XTRM AMA Pro Racing Championship Series Final 2 Rounds and Winners Announced - FINAL RACE REPORT

THREE NEW CHAMPIONS: ONE GREAT EVENT It was an amazing spectacle at Miller Motorsports Park, with all the number-one plates in all three classes left undecided until the final checkered flags flew during the double-header weekend.
By: XTRM Sports Network
 
Sept. 11, 2009 - PRLog -- THREE NEW CHAMPIONS: ONE GREAT EVENT
It was an amazing spectacle at Miller Motorsports Park in Tooele, Utah this past weekend. The number-one plates in all three classes were left undecided until the final checkered flags flew.

This was as a double-header at Miller that started off with promoter practice on Friday, round 7 of the AMA Racing XTRM Amateur Championship series on Saturday and rounds 5-6 of the pro series running on Sunday.

Going into Sunday’s festivities, the bets were solid that Jeff Ward might take the 450 crown. Kurt Nicoll had a good shot at the Unlimited title and the 250 was between Danny Casey and Matt Burton.

Going into the final two rounds, Ward led CHM Pro Honda Oils rider Sylvain Bidart by a slight advantage of three points. And not to mention Monster Energy Burkhart HMC Racing rider Mark Burkhart only trailed Ward by 6 points.

450 CLASS - ROUND 5
At the start of the first of two final rounds, it looked like Ward was on the road to scoring another AMA title in his long and lustrous career. Only a few laps into the race, Ward started to slip and his mighty CRF450R started to sputter and cough.  Ward eventually pulled off realizing later that the fuel pump on his bike failed.  

The second rider to falter would be Burkhart. Going down early on, Burkhart had to soldier on from 12th place to salvage a chance at winning the title. Burkhart did race his way back to 4th at the finish. From there it was a 3-way battle between Bidart, Brandon Currie and Derek Costella.  

After struggling with issues for much of the series, the finals turned out to be awesome for Currie. He was on the gas and ready to prove he was able to finish up front. Currie pulled into the lead fairly early and rode a flawless race. It wasn’t easy though. Costella would make him work for it. The round 3 winner started to reel in Currie as the laps wore on, making up time with his dirt skills. With a few laps to go it was a dogfight but Currie was able to hold on. Costella took the 2nd place position with Bidart finishing 3rd.

At that point Currie needed a miracle to win the championship. Bidart held the point lead going into the final, even with Costella and Burkhart tied and trailing by 5 points.  

THE FINAL FINAL 450 RACE FOR THE TITLE
Going into the final race, 3 riders had a strong chance at taking the number-one plate. Bidart had his work cut out and the pressure was on. At the start it was Bidart taking the early lead followed by Costella and Currie. It didn’t take long for Costella to use his dirt skills to take over the pack and push Bidart back to second.

If Currie made his way into 2nd, Bidart and Costella would end up tied in points with Costella taking the title because he had more wins. The same was true for Burkhart, if he could win and Bidart finished 3rd, Burkhart would win the championship. But Burkhart again had to charge his way back through the pack.  

Costella, for the moment, was in the driver’s seat, but only for a moment. A rider went down in the dirt and kicked gravel into the blue groove line and Costella tucked the front wheel and went down. That move cost him the championship. He got going fast until his clutch broke with one lap to go.  

That move again put Bidart back into contention for the title, even though Currie was out front and hell-bent on winning the last 2 rounds of the series. The stars were aligned at that point of the race with Currie out front, Bidart in 2nd and Burkhart working his way into 3rd.  

Currie won the battle that day but CHM’s Bidart won the war. This marked the 2nd time in the series history where a foreign rider took a 450 championship.


250 CLASS—DOGFIGHT TO THE END
From the first round at Fontana, we knew the 250 championship was going to be a battle royal with young rookie Joey Pascarella, 2008 250 runner-up Matt Burton and the always competitive Nor Cal rider Danny Casey duking it out.  But before the 2nd round it went from a 3 way to a 2 way after Pascarella broke his wrist riding motocross.  

The duel between the RJ Performance MDK KTM rider Burton and the Mach 1 Motorsports Honda rider Casey was on. Casey took the win during round two and Burton came back with the victory during round three. At the finals it was going to be head to head action. Pascarella was back for the finals but didn’t have a mathematical chance at taking the title after missing 2 rounds.  

