AMA National Motocross

Round 9 of the 2012 National Motocross series took place in the northeast town of Southwick, Massachusetts on Saturday. Rain fell all day on Friday leading up to the event, making the difficult Southwick track even more demanding. The only sand track on the circuit, Southwick is a challenging event for the racers and mechanics as well. Despite a forecast for rains much of the day, early showers led way to sunny and humid conditions.

In 450 class racing, Bel-Ray backed Chaparral Honda racer Andrew Short responded to the tough conditions with a solid 8^th place overall finish with 5-11 moto scores. Following Short in 21^st overall was Dodge Motorsports / Hart and Huntington racer Josh Hill. Hill missed the entire Supercross season due to injury and has been racing himself back into competition at the last couple of nationals this season. A first moto 16^th was ruined by a DNF in the second moto after a collision with another racer forced him out of the competition. Bel-Ray Elite racers Derek Anderson and Dakota Kessler also qualified for the racing program, with Anderson finishing 24^th and Kessler 36^th overall.

In 250 class competition, the Bel-Ray backed Rockstar Energy Racing Suzuki team scored mixed results with all three riders having one good and one bad moto. Despite the difficulty, they all finished inside the top twenty overall with Jason Anderson leading the way in 12^th, followed by Blake Wharton in 14^th and Martin Davalos in 20^th. Another Bel-Ray racer, AJ Catanzaro, riding for Reed and Reese racing, was 23^rd overall in this highly competitive class.

Jessica Patterson left Southwick maintaining the championship points lead. Patterson was 2^nd in both motos for 2^nd overall just behind her championship rival, Ashley Fiolek with only one round left in the championship series. Patterson will take a 5 point lead into the final round in Lake Elsinore California on September 8^th for a winner takes it all final. The men’s series continues this weekend in New Berlin, NY at the Unadilla National while the women’s series takes a couple of weeks off until the final round in September.

ATV Motocross

The series finale for the 2012 ATV National Motocross series took place this weekend in Hurricane Mills Tennessee. In the AMA Pro ATV class, Bel-Ray supported Baldwin Motorsports racer Josh Upperman put in another consistent finish to earn a fifth place overall finish. Upperman only finished out of the top 5 in two motos all season long. These strong finishes allowed him a fourth place overall finish in the final championship series. In other ATV class racing, Bel-Ray Elite racer Travis Spader won the overall championship in three different classes. Spader will hold the #1 plate next year in the Open A, Junior 25 Plus and Veteran 30+ classes. Congratulations Travis!

Follow Bel-Ray racers in action all season long on www.belray.com and www.belrayracing.com.

Bel-Ray Company Inc was founded in 1946 and is a privately held, woman owned business serving the lubrication needs of powersports, industrial and mining customers worldwide. Bel-Ray is recognized as the leader in the specialty lubricants industry for setting high standards of quality and performance with products formulated for the motorcycle, automotive, aviation, energy, food, marine, military, mining, OEM, Industrial steel, and textile industries.