It's the "Thirsty Third of July" News Cocktail....

July 03 2008

Thirsty Thursdee takes the all day happy hour to a whole new level today with both the fireworks of the 4th of July just a day away, AND the "on-track" fireworks of the opening round of the AMA Supermoto Championship!!

Just 24 hours and some of the fastest Supermoto racers in the world will finally be "on track" as part of the "Battle for Seattle" and Round #1 of the XTRM Networks/AMA Supermoto Championship!!   Evergreen Raceway is the scene of the much anticipated....(albeit slightly late) start, to the first season run by the "NEW era" AMA. Looks like there will be some fun festivities in addition to the racin' action in Washington, what with the figure eight bus racin' and demo derby, it's like a live Speed Channel Lucas Oil "On the Edge" show!!  Throw in a fireworks show and it should be an event that's a great "BANG" for your buck's if you get a chance to get up to the land of Microsoft.

Check out the press release from the AMA's PR man Mark Perrin that was released yesterday with all the pertinent event info.

Speakin' of racin' in the great Northwest........Navy Moto-X competitor, and probably the fastest 16 year-old in the USA, Joey Pascarella, took the Open Pro race at Supermoto-USA's round #4 event in Medford, Oregon.

Of course, as any racer knows, chasing a racing series across country is never an easy....(or cheap) undertaking for anyone, especially the "non" factory racers. So......to help out big time, last Thursday came the announcement from Doug Henry, Yamaha and MotoPR, that there would be an additional $2000 purse to be paid to the top placing "non-factory" backed rider in the two AMA East Coast rounds......(Connecticut and Wisconsin)  and the MiSupermoto-X race! The Hard Charger award should give a little more incentive for some of the privateers to make the trip East!

And speakin' of "Hard Chargers"...... Litz Racing that had to disband at the end of last year when Monster/Kawasaki pulled out, Friday, formally announced the formation of a hot new team!  XXX Racing Fuel/Litz Racing/Mountain Motorsports/Honda will feature Robbie Horton, Dalton Dimick and Matt Abbott! Should be a team watch with those three in it!

And on a racin' note.....Round #3 of the FIM World Championship took place a week ago across the Atlantic, in Valladolid, Spain.  Aprilia's Ivan Lazzarini took the overall in the  S1/450 class to knock Thierry Van den Bosch off of his two round winning streak......(2cnd to Thomas Chareyre, 3rd to KTM's Bernd Heimer who leads the FIM Championship overall now). The S2 races saw last years S1 World Champ, CH Azzalin Husqvarna's Adrien Chareyre one up his brother, Thomas, to take the overall ahead of KTM's Attilio Pignotti and fellow Husqvarna pilot, (and original Supermoto Girl photo shoot clown), Gerald Delepine.

And on the subject of the FIM......last Tuesday they announced a tentative 2009 World Supermoto Championship Series schedule. Never too early to plan for the next year....(just ask the personnel behind the scenes of the series here!)

And speaking of announcements.......just got a heads up from Charles at Southwest Supermoto who're puttin' on a Pro money race on Labor Day weekend at the P1 Circuit in Tuscon, Arizona! Check it out!

Got a Pre-Season report from our man, Graves Yamaha's, Brandon Currie, giving us a heads up as to what he's been up to the last few months since Moto-X happened in April. Brandon's pre-season journalism is the first in what we're thrilled and excited to say will be an ongoing, season long series! Brandon will be writin' about the fun and the WORK that goes into racing for, and defending, a professional motorcycle racing title! Yeah Boyeee! 

Also, check out Brian Capper kickin' butt in South Africa as he became "King of the Hills" in the Mr.Price Supermoto National Championship Series at Idube Raceway in South Africa!

Ok.....there have been a bunch of cool testing an' training reports from around the AMA series these last couple days from some of the fastest riders in the world....and.....first up to the pen and paper plate, and swingin' a heavy bat is the always entertaining on the track, and JUST as entertaining off-track, HMC/KTM ladies man, Troy Herfoss. Troy has been making the most of his off-season with  lots of laps on an array of machinery..... Also, got a finely penned wazzzup from THE MAN, HMC/KTM's Kurt Nicoll, who just sent us a great little piece for you all to check out......also.......there's a little pre-season testing an' training report from the supremely talented TroyLee Designs Racing's Cassidy Anderson, detailing a little bit of his recent testing and practice methods..... Annnd....never to be outdone on the track or on the cyber chalk board.... Cassidy's TLD teammate, and Premier/450 class challenger, David "Ping" Pingree's report checked in to let his fans and everyone what HE'S been up to recently! 

Dennis Anderson/SuperMotoOnline.com