Pascarella was on fire and had everyone covered during the finals and took both race victories fairly uncontested. Local rider Gray Davenport, who had not ridden supermoto in almost a year, looked like a seasoned veteran taking runner-up spots in both rounds aboard a KX250F.  

Burton and Casey didn’t pay much attention to anyone other than each other on the track. Burton bested Casey by one position and it left the two riders tied for points going into the final round of the year. It was a race inside a race, whoever won would earn the number-one plate.  

At the start of the final race, the pressure was on. The light turned green and right there the duel began when Casey and Burton touched handlebars right off the start. Casey slid his way from the outside of the front row and put his CRF250R into the lead for a brief second. Burton on the other hand got pinched off and rounded the first turn in the middle of the pack.  

Pascarella again took over the lead and Davenport raced his way into 2nd. Burton was on a mission but got a little overzealous trying to ward off Casey early on and ended up crashing in the dirt. He quickly got going again and wasn’t ready to concede just yet. He made a valiant charge and eventually closed the gap, but time was not on his side and the white flag flew.  

At the finish, Casey crossed the line in 3rd, one spot ahead of Burton to take the well-deserved title.  


UNLIMITED SWEEP
KTM’s Kurt Nicoll posted a perfect season by winning every main event and taking his 2nd career AMA Supermoto Championship. His first took place in 2004.

Defending champion Steve Drew was armed and ready to defend his title but bad luck and having to go up against Nicoll did not help his chances. He had to settle for 2nd place.  

At the finals, Nicoll rode 2 flawless races to cap off his perfect season. Drew on the other hand was dealt 2 bad hands. Drew was leading the first of the 2 main events when his bike started to lose power and Nicoll motored by with the win. Drew limped his bike over the starting line as his engine’s crankshaft seized up right on the spot.

He went to his backup bike for the 2nd main with aspirations of halting Nicoll’s perfect season. His bike was all over the place and again he had to settle for 2nd. After the race he realized an engine inspection cover had fallen off and his bike was spraying oil over his rear wheel.  

Chisum missed 1 round to a shoulder injury but came back for the finals strong. Chiz was right there in both races taking third. In the final race of the season he had a heated battle with Martin Lind with Chiz emerging the victor. Local So Cal privateer Justin Ross finished the year out 3rd aboard a KTM 560.

ROUND 5 RESULTS
PREMIER/450
1     B. Currie            
2    D. Costella         
3    S. Bidart

LITES/250
1     J. Pascarella            
2    G. Davenport         
3    Matt Burton         

UNLIMITED
1     K. Nicoll            
2    S. Drew         
3    J. Chisum         

ROUND 6 RESULTS
PREMIER/450
1   B. Currie            
2    S. Bidart         
3    M. Burkhart         

LITES/250
1     J. Pascarella            
2    G. Davenport         
3    D. Casey         

UNLIMITED
1     K. Nicoll            
2    S. Drew         
3    J. Chisum         

SERIES RESULTS
PREMIER/450
1.     S. Bidart     
2.    M. Burkhart    
3.    B. Currie    

LITES/250
1.     D. Casey     
2.    M. Burton    
3.    D. Hoffman

UNLIMITED
1.     K. Nicoll     
2.    S. Drew    
3.    J. Ross    

Results:
PRO results, http://www.xtrm.com/supermoto/results.htm
AMATEUR results, http://www.xtrm.com/supermoto/amateurResults.htm

For photos visit XTRM.com and join our XTRMSupermoto community.

# # #

About XTRM Sports Network
XTRM Inc. is the fastest growing online and offline action sports network. XTRM provides value for sponsors, advertisers, properties, event organizers, athletes and fans. XTRM is headquartered in Belmont, CA with distribution throughout the United States and Europe. For more information, please visit http://www.xtrm.com or call 866.367.9289.
End
Source:XTRM Sports Network
Email:***@xtrm.com Email Verified
Tags:Supermoto, Xtrm, Motorcycle Race, Extreme Sports, Mark Burkhart, Jeff Ward, Ktm, Troy Lee, Kurt Nicoll, Brandon Currie
Industry:Sports, Event, Entertainment
Location:California - United States
Account Email Address Verified     Disclaimer     Report Abuse
Trending News
Most Viewed
Top Daily News



Like PRLog?
9K2K1K
Click to Share