Cycle News

Cycle News 2013 Issue 29 July 23

Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles

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VOL. 50 ISSUE 29 JULY 23, 2013 Nine years after his latest NHRA victory, Shawn Gann returns to the winner's circle 7.37 elapsed time. "It was a long drought, but if you give up the fight you're never gonna get out of that drought," Gann said. "This is a big win. My bike has always been fast, but I've had problems that have plagued me. I'm the heaviest rider out here and I P91 Briefly... LAT Oils Buell's Mike Berry lives in the Denver suburb of Littleton and builds his own engines so it stands to reason that he'd have an advantage whenever NHRA makes its annual visit to Bandimere Speedway. Berry did enjoy one of his best performances of the season as he qualified number three and reached the semi final round, but he's not so sure it was a case of home-track advantage. "We found some problems with our bike this week so I'd like to think that we would have been fast anywhere," said Berry. "We were having issues with crankshafts and I'm not so sure that it hasn't been an issue for a long time. Once we fixed that, the bike responded. I mean I probably have a little bit of an edge because we do all our dyno work up here, but hopefully we'll be good the rest of the season." Pro Stock Motorcycles make approximately 25-30-percent less horsepower when racing in Denver, but that didn't stop Sovereign/Star Buell's Michael Ray from smoking the rear tire on two runs, including the opening round when he slowed to a 7.59 and lost to Steve Johnson's 7.309. "We found out that we had a bad tire," said Ray. "It was just one of those little things that come up from time to time, but I'm not really discouraged. We've got another race in Sonoma next weekend and I'm looking forward to going there and trying again." There are now just two races remaining until the 10-bike field for the Countdown to the Championship is finalized and the battle for the last couple of positions is shaping up to be epic. Following the Denver round, Steve Johnson holds down the number 10 spot and Andrew Hines is just 43-points behind in 11th. Former champion LE Tonglet is also in the mix, 51-points out of 10th. In NHRA Pro competition, each round win is worth 20 points. Despite the obvious challenges of tuning at altitude, there was a solid field of 19 Pro Stock Motorcycles in Denver. Tough Girl Designs Suzuki's Katie Sullivan was the 16th qualifier with a 7.39 while Jerry Savoie, Freddie Camarena, and James Surber missed the field. There is an old saying in drag racing that the Christmas Tree can be your best friend or your worst enemy and for the Arana family, the latter seems to apply this weekend. Hector Arana Sr. lost in the first round on a holeshot, Adam Arana red-lighted in the second round and Hector Jr. was very late off the starting line in the final round. "I need to get out of my funk and stop redlighting because that's the only way to win rounds," said Adam. "It seems like the first round has been easy for me but the second round has been kicking my rear-end." continued on next page

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