Star Racing Round 3 Race Report

Mt. Morris, PA. - High Point Raceway hosted round three of the AMA MX National Series over weekend with a great track and semi cooperative weather. DNA Shred Stix/Star Racing/Yamaha riders, #25 Ryan Sipes, #35 Kyle Cunningham, #387 Gareth Swanepoel, #533 Gannon Audette, and #76 Kyle Partridge who is racing the 450 class were working on a good bit of confidence entering in after the previous race. In Saturday mornings timed qualifying, Sipes let his speed be known when he set the 5^th fastest lap time giving him a good  gate pick for the day.

Moto one crossed over the gate, and after lap one Sipes lead the team in 4^th, however on the following lap he pushed hard and jumped up to 2^nd. Meanwhile, in the action was Cunningham holding 7^th, Swanepoel and Audette both suffered from subpar starts in 21^st and 30th. In the next four laps Cunningham was able to hold on to the fast pace, bouncing himself up to 5^th, Swanepoel found himself settled in, which carried him to the battle to be inside the top ten, Audette was picking up just where he left off moving right through the field. The later stages of the moto came, and it could be seen that teammates Cunningham 5^th, and Swanepoel 12^th had charged all they could and needed to ride this one out. Audette never gave in and plugged away through the duration to take 18^th at the finish. Unfortunately in the closing moments, Sipes high sided and crashed hard, throwing away his great ride up until this point. This left him with a DNF and forced him to call it a day.

Before the start a rare and unfortunate incident occurred when the team mechanics and riders where not staged on time causing them all to get last gate pick and start from horrible spots. When the all important second moto set out on the now treacherous track, Swanepoel got out to a start of 13^th, and on his rear wheel in 16^th was Cunningham who looked aggressive. The other FMF backed team rider after lap one sat even farther back, who was Audette in 20^th after avoiding getting tangled up, so he had some work to do. Still wanting to be the man, Cunningham rose up and easily moved towards the top ten, on lap six he acquired 13^th. Back a little further was, Swanepoel after crashing back to 30^th and Audette who also was having flashes of brilliance, both riders could be seen holding 15^th and 16^th in a convincing fashion. Cunningham, the kid who never quits and is one of the few who can mount charges up to the front, continued moving in the right direction lap after lap. In the end, Cunningham impressively netted 11^th; Swanepoel secured 15^th, and Audette came away in 17^th.

Update on Sipes: Ryan was checked out and diagnosed with a concussion. At this time he’ll sit the next round but is confident that he’ll be racing the Thunder Valley race in Colorado coming in two weeks.

Also adding to the great race results, was Kyle Partridge, our 450F pilot who put two steady moto’s together going 20 – 33 for 24^th overall.

Results:

Moto 1  Moto 2 = Overall Finish

Kyle Cunningham 5^th 11^th = 8^th

Gareth Swanepoel 12^th 15^th = 15^th

Gannon Audette 18^th 17^th = 18^th

 

Star Racing is proudly supported by:

DNA Shred Stix, Yamaha Motor Corp, Scott Sports, N-Fab, FMF, Cosworth, Sycuan Casino, North County Yamaha, DNA Energy Drink, GYTR, Factory Effex, Dunlop, Easton EXP, Enzo, Renegade Fuels, Sunstar, Motion Pro, ARC, ODI Grips, RK Chains, Excel A60 rims, Yamalube, Ride Engineering, Twin Air, LightSpeed, Braking, Vortex Ignitions, ICW, JD Built, Crank Works, Eibach, Met Tec, Tammer MX