Primm,
NV (9/26/2007) –
This weekend’s Stateline Challenge Supermoto
was full of excitement with an abundance of racing
action, live music, and freestyle performances by
the Bomb Squad and Metal Mulisha. While pro racer
Nic Granlund struggled through mechanical issues
and a crash in the first heat, Daryl Rath, made
a strong charge for the podium on his new Polaris
Outlaw 525. Seizing the holeshot in the Pro Quad
main event, Rath left the competition in the dust
to take the win.
#67
Daryl Rath made the switch back to Polaris
with the release of the new 2008 Outlaw
525S, and Rath returned to his winning ways
as the KTM powered Outlaw kept Rath ahead
of the competition in its SuperMoto debut
Despite heavy rain on Friday and Saturday, event
promoter Marche Karger and his staff did an excellent
job maintaining the track and keeping it from flooding.
Even though there was a little bit of mud, most
racers were glad to see that it had rained. The
rain helped keep the dust down, which has been a
problem at some previous races due to southern Nevada’s
dry climate. “These guys did a fantastic job
on the track.” Said Nic Granlund. “There
was a little bit of flooding on Friday, but they
got out there and took care of it right away and
had it in almost perfect condition for Sunday.”
Karger’s hard work and dedication to this
event has definitely paid off for him. Karger made
the announcement over the weekend that he recently
signed a deal to run the Supermoto events at Buffalo
Bill’s for the next three years.
#13
Frank Batista
There were 22 pro racers that showed up for this
event, including Frank Batista, who worked his
way to the front in heat one and looked like he
would take the win until a slight bobble in the
whoops section allowed Daryl Rath and Shawn Bigham
to get by him. While Rath, Batista, and Bigham
were battling it out in front, Nic Granlund, who
was struggling with mechanical issues all weekend,
collided with another racer in mid-air. “We
came up the jump and we connected in the air and
it sent me over the bars.” Recalled Granlund.
“As soon as I got my bearings, I got back
on the bike so I could finish the race and hopefully
still get a decent gate position in the Pro main.
At that point I didn’t know if I was hurt
or not because my adrenaline was really pumping.”
Luckily, no one was seriously injured.
Granlund’s injuries were minor and he was
able to continue and finished the heat in last place.
Unfortunately his quad didn’t fair quite as
well. Granlund had been having power issues with
his main race bike since the NASMOTO Supermoto Championship
in Tennessee a couple of weeks earlier when he surrendered
his championship title to Tim Farr. Nic tried to
get his quad back up to speed using some spare parts
from a fellow racer, but his efforts only partially
paid off and the bike was still not up to par, so
Granlund was running his practice bike during the
heat race. However, after crashing, there was too
much damage to the quad and Granlund had no choice
but to run his problematic race bike in the main
event.