Ring d-ding ding ding, 2-strokes take top three in Solo 30
by
, 12-02-2012 at 12:07 AM (23198 Views)
With an anticipated poor forecast from the weather department everyone was watching the skies on Saturday morning at Eagles Canyon Raceway. Despite the doom and gloom coming from local forecasters, Taylor Myers, Nick Doolan, and Ryan Warren all gave spectators and fellow racers a heckuva show on Saturday!
Friday's practice hosted by Lone Star Track Days gave the "minis" a solid afternoon of practice in beautiful weather conditions. During that time Taylor Myers and Nick Doolan did their fair share of dicing making much of the practice look like races. Saturday practice was slightly different, the pair were neck and neck circulating the shortened ECR tarmac in weather conditions that nobody had complaint about. The difference? Ryan Warren was also out there on his KTM powered GP chassis ring ding'ing around and looking solid too.
When the time came for the warm-up lap, if Warren was "solid" in practice, Myers riding was something a lot more than that. After lining up for the race, a rocket launch incited by the slightest flinch from Mr Phillips' flag hand got young Taylor right out front in to turn 1 passing Warren and Doolan in the process. As the trio came down the hill out of turn 3 & 4 Myers flew down and back up the ECR cut-through with a little more than a second lead, late braking in to the sweeping left down hill and finally back up hill in the hard charging right hand sweeper. As Myers was finding his brake markers for the final hairpin left on to the front straight, the rest of the field was battling their way to the fast line through the exit of the uphill right hander. As the first lap completed; Myers, followed by Doolan then Warren, zinged by the concrete barrier in full expansion chamber song with Myers having a good lead, Doolan in second, and Warren in third.
The battle was on for the first couple of laps, but Myers lead from the start never shortened. As a matter of fact, Taylor got the "big gap, slow down" sign from the elder Myers ("The" Mike Myers) from pit wall and proceeded to drop his lap times and widen the gap. I guess it's true, you have to slow down to go fast. Either that or the pre-teen wasn't listening to his Pop... nah, couldn't be.
Behind Myers the race was raging with the next two riders, and what a race it was. Nick Doolan, who has a race win and a second place finish to his season, was hot on Myer's trail until Ryan Warren caught up with him. This pair of racers had to get through some traffic to finally tuck in behind Myers in the 30 minute race, and once they got clear the two jumped in together to showcase what the young CMRA talent pool has to offer.
Nick Doolan made Warren work for it for several laps but he did eventually get by and solidified a gap betwixt him and 3rd place Doolan. While Warren and Doolan battled, Taylor Myers was edging out more and more of a gap as his lap times continued to drop. The three worked through traffic and the relatively slower F6&7 bikes and their lap times ended up approximately on par. The triumvirate finished a respectable, clean race over the Solo 30 field.
The sweet sound and smell of two stroke GP chassis machines eventually quieted to give way to the F4 races to follow. There was no doubt however that the machines completely dominated the field and found no equals in the F5 (and smaller) classes to be sure.
With Doolan finishing 1st, 2nd and now 3rd in this series, Taylor Myers with two wins in hand, as well as Ryan Warren back in the mix after a couple of early season disappointments; this series is the one to watch for sure!
With Myers and Doolan training at the Texas Tornado Boot Camp and also training on dirt bikes between CMRA events, Warren is going to have his hands full. As the elder racer in this trio, we'll see if he can take the youngsters to task in the following rounds. Given Doolan's wet weather prowess and Myers' impressive win this past weekend, he certainly will have his work cut out for him.
As many spectators and fellow racers noted, this Solo 30 race series is a great venue for young and tenured racers alike. The race distance, the variety of machines, and the venues, provide some of the best racing within the CMRA. Encourage everyone you know to get in on this series and see what it's all about!