Apex Track Days

Apex had a great time, and Clay celebrated his 43rd birthday, racing in the last Master of the Mountain race at MMP for the year on October 21-22. As has been the case all season long, Michelin race tires proviced by Scott Larson of Fast Line Race Tires kept the Apex team hooked up for the weekend and allowed Apex to finish the season as champions. Clint wrapped up the Amateur GTO Championship by finishing first with a BIG lead (good job, Clint), staff member Skylar Nielsen finished third in the Championship, Thomas Lee came in fourth on the year, and Oleg Pianykh fell to fifth place in the Championship with a crash on the last lap of the last race of the year. Thus, 4 out of the top 5 racers in the Amateur GTO are on the Apex staff, so you need to feel good about passing one of these guys at our trackdays.

In the Amateur GTU class, Oleg kept it on two wheels later to win the race along with the Championship; Thomas Lee held on to take second place in the Championship despite having to race on a bike borrowed from David Williams when Thomas' bike threw another valve in practice, Mike (Dr. Rocks) Bunds wrapped up third in the Championship with a conservative but solid 6th place finish on the day; Skylar took fourth place on the year with a top five finish in the race; and Kory Cowan took fifth place in the Championship with a strong second place race finish. (5 for 5 Apex).

In the Expert Open classes, Travis Child raced to fourth for the day in both the King of the Mountain GTO and the Open Superbike race against some very serious regional and international competition, and Travis wrapped up 5th place in the Open Superbike Championship, a great accomplishment in this top level class. On Sunday, Clint finished fourth in the King of the Mountain GTO after running in third position for a good part of the race and missing a shirt in the final corner, very narrowly missing the podium in his first Expert KoM race. Entering the expert races for the first time on Sunday as allowed by the rules, Apex riders swept the podium in the Heavyweight Supersport Class, with Oleg, Slylar, Kory, Mike, and Thomas finishing first through fifth respectively.

Finally, in the last MOM race of the season, Clint and Clay won the team endurance race, but the victory was bitter-sweet given that Kory and Mike finished in third place and probably lost the team endurance Championship due to a last minute rule change on hot pit speed that was not clearly communicated to the riders and a whopping ONE MINUTE penalty assessed against the other Apex team. Still, everyone had a great weekend and did well; it was a great way to end the year at MMP before the long winter and having to travel to Nevada for our track fix.