We recently noted that SoCal’s Ryan Matter broke his leg at the USGPRU race at PIR. He was treated immediately by the Children’s Hospital only minutes from the track. He is back on his bike and up to speed. Ryan who recently celebrated his 12th birthday will have the pins in his leg surgically removed over the winter break.

SCminiGP and USGPRU racer Austin DeHaven who suffered a broken bone early this year is completely healed.

The other recent casualty was 10-year old Peter Lenz who broke two bones in his right arm in a starting grid pile up July 8th in Calgary, eight weeks and five casts later his arm is still casted. The earliest Peter can return to the track is October 6th. His healing time was multiplied when his arm was not set properly by the ER doctor, something that was corrected five days later by his doctor at Rebound Orthopedic in Vancouver, Washington.

Moral of the story is that racing is dangerous, bad things happen, and make sure you see the right doctor immediately.

While SEMRA doesn’t ever send in race results to their races, they do send in video recaps of some of their classes. Combine that stretch with MiniGPX.com being suckers for seeing our name in the credits and here you go…SEMRA Round 7 from Elgin, South Carolina.

Vision Hayes made another trip up to Oregon for the races put on by the Northwest Mini Road Racing Association at the McMinnville Kart Track August 26. We were hoping that local fast guy Peter Lenz would be able to race but we were informed by club members that he is still healing from a previous injury and wouldn’t be showing up. We hope the best for him and are looking forward to racing with him again.

Vision reacquainted himself to the track at Saturdays practice and was ready to race when it counted. He was entered in six classes, three on his stock NSR50 and three on his KX65 which now is sporting a larger front disc and caliper so the brakes will last past one race. They worked great with no swapping of brake fluid all day to his Dad’s delight.

The grids were for the most part small, with 3-5 racers with exception in the 80GP race which had 12 entrants. Vision did well in the heats and started on the front row for all of his mains, including three times on pole.

The mains went well and even with the small grids the pace was fast and he had some good battles throughout the day sometimes running at the front for the duration of the race.

He finished first in the 65 class, Stock50 and Formula Extreme. He took second behind Bennie Taylor in the Mod50, Mini50GP and 80GP classes.

The weather, track and people in Oregon were top notch and Vision looks forward to racing there again next year as his schedule permits.

WERA National Challenge Series, Talladega

This report is from last week’s race at Talladega. Nick and the Fast Forward team were off to round 7 of the WERA mini series where Nick has already clinched the championship with two races to go. The weekend was really hot and humid. Nick and the team has already done really well on the new track layout in the spring and felt confident they could put in another great showing.

The competition is starting to heat up with several racers showing up with either 85cc or 150cc motors tucked into RS GP chassis. Nick is still using a stock CR 85 chassis with a home-made front fairing and standard 17 inch wheels with slicks and maintains his competitiveness by being able to roll through the corners with speed.

On Saturday and Sunday the temps were in the 90’s. Nick took to the practice on Saturday and we quickly found out that we could adjust the gearing from the last time he raced there in the spring. Nick was going faster and after making the adjustment for his second practice, Nick shattered his best times from his June outing. I guess two things are happening;

1) going back to a track the second time makes a difference

2) the training at CornerSpeed is paying off

After lunch the minis were up. Nick took the holeshot over Mike Aquino the only rider to beat Nick this season. He opened up a gap of about 1 second per lap and never looked back. Nick put in some very consistent laps and brought home another win ahead of his nearest competitor by 11 seconds.

On Sunday it was more of the same. Nick had a great time with 30 minutes of free practice and then after lunch the race. In the race, Nick charged to the front and never looked back. He lowered the lap record to 1:09.9 which he set back in spring. Nick took the win making this 19 wins in 20 races. He gapped the field by 12 seconds. The rest of the field battled it out and each rider was within a second of each other.

Nick and the Fast Forward Team want to thank all their sponsors for the great support throughout the year. Nick is scheduled for two more road race events. Nashville on September 15 and the amateur nationals at Mid Ohio September 21.

There hasn’t been much in the way of news about GRC’s R5 (50cc) and R7 (70cc) minigp bikes. After they were announced at the Milan motorcycle show in 2006 the expectation was to see the bikes on the track by summer this year. As happens with projects like this, delays and changes to suppliers has impacted delivery of the much anticipated minigp bike.

The bike is currently running as a prototype in Italian minigp races with great success. After the on-track bugs are worked out, the bike will head into production, making 2008 the first year the bike will hit the tracks in full fledged competition.

The bike will be imported into Canada by Grinn and Barrett, while stateside it will be handled by Mid-South MiniMoto.

With fully adjustable suspension, it should give the current bikes a serious run for their money.

After numerous requests and some serious support of youth racing in the Red Bull Rookie Cup Alpinestars released their first mass market youth suit.

These suits have been out for several months and have been crashed tested by a few riders with good results.

Alpinestars Youth One-Piece Suit Specifications

• 1.2-1.4mm premium full-grain Italian leather for excellent abrasion resistance
• Race developed GP protectors with injection-molded shell and dual-density foam padding
• Ergonomically placed stretch Kevlar panels for optimal flexibility
• Compartment for injection-molded GP back protector
• 3M reflective logos for nighttime visibility
• PU replaceable GP knee sliders

The suit is available in several sizes and two colors. Do a search online for “Alpinestars Youth One-Piece Suit” and you will find several resellers with the suits available for immediate delivery.

The street price of the suit is $600.

The latest player in the minimoto market is no stranger to rider protection. Alpinestars new Octane boot is is the latest boot for minimotos. The Octane provides the best protection of any boot offered to date.

Soft leather upper to maximize comfort with a suede collar for greater comfort. High ankle design provide added protection while low cut achilles area allows for maximum ankle flex. Boot is secured with two Velcro pull tags.

The boots are in available now from: Minimoto Racing

Applications for the 2008 Red Bull AMA U.S. Rookies Cup are being taken right now at ~http://us.redbullrookiescup.com~. The deadline for applications is just a few days away…August 31.

The coverage has been pretty good.

Overview by Sean Bice

~http://superbikeplanet.com/2007/Aug/e/n070823c.htm~

Release on Roadracing World

~http://roadracingworld.com/news/article/?article=30042~

We have a little known search function on MiniGPX.com. You can find it by going here: ~http://minigpx.com/search/~

If you are planning on coming to the USMGP Finals at VIR November 3rd & 4th please go to ~http://www.speedreg.com~ and pre-register. There are classes for all pocketbikes, motards, YSR, NSR & Metrakits. Bring em if you got em.