietri (No. 63
Coatzymoto International Racing Ducati PS1000LE) finished third in GT2 and
rounded out the overall top five.
The No. 77 Ducati
team has taken commanding control of the GT2 championship standings and now has
a 44 point lead, 202 - 158, over Jay Springsteen and Scott Ryan (No. 9 Pair-A-Nines
Kawasaki EX650). Springsteen was among
the half dozen riders to lowside Saturday and went down a little over 20
minutes into the race while running second.
The team rebounded to finish a solid seventh overall and fourth in GT2,
three laps behind the winners. The No.
64 TeamHurtByAccident.com Ducati PS1000LE team, which finished fifth in GT2 at
VIR with John Linder and Robert Fisher, remains third in the standings with 115
points. None of the riders involved in the on-track incidents were injured.
Two
rounds remain in the 2009 AMA Pro SunTrust Moto-GT season. Next up is
the New
Jersey Superbike Championship Weekend, which includes the SunTrust
Moto-GT race
on Saturday, September 5 at 11 a.m. ET. Highlights from Saturday's
SunTrust Moto-GT race can be seen tonight on SPEED at 8 p.m. ET (5 p.m.
PT).
More from a press release issued by Touring Sport Ducati:
Touring Sport Ducshop Ducati Breaks VIR Curse
Touring Sport Ducshop Ducati took their fourth consecutive win at Virginia International Raceway today, strengthening their lead in the Suntrust MotoGT2 endurance championship. Rider's Ryan Elleby and Corey Rech rode the championship leading #77 PS1000LE to a class victory and to third overall despite crashing both in practice and the race.
The team's VIR curse* continued right to the checkered flag. Frank Shockley crashed the #38 bike in yesterday's qualifying session and the team worked hard to get it ready for today's race. Elleby then crashed testing some suspension changes during this morning's practice and all attention turned to getting the #77 bike race ready, leaving no time for the #38 bike and Shockley and Pete Friedland had to sit out the race. Elleby started the two hour race and had secured more than a lap lead on second place Coatzymoto Int. Racing by the time he handed the bike to Rech. Shortly into his stint Rech crashed but was able to pick the bike up and return to the pits. By the time the team fixed the damage and returned him to the race they were in second place. It took just a lap for Corey to regain the lead and held it to the checkered flag.
"This was the hardest race we've ever ridden," said team owner Frank Shockley as he watched his two riders on the podium. "I can't believe we had so much trouble but the sportsmanship in the paddock pulled us through. I want to say a big thank you t
