Honda of Houston/Fox Racing¹s Jessica Patterson kicked off the New Year with a 1 - 1 sweep at the WMA Cup, held January 1st at the Freestone County Raceway, Wortham, Texas.
New Year¹s Day marked the first women¹s pro race of the 2009 season with a stand-alone event at the Freestone County Raceway. Many top pro racers made the trek to Texas for the WMA Cup and were greeted with great weather conditions for racing. Moto One took place early in the morning and saw the familiar sight of Jessica Patterson (Hon) getting the holeshot, followed by Sherri Cruse (Suz), Tarah Gieger (Yam), Tatum Sik (Yam) and the rookie bike of Jackie Ives (Yam). Patterson led from the start to checkers. Cruse tried to hold off Gieger but on lap three Gieger made the pass, Cruse made a charge to catch Patterson and Gieger but crashed in a rut dropping to the back of the pack. Tatum Sik and Elizabeth Bash (Kaw) battled most of the moto. At the checker¹s Sik finished 3rd behind Gieger in 2nd and Patterson in 1st.
In Moto Two Gieger got the holeshot followed by Patterson and Cruse. The two broke away from the pack. Gieger led the moto until lap seven. She went down in a corner and Patterson made the pass for the win. Patterson mentioned after the moto that she rode with a broken rear brake line. Meanwhile, Cruse had made a mistake early on and was out of the running for the podium. Sik and Bash once again battled for third but this time Bash was the victor finishing 3rd in the moto and 3rd on the podium.
Women¹s Pro Top Ten Results:
1. Jessica Patterson HON 1 1
2. Tarah Gieger YAM 2 2
3. Elizabeth Bash KAW 4 3
4. Tatum Sik YAM 3 4
5. Penni Cyrus KAW 5 5
6. Jackie Ives YAM 6 6
7. Kimberly Kocher KTM 7 8
8. Sherri Cruse SUZ 9 7
9. Hailey Larson YAM 8 10
10. April Zastrow HON 11 9
In addition to the WMA Pro race, the Cup offered 15 different women¹s classes which drew a lot of top female racers including Sara Price (CA) who won both the Women¹s Intermediate class and the Collegegirl class, Shelbie Brittian (TX) who won Schoolgirl and took 2nd in Intermediate class, Cloe Spaeth (MN) and Taylor Higgins (TX) who went 1 - 2 respectively in the Girls 85cc class, Kaitlyn Morrow (TX), Britney Gallegos (CO), Lindsay Palmer (CO), Tiana Falls (CA), Kaylee Darby (NV), Emma Allred (AL), Kendra Hughes (TX) and many others including racers from Canada and Honduras as well as crowd favorite 4-year-old Cami Samples who raced Girls 4-6. Full amateur results are available on the WMA website.
Sponsors of the event included Parts Unlimited Thor MX who sponsored a catered dinner for all racers on Thursday night, Vans, The Pink Box, Tejas Motorsports, The Holeshot, and EMA Racing.
For more details and complete results check
www.wmaracing.com 