SEPTEMBER 21st - 22nd, 2002
TEXAS WORLD SPEEDWAY - College Station, TX.

By Charles Brothers

ONE WAY WINS CLOSE ONE AT TEXAS WORLD

One Way Racing managed to hold off HAS Racing #3 to win round seven of the CMRA's Endurance Series by the narrowest margin in club history. One Way, which now hails out of nearby Owasso Oklahoma (instead of Frostbite Falls Minnesota), turned 154 laps in the six hour race and just barely held off a late race charge by HAS Racing's John Haner. Northwest Honda finished just a lap behind in third.

Another cool front greeted racers for the penultimate round of the CMRA's 2002 season and conditions at Texas World Speedway were excellent with sunny skies and moderate temperatures for the 46 teams which made up the grid. One Way led off with their fastest rider Troy Green, and he steadily pulled out a small lead in the first hour but the HAS #3 team, which is now in its third incarnation because of an over-abundance of riders, was on the move from their third wave grid position and soon moved up to a challenging position in second place. Then came the first red flag so the ambulance could examine Barely Racing Too's Gary Sinclair, who had crashed across the track from the scoring antenna between turns' 10 and 11.

The race was re-started using original grids leaving One Way and HAS to do it all over again. HAS was fast in the second hour and quickly took the lead, but pitted first which left One Way to lead the second hour results ahead of HAS, the Village Idiots, Big Air, and the last team on the lead lap, Northwest Honda.

Four minutes into the third hour, the red flag flew again, this time from a crach involving Just for Fun, who came off in turn six. The race was restarted 25 minutes later and HAS, with that all-star line up of riders, took over the lead and held it at the halfway point with One Way second, Northwest third, the Idiots fourth, and Big Air, the fifth and final team on the lead lap.

The fourth hour was fairly quiet and the fifth as well until Austin Racing (which had been leading the Lightweight class thanks in part to a crash by Faltless) crashed in turn 8A and brought out the third red flag. Clean-up was swift and the race was re-started 20 minutes later for what would be a 52 minute shoot-out to the finish. The red flag came at a good time for One Way (for a change) because HAS and Northwest Honda had both pitted and gone a lap down while One Way was about to pit, but hadn't yet. This left One Way with what seemed like a comfortable a one lap lead.

But everybody loaded up with their fastest riders and HAS brought out TWS track record holder John Haner for the final session. As expected, Haner came out smoking, turning low 1:50 lap times as he ripped off huge 6 second chunks from One Way's lead. One Way did the math and could see they had to do something. So on lap 145, they put John Ross on and hoped for the best. The gap after the pit stop was now down to 21 seconds and for a couple of laps it held, the reason being HAS had not realized they had been a lap down at the re-start and thought they were already in the lead. The team quickly figured it out and gave John the GO sign and Haner advanced once again. By this time, everybody was doing the math and it was going to be close. The race clock ticked at the same rate as the gap shrank. Haner got One Way in sight and his lap times dropped into the 49s. It was going to go down to the last lap. The race had started at 11:07 and would end at 5:07. No bike crossings would be recognized after that time. At 5:06, One Way's lead was down to less than 100 ft as they began the last lap with Haner closing fast. Finally, Haner caught One Way in the turn 9 horseshoe and passed. Now he had to make it to the scoring antenna before time ran out. But, as he exited turn 10, the clock stopped and the checkered flag came out, with Haner less than 3 seconds short of the finish line, the closest finish in CMRA Endurance history.

Northwest Honda and the Village Idiots finished third and fourth, both a lap down. No Homeless was fifth with Dynatech sixth. Silver Bullet lost their shift linkage late in the race and fell from fourth to seventh, while Robin's Roost kept it on two wheels to win the Lightweight class.

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HOWARD WAVES GOOD-BYE TO TEXAS WORLD

In what may have been his last club race, Annandale's Ty Howard said good-bye with a classy performance, winning the Shogun Shootout (after race leader John Haner crashed out early) and then coming back to set a new track record of 1:44.09 as he all but won the Shogun Grand Prix. (He let Haner by at the finish line only moments after making a dramatic pass in turn 8A.) Next year, the likable Texan heads off on the National circuit with the semi-factory sponsored Annandale Honda team and everybody here wishes him and his team the best of luck.

The great weather that had arrived at the Speedway on Friday continued to hold and it helped to attract a large number of contestants and spectators for Sunday's 21 race sprint program. The first big race was the Shogun Shootout, where John Haner led lap one but hit some ripples in turn eight and tucked the front end on lap two. Ty Howard took over from there, streaking away from Adam Coco, Troy Green, and Craig Montgomery. Howard's fastest lap was a 1:46.04.

The fans lined the fences for The Ryan Andrews / Danny Eslick Young Gun Show and Danny won the Lightweight GP appetizer with Andrews second. (Technically, Eric Falt won Lightweight GP, but hey, he was on an SV.) In the GP Singles re-match, Ryan crashed un-hurt, leaving Eslick to run away with it ahead of JR Lopez, Alan Tan, and Carter Burkholder.

In the $1500 Shogun Shootout, it was Haner versus Howard again and Haner got the holeshot. But by the time they got back around to the finish line for lap one, Howard was already right there in striking position. Then the mid-game began with Haner leading and Howard following, and the gap grew to almost a second at times, making it unclear how hard Howard was working. In the later laps, it cleared up as Howard turned a new track record of 1:44.09 as he closed up and made a breath taking pass on the inside of turn 8A. The game looked over, but then Howard, as he had in some earlier races, let off on the run to the checkers, making Haner's bike look like it was on Nitrous Oxide as he shot by. "I felt a little bad about the close pass, and he let me have the Shoot-out, so I thought I would return the favor," said Howard. Meanwhile Haner, who's head was buried so far down into the fairing that he never saw the checkered flag, made what amounted to a full blast insurance lap. Great race from both. James Compton showed impressive speed to take third spot ahead of Chris Rankin, Adam Coco, and Troy Green.

In other action, Chris Rankin won Unlimited and Heavyweight SuperSport while Amateur Michael Sanchez turned sub 1:50 lap times as he won another bunch of Amateur races.