James Gang Wins Moto-GT GT-1 Class at Road America

Henny Ray Abrams | June 6, 2009

James Gang/Hoban Racing’s Paul James and Jeff Johnson (Bue) won the GT-1 class and finished second overall in the two-hour AMA Pro SunTrust Moto-GT race that ran in mixed conditions and finished under a caution flag and light drizzle at Road America.Riding their Buell 1125R, the James Gang/Hoban Racing team completed 38 laps, the same number as Touring Sport Ducshop Ducati’s Ryan Elleby and Frank Shockley, who overcame a back row start to take the overall win, and tops in GT-2.Third overall and second in GT-1 went to the Scooter Supersport Aprilia RSV1000R of Tim Hunt and Cory Rech, with Elrey Beer for Kings’ Jeff Purk and Calvin Martinez filling out the podium on their Ducati 848.Second in GT-2 was Pair-A-Nines Kawasaki’s Jay Springsteen and Nick Cummings, the Ninja 650R-mounted pair finishing a lap down. The final GT-2 podium spot was taken by TeamHurtByAccident.com, which was two laps down on the leaders on their Ducati PS1000LE.”To win at home, the home of Buell and during the Buell homecoming…our primary sponsor, H-D/Buell of Appleton nearby and Hoban Bros. Cycles nearby and to have friends and family, very special,” Paul James said. “This win means a lot to me and to our team. We’ve worked really hard and it’s been a big learning curve to jump up to this class and on the 1125R.”We missed our set-up in qualifying and kind of struggled a little bit. But (Buell’s) Dave McGrath helped us kind of find our way and we felt we had a good set-up for the race, but then we gambled on tire choice. We went on a full rain and we really thought the weather was going to come to us, but before it did Jeff (Johnson) had pretty well shagged the tire. So we came in to put dries on, I went out and it started to rain. So I really felt like we blew it. I felt like we had gambled and lost and we went back to rains and the race started to come to us. Jeff rode a lot of really good laps, gained some ground and I went back out for the last stint.” By then it “was really sketchy. You couldn’t tell where it was dry, where it was wet. I lost a few times, I high-sided a few times, I saw a bike high-side and then ghost ride up in front of me. It was pretty crazy, but it’s pretty fun to win.”Moto-GT

1. Touring Sport Ducati (Ducati) GT2

2. James Gang/Hoban Racing (Buell) GT1

3. Scooter Superstore (Aprilia) GT1

4. Elrey Beer for Kings (Ducati)

5. Hal’s Brotz/RMR (Buell) GT1

6. Team Stiles (Yamaha) GT1

7. Pair-A-Nines (Kawasaki) GT2

8. Liberty Waves Racing (Buell) GT1

9. DGY.com (Yamaha) GT1

10. Wisconsin Racing (Ducati) GT1