Road Racing News
New Jersey Motorsports Park draw 735 motorcycle road racing entries to the first SportBike Championship Cup Serie this past weekend. Thunderbolt raceway provided two days of arduous professional and amateur motorcycle road racing, concluding with an action packed Sunday afternoon slate of 17 elbow and knee rubbing 10 lap sprint races.
This was the first of a 2010 four weekend race series tagged as the Inaugural NJMP SportBike Championship Cup Series. Remaining race weekends will be June 25-27, July 23-25, and September 10-12.
Hot weather and hot racers weren’t the only challenges for the daredevil weekend that were rolling over the greenscape of NJMP. Record levels of allergy aggravating pollen swept across the 2.25 miles of tarmac just as fast as the ever speedy track crews jet-blew the ugly yellow powder off the racing surface, causing riders to add a new dimension of bravery to keep their bikes right side up as they charged through the visibility dampening rooster tails of the yellow fuzz.
With 735 entries jacketing the 17 amateur and professional races, nearly every state in America was represented. The wheel to wheel action kept race fans and family members on the edge of their seats, campers, and tailgates as numerous riders over-tested their limits of traction and went sliding off track in their reinforced leather racing suits across the grassy run off areas that Thunderbolt and Lightning raceways at NJMP provide for rider and driver safety. Luckily for all involved, there were no serious injuries, just some bruised racing egos and elbows.
Some of the most exciting racing of the weekend came from 3 riders competing in the US Grand Prix Racers Union for their Pilot 125 GP and Rising Sun Cycles/GP Tech feature races. Riders Jake Lewis, Nobi Iso, and Nick Hansen put on a two race display of skill and courage with both races ending in identical finishing positions with final lap drafting passes just before the checkers were flown on the super fast front straight of Thunderbolt Raceway.
On the podium for the second time of the day in the same finishing order, the trio from Kentucky, Oregon, and Wisconsin respectively, all said they gave it their every effort in the extreme heat, but at the end it was the fearless fifteen year old Jake Lewis who out foxed his teammate Iso on their like prepared Aprilias, with Hansen locked into their draft on his swift Honda.
Sitting on more than 500 acres in Millville, N.J., New Jersey Motorsports Park is nestled snugly in a beautifully forested region surrounded by scenic rivers and nearby Delaware Bay. Directly adjacent to Millville Municipal Airport, NJMP is conveniently located close to Philadelphia, the Jersey Shore, New York and Baltimore, offering diverse and dynamic motorsports attractions.
The well landscaped park includes two world-class road courses (Thunderbolt and Lightning), a motorsports country club known as the Drivers Club with the Finish Line Pub and Breighton Room Restaurant, which are open to the general public, and F1 New Jersey, one of the top karting facilities in America. Entering its third race season, NJMP hosts a number of professional motorsports events and countless club events and track and facility rentals.
The 2010 spectator schedule includes return visits by the AMA Superbike Championship, Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series, ARCA Racing Series presented by RE/MAX, the Atlantic Championship powered by Mazda, SCCA Pro Racing with the return of the Trans-Am series, and the Ferrari Challenge.
Two vintage race weekends dot the 2010 schedule, plus the inaugural 12 hour SCCA "Devil in the Dark" endurance race, and the inaugural RoadMods "Dirt Modifieds Fast 50" racing series, the first ever racing on a road course for high-powered dirt modified stock cars and three weekends of Rally America’s presentation of European style Rally Cross high horsepower fender rubbing racing on a combined paved and dirt-grass-jumps circuit.
For more information on New Jersey Motorsports Park, F1 New Jersey Karting, Breighton Room and Finish Line Pub, catering and event/wedding/convention services, or to purchase tickets, visit www.njmp.com or call 856-327-7217. Children 12 and under are admitted free to every spectator event at New Jersey Motorsports Park.
