Vortex Masters of the Mountains Round 6 September 27-28
The final round of the 2014 Vortex Masters of the Mountains series was held on the East Course configuration at Miller Motorsports Park on September 27th and 28th. Weather played a factor on Saturday’s Deseret Dash doubleheader with both races held on a wet and cold track. Despite the conditions, 13 year old Gauge Rees “did the double” winning both races and beating a lot of much more experienced riders in the process with his smooth, and calculated riding. Gauge has made huge progress since the beginning of the season aboard his Trackstar Racing Yamaha YZF-R6 and is impressing a lot of people with his riding as well as his attitude. Remember that name and expect to hear it more in the future.
Sunday looked to have more of the same weather but as dawn broke the skies cleared and the track dried. In the King of the Mountain GTU class, Chad Swain led into turn 1 with Dave Purcell and Brian Childree following closely behind. On lap 3, as Swain began to break away Childree passed Purcell and began to close the gap. Though the two were very close for a number of laps Childree was never able to mount an attack and Swain went on to win the race and secure his King of the Mountain GTU Championship ahead of Childree finishing second and Purcell finishing third overall.
The premier King of the Mountain GTO race proved to be one of the most exciting of the season. Jerry Hicks pulled the Holeshot into turn 1 and led Oleg Pianykh and Chad Swain for four laps until on lap five Pianykh got an incredible drive exiting turn 12 onto the front straight and was able to use the power of his MotoStation prepared GSX-R1000 to pass Hicks before turn 1. From then on the three riders were absolutely inseparable creating what looked like a Tour de France-style pace line, never having more than .3 seconds between them. The stage was set for an epic battle in the closing laps but it wasn’t meant to be. On lap ten the leaders caught a lapped rider on the front straight and only Pianykh was able to get by before turn 1. Hicks and Swain lost too much ground and were unable to close the gap before the checkered flag and Pianykh went on to celebrate his third-straight King of the Mountain GTO Championship.
“It was a really good weekend and a really good season for us. I think I won every race I finished this season so despite a few DNFs from some bad luck it was maybe my best season ever. I’m happy I was able to lock up the championship for the third year in a row and to do it in a race like that makes it even better. I want to thank MotoStation of Salt Lake, Evolution Machining, Vortex, and Pirelli tires for a great season.” ~Oleg Pianykh