Willow Springs Raceway * Rosamond, CA * 04/26/09

I was super excited to be back racing another Eddie Mulder WCVDTS event and ready to put my fresh out of Jim Kelly’s race shop H-D XR 750 engine to the test. At the last event I rode here I led the first 19 of 20 laps in the final so I was very motivated to make sure I led the last lap this time around.

The day started off great, as we rolled into the track there was a dumptruck dumping a load of dirt on the track and I knew that it was going to be a fun day of throwing a roost off the back of my H-D. I was in the second heat race and pulled a nice holeshot and never looked back.  I rode hard for the first 5 or so laps and then backed it down a notch and still had the fastest heat of the day.

That set me on the pole for the $1,000 to win Dash for Cash.  Thanks to Rod Lake for his contributions and then another thank you is due to everyone at the riders meeting who was so generous to donate another $1,200 so they could pay all four spots in the Dash. Tom Seymour of Saddlemen seats had the honor of waving the green flag to start the race and I anticipated it just right and nailed the holeshot and five laps later I took the checkered flag first!

Next up was the 20 lap Open Pro main event.  I started on the inside pole and didn’t have much of a lead going into turn one, so Joe Kopp made a very ballsy move and squirted under me coming off turn two and just let it drift into me pushing me up over the edge of the track.  I had my feet off the pegs and was jumping over berms to get back on the track but luckily I kept my Harley WIDE OPEN and held onto second. How ironic that Joe would blatantly run me off the track in the exact same fashion that was done to him in Daytona and he had to make such a big fuss over it when it was done to him. Oh well we can all dish it out but only some of us can take it. I started to size him up and was getting a little worried cause I hadn’t been behind anybody all day, and when I was following him my engine was bogging down running his pace, so a couple laps into the race I came off turn two really low and that apparently killed my momentum as Joe pulled out to about a five bike length lead. So I made sure not to do that again, once I had a little ground to make up I started running my own pace and reeled him in and went wizzing right by him to take the lead. Then I really put my head down and rode like a maniac throwing my big XR aggresively into the turns in a two wheel slide. When I would let off the gas the front tire would push like a dump-truck so I just had to stay on the throttle and away I went. A couple laps later Eddie Mulder gave me the hand signal that I had a big lead but I kept charging.  I was having too much fun to slow down, the track was in perfect shape! Then I finally looked back coming off turn two to see how big this lead was and I didn’t see anybody back there, so I did a double take and looked further back and there they were, woops I shouldn’t have done that next thing I know I am up off the track jumping those berms again… YEE HA! Good thing my Harley was handling so smooth it was soaking up the bumps like a Cadillac. I was able to take my time to work my way thru the lappers and everyone did a good job holding their line. Thanks to the starter for showing them the blue flag. Finally I saw the checkered it was ALL MINE.

I was 16 or 17 years old when I first got a second place finish at one of these WCVDTS events so it took me long enough to finally get a win and boy did it feel good. It was an honor to take Digger Helm around for a victory lap.

Thanks to Digger and Eddie and everyone else who made this event possible and made it worthwhile for all these world class riders to come on down to Southern California and make a paycheck.

We are staying at Jim Kelly’s race shop right now working away on one of our XR 750 engines getting it ready to compete for the AMA Grand National Championship.

A special thank you to everyone who has ever supported the Halbert Family Racing Team!

 

Photo’s by Jamey and Janice Blunt

(Included a picture of #3 Kopp running me off the track for the lead:)

 

Results:

Digger Open Pro:
1. 43 Sammy Halbert
2. 3 Joe Kopp
3. 37 Jimmy Wood
4. 54z Mikey Rush
5. 26 Brandan Bergen
6. 21 Jared Mees
7. 69 Jethro Halbert
8. 51 Steve Murray
9. 42e Kayl Kolkman
10. 28 Shaun Russell
11. 9 Tyler O’Hara
12. 1 Kenny Malaguranero
13. 65y Kris Bunch
14. 15 Nicole Cheza
15. 49 Chad Cose
16. 10 Briar Bauman
17. 34 David Brown (dnf)
18. 54 Michael Kirkness (dnf)

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