Burkhart Wins a Wet One at Englishtown Supermoto

Mark Burkhart (picture) claimed his first win of the season on a wet and slippery course at round two of the 2007 AMA Supermoto Series, held at Raceway Park, near Englishtown, New Jersey, today. Burkhart topped round-one winner, Troy Lee Designs Honda’s Jeff Ward, by just over four seconds to take the win, while KTM’s Troy Herfoss claimed his best-ever finish in the division with a third.

With a steady rain beginning to fall just at the start of the 14-lap Supermoto final, Burkhart put his Graves Yamaha-sponsored YZ450F into the lead on lap one, after passing a fallen Cassidy Anderson. But Ward was charging hard and drove his Honda CRF450R around Burkhart in the dirt section to take the lead on lap five.

Ward stretched his lead to nearly three seconds until late in the race, when his rain tires began to fade, allowing Burkhart to close.

When Ward made a bobble in a tight left-hander, Burkhart retook the lead and rode away to the win.

“Burkhart was leading and he was making some mistakes and not pushing very hard so I got around him and pulled away,” said Ward. “But I pushed too hard and used up the tire. It was working so good and then it just fell completely off. I was hitting lappers at the same time and I was making mistakes trying to get by guys. He got back behind me and I just pushed the front end a little going into the turn and he go under me.”

At first, Burkhart was content to let Ward go.

“He was going a lot faster than me at the start of the race and I figured I would let him go and at the end of the race, hopefully, I would be there. Luckily, I capitalized at the end of the race. I caught up to him and he kind of screwed up in the turn before the finish line and I just dove underneath him.”

Burkhart crossed the finish with 4.369 seconds to spare over Ward, while Micky Dymond rode a All Access-backed Honda to fourth.

After two rounds, Ward leads the series standings with 48 points, with Burkhart (43) and Troy Herfoss (32) following in second and third.

Aprilia-mounted Benny Carlson made it two wins in a row for the Italian brand by beating out KTM riders Kurt Nichol and John Lewis to take the Unlimited final.

Carlson led from flag to flag, just ahead of Nichol, while Lewis had to work his way up into third position after getting a bad start.

Honda’s David Pingree dogged Graves Yamaha’s Brandon Currie for the full distance of the Lites race, but it was Currie taking his second-straight win in the division, with Pingree a close second. Monster Energy/Litz Racing Kawasaki rider Matt Abbott finished third.

SUPERMOTO: 1. Mark Burhart (Yam); 2. Jeff Ward (Hon); 3. Troy Herfoss (KTM); 4. Micky Dymond (Hon); 5. Steve Drew (Yam); 6. Jason Conlon (Yam); 7. David Baffeleuf (Hus); 8. Danny Casey (Yam); 9. Tyler Evans (Suz); 10. Benny Carlson (APR).

SUPERMOTO UNLIMITED: 1. Benny Carlson (Apr); 2. Kurt Nichol (KTM); 3. John Lewis (KTM); 4. David Baffeleuf (Hus); 5. Travis Marks (KTM); 6. Josh Chisum (KTM); 7. Gary Trachy (Hus); 8. Robert Loire (Hbg); 9. Brian Capper (KTM); 10. Monte Frank (KTM).

SUPERMOTO LITES: 1. Brandon Currie (Yam); 2. David Pingree (Hon); 3. Matt Abbott (Kaw); 4. Dalton Dimick (Kaw); 5. Paul Allison (Kaw); 6. Chad Cose (KTM); 7. Troy Lee (Hon); 8. Adam Cini (Hus); 9. Michael Corbino (Yam); 10. Corey Jones (Hon).