Chris Fillmore earned his career first AMA Pro Road Race win today, taking victory in the Round 2 Infineon Raceway AMA Pro Vance & Hines XR1200 event.
The RMR Bruce Rossmeyer Daytona Racing rider, who’d taken pole earlier in the day, led nine of the contest’s eleven laps, and he was joined on the podium by Drag Specialties riders Michael Barnes and Steve Rapp in second and third, respectively.
Chris Fillmore says: “This is my first AMA Pro win, and I’m glad I was able to get it here at Infineon. Everything was great.”
The race was halted briefly under red-flag conditions on Lap 5 following a crash by Gerry Signorelli that left his bike on the front straight’s racing line.
Once the race resumed, however, so too did Barnes, who’d diced with Fillmore through earlier laps, and teammate Rapp, whose hurry to get off the line resulted in a jumped restart and an attendant five-second penalty.
Rapp, who also contended today’s AMA Pro National Guard SuperBike race, continued to charge as quickly as possible once the track went green again, trying desperately to offset the penalty to whatever extent he could in the remaining laps. Although he was second across the finish line, however, the penalty bumped Rapp back to third.
Steve Rapp says: “The first couple of laps, I had to remember I wasn’t riding a 200-horsepower SuperBike, but after a few laps I got right into it. These bikes are a lot of fun to ride, but I knew I had my work cut out once I got the five-second penalty. I tried to stay with Chris, but he just took off after the second start.”
AMA Pro Harley-Davidson Insurance Flat Track star Sammy Halbert made a special appearance in the class at Infineon Raceway and had an exciting weekend, embarking on an off-track excursion after the restart but soldiering on to take 13th place.
