Can-Am Warnert
Racing GNCC Race Report
Cliffton Beasley Claims 3rd Straight Win, Michael
Swift Podiums
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Warnert Racing's
Chris Jenks aboard a Can-Am DS450 ATV
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Melbourne, FL (4/6/2008)
- Mud was once again the name of the
game at Steel Creek this past weekend, but that
did not put a damper on events for the Warnert
Racing/Can-Am team. Cliff Beasley took his 3rd
consecutive win in the 4x4 Lites classes and 4x4
Limited class racer, Michael Swift’s win
Landed him an impressive 3rd overall in the A.M.
races.
Beasley’s win did not come easy for him.
“It’s kind of embarrassing,”
he stated in regards to his last place holeshot,
“But I guess sometimes it’s better
to work your way up from the back.” The
track conditions were rough and only deteriorated
as the day wore on, but that seemed to work to
Beasley’s advantage, as he is known for
his skills in being able to negotiate unfavorable
terrain that usually slows down other racers.
“It was rough, but everything went really
well out there!” he said. Cliff’s
#206 Can-Am Outlander 500 claimed a time of 02:02:13,
which earned him a 6th place overall for the day.
Michael Swift had a much better start than Beasley.
Grabbing the holeshot, Swift caught up to and
passed all the riders in the other class as well
by the time he reached mile marker 6 on his first
lap. “After I got past the other class,
I just kind of checked out,” he said. Swift’s
run went well and he managed to avoid most of
the bottlenecks that occurred, which earned him
an overall time of 2:01:58, which was only 27
seconds off of second overall. Swift is hoping
to take his 3rd win of the season in 4x4 Ltd.
at the next round in Union, SC, where he also
won last year.
Scott Kilby claimed an impressive 2nd place in
the 4x4 Open class aboard his Can-Am Outlander
800 H.O, which is his best finish so far this
season. Kilby finished with a time of 2:07:55,
which earned him a 14th place overall.
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Clifton Beasly's #206
Can-Am Outlander 500 earned him 6th place
overall
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Rick Cecco, who placed 1st in round one and 2nd
in round two, had an unfortunate encounter with
some tree roots in his first lap, which blew one
of his tires off the rim and bent his steering
stem, causing him to limp his quad back to the
pits for repairs. Cecco managed to salvage points
by working his way back up to 10th place with
a time of 2:31:08. According to Cecco, he and
the Warnert crew will be doing some suspension
testing on his Can-Am Renegade 800 before the
next round. Everything has been working really
good so far and this should make it even better,”
said Cecco, who is looking forward to testing
out the changes.
Despite Rick Cecco’s incident, the morning
classes went well for the Warnert team; however,
the afternoon XC1 class seemed to encounter a
few more problems. Chris Jenks and Chris Bithell,
who had done fairly well in the first two rounds,
encountered their fair share of problems out on
the track. Jenks, who had been running strong
in 5th place his first lap, ran into problems
on the track and began to fall back, and ultimately
ended things early for him in his 3rd lap.
Meanwhile, the #03 bike of Chris Bithell was
T-boned in the 2nd corner, which put him back
to 16th place. The impact from his crash is also
the suspected culprit in his 3rd lap engine failure.
“After I got hit, the bike started making
funny noises and was blowing out oil,” said
Bithell, who is hoping for a better go of things
in South Carolina.
The Warnert/Can-Am team will be heading to Big
Buck in Union, South Carolina for round #4 on
April 12th, where it hopes to see its racers dominating
in their respective classes.
www.warnertracing.com
1203 33rd Street South
St. Cloud, Minnesota 56301
(320) 251-9100 - Fax (320) 251-4764
info@warnertracing.com
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