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JG Off Road / GEICO Powersports Race Report -
Wiseco John Penton
June 7, 2009 – Wiseco John Penton GNCC –
Millfield, OH - Round 8 of the Can Am GNCC
Series was the weekend of redemption for the JG
Off Road / GEICO / Monster Energy Kawasaki team
in Millfield, OH. The weather was hot and
the team even hotter - after a rocky finish in
Somerset, PA just 3 weeks ago, the team was
fired up to get back up to the top.
Jennifer Albright headed out onto the just
about perfect track Saturday morning on a
mission for a podium finish and got what she was
looking for. Albright had a good start,
going into the woods in the top 5. By the
end of lap 1 she muscled her way up to 4th.
Her husband Phil and team manager JT Bennett
pulled her in on lap 2 for a splash of gas and
had learned that Jennifer’s brakes were fading
on her. Hoping they were just a little
hot, they sent her back out and on her way.
Gretchen assured Phil that “brakes just slow you
down” and that Jen would be fine. And fine
she was, making up yet another position and
finishing the day in 3rd place (14th O/A).
Jennifer has moved into the top 3 in the points
standings for the year.
Jennifer would like to thank of her sponsors:
GEICO, MSR, Lojak Yamaha, MAXXIS, HMF, HiPer
Technology, Rekluse, GT Thunder, Spider Grips,
Precision, XFR, Cycle Gear, Scott, Flexx, CV4,
IMS, ProGraph-X, Triple X Motorsports, PowerMadd,
Moto Pro Training, and DP Brakes.
Team manager JT Bennett took to the track
first on Sunday morning, racing the Sportsman
class. JT was 4th into the woods. By
the end of the second lap JT had found himself
up to 3rd place and moving up quickly.
Having fun on the technical course, Bennett made
his way up to 2nd place and settled in for the
rest of the race, finishing in 2nd in the class
and overall.
Once the green flag flew in the afternoon,
the GEICO Kawasaki’s took off and they weren’t
looking back. As announcer Rodney Tomlin
stated, starter, Ricky Towery barely had time to
get out of Paul Whibley’s way once he threw the
flag. Taking the $250 MotorcycleUSA,com
holeshot award for the day, Whibley got out
front and stayed there for the entire day.
Jarrett, getting a mid-pack start, put his head
down and was on Whibley’s tail before the end of
lap one. "I got a decent start and worked
my way up to third couple miles into it,"
Jarrett said. "Glenn was actually in front of us
and he crashed and then Paul and I slowly pulled
away from everybody. Maybe a few miles to the
end I crashed with a lapper and crashed again
and I settled for second. I didn't do anything
to throw the race away and I'm happy with
second." After a wheel to wheel battle all
day between the teammates, Whibley and Jarrett
took 1st and 2nd respectively, putting a couple
of minutes on 3rd place, Suzuki’s Josh Strang.
This finish puts Whibs back on top of the points
lead. "It was pretty cool to win," Whibley
said. "It's been a tough year. I've had a few
problems this year with some bad luck so this
was a good race. I feel pretty good about taking
the win. It's good to be back on the top again."
Jarrett’s finish bumps him up into 4th place in
the standings.
Scotty Watkins also got a good jump off
the start and headed into the woods with the
lead pack. For the first 3 laps, the top 4
riders swapped positions back and forth, but the
KTM duo of Kailub Russell and Cory Buttrick
seemed to have found a higher gear and made it
hard to chase down. This left Watkins and
Jason Thomas battling for the 3rd place
position, leaving Thomas the winner of that
duel. Scotty took a 4th place class finish
and 9th overall. This finish holds Watkins
steady in 11th place overall in the points
standings.
The team would like to extend a special
thanks to all of their sponsors: GEICO, Monster
Energy Kawasaki, Moose, Pirelli, Rekluse,
Tsubaki, IMS, Works Connection, EBC Brakes,
Silkolene, Renthal, Pro Moto Billet, Enduro
Engineer, PowersportGrafx, and Acerbis.
In addition, the guys would like to thank the
following sponsors:
Paul Whibley – Leo Vince, Shoei, Smith, G-2,
Vortex Ignitions, WER, and CTI - Jimmy Jarrett –
FMF, Arai, Motion Pro, Cytomax, Applied, UFO,
Twin Air, HR Motorsports, Ohlins USA and BRP -
Scotty Watkins - FMF and Shoei
And of course a huge thank you to our fans.
The GNCC series will continue on June 27th
and 28th for the MotorcycleUSA.com
Snowshoe GNCC in Snowshoe, WV. The Millfield
GNCC will air on the VS network July 25th at
2:00PM (ATV) and August 1st at 2:30PM (Bikes).
For a full listing of the TV schedule, visit:
http://www.gnccracing.com/pages/gncc-television.
To learn more about JG Off Road Racing,
please visit
www.GEICOgarage.com
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