P1 Racing KTM Wins USNE 8 Hours of Texas Endurance Race At Texas World Speedway

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Ty Howard, final rider for the P1 Racing KTM team, rode their Pirelli-shod P1 Racing KTM RC8 to victory at the U.S. National Endurance (USNE) presented by Lucas Oil and WERA National Endurance 8 Hours of Texas Endurance race this past Saturday, March 22. The combined opening round for both events brought the racing action to the Texas World Speedway in College Station, Texas. The weather started cloudy and cool, turning sunny and warm with a stiff wind, and the track conditions were good, making for fast lap times on the 2.9 mile full course.

The 8 Hours of Texas Endurance race had a combined grid of 40 teams, with classes including Heavyweight, Middleweight, and Lightweight Endurance. When the lights went out dropped at 10:45 am on the 2 wave start, the racing was immediately exciting and competitive. The Suzuki GSX-R1000 mounted BEI/Dunlop Development team of Dustin Dominguez, Sean Dwyer, Billy Ethridge, and Tim Bemisderfer shot ahead of both the I Like Big Gas Team of Scott Buckley, Dewayne Davis, Craig Montgomery, and Brandon Young and the Yamaha YZF-R6 mounted Village Idiots team of Brandon Cleland, Chris Headley, John Orchard, and Garet Tomlinson for the early lead. Team LocoMotion aboard a Yamaha YZF-R6 went

at it with the Kawasaki ZX636 mounted Excel EMR team, and managed to stay ahead of P1 Racing KTM and Army of Darkness.

The racing was intense, with these four teams holding on to the top four spots for only the first hour. The P1 Racing KTM team of Ryan Andrews, Ty Howard, Eddie Thornton, and Derek Wagnon overcame some difficulties early on with their KTM RC8 to slide past I Like Big Gas, the Village Idiots, and overtake BEI/Dunlop Development for the lead in hour 2. The BMW S1000RR mounted Army of Darkness team of Sam Fleming,Taylor Knapp, Chris Peris, and Ben Walters dispatched both Locomotion and Excel EMR, pulling up to fifth.

In spite of intense competition, these teams held off all comers and gripped the top spots for the next five hours. P1 Racing KTM held off the Village Idiots and BEI/Dunlop Development, while Army of Darkness pulled into fourth and applied pressure on BEI/Dunlop Development from the rear. As the afternoon wore on and the wind picked up, the top teams were still running sub 1:50 laps, and as the clock wound down into the final hour, it would come down to a difference of pit stops. P1 Racing KTM had gotten a lap up on the other top teams, but they were still charging hard. Coming into the last hour, it was going to come down to pit stops. BEI/Dunlop Development had to pit in, and Army of Darkness overtook them for third overall.

Suddenly with 27 minutes left in the race, a red flag came out and all the teams came in and put tire warmers anticipating a restart. The incident caused a stoppage of the race, and the race was called with the last full lap before the red flag’s running order. Army of Darkness had passed into third right before the flag occurred, and didn’t a full lap in that position, so BEI/Dunlop Development was saved by the bell. The race was stopped due to the 30 minutes to continue rule, which is if the “5” board cannot be put up with at least 30 minutes left in the race, the race is called.

P1 Racing KTM took the overall win and the win in Heavyweight with 241 laps, the Village Idiots finished second overall and first in MIddleweight with 239 laps, while BEI/Dunlop Development took second in Heavyweight and third overall with 236 laps. Rounding out the top six overall finishers were Army of Darkness, Excel EMR, and Hold Fast.

P1 Racing KTM’s final rider Ty Howard said, “Overall the race was really good, The Pirelli SC2 tires held up great, we did a rear tire change every stop just to be sure, and we used a total of 3 fronts and 7 rears. We had a few issues, but they were quick fixes. We also had a sick rider, but he was able to complete his leg, so we were able to do 5 stints total. The competition was fierce, and that kept us on our toes the whole race, and I want congratulate the other teams for such a great race. We are looking forward to racing at NOLA.”

Other Lucas Oil winners from Saturday were: BEI/Dunlop Development and Army of Darkness both won $250 in travel money for coming the farthest to get to the event. Army of Darkness went 1450 miles, and BEI traveled 874 miles. Dark Horse Racing won the ION camera for this round as well. In addition to Lucas Oil, the USNE would like to thanks its other sponsors: M4 Exhaust Systems, Driven Racing, and Saddlemen.

For a complete list of the weekend results and standings, please visit the website: www.CMRAracing.com , www.WERA.com, and www.facebook.com/usnationalendurance. The next round in the USNE/WERA season will be on April 5-6, 2014, at NOLA Motorsports Park, New Orleans, LA. Saturday will be the 6 hour National Endurance race.

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