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2006 Grand National Final

Road Atlanta - Braselton, GA

By Dennys Passeto

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How nice it is to finish the year off with some good results.Not the best possible but at this point I'll take anything that didn't involve a catastrophe. We arrived at the track
Thursday Morning and it was pretty chilly. I went out for practice and I slowly started remembering it. I got down into the 1:36's and I was pretty happy since my previous years best was a 1:35. The only race I was invited to do on Thursday was 750 Superstock. Given this was the National Final with all the big guns, I was pretty intimidated. I started 35th in a grid of 39. These guys were fighting so hard at the front since there was big money on the line that we had 2 red flags and 2
complete restarts. I ended up finishing 19th with a best lap of 1:34.74. I was pretty happy with the result.

Friday was my big day. 2 Twins races in the afternoon. I was on pole for both races. First up was Heavyweight Twins Superstock. I knew Tray Battey was gridded right behind me and I had no chance at beating him. I knew I could put up a good
fight for Second place. I just wanted to get a killer start to lead him for half a lap. Well, I got a killer start alright....I almost killed myself! The bike almost went
over backwards twice. I went from Pole to last by turn 1. To make matters more exciting, I broke my tail section from the bike hitting down so hard. Now I had to pass as many as I could while trying to keep my tail section from flying off and not
receiving a black flag. I managed but I wasn't able to be aggresive on my body movement. I made it through the pack to bring it home in 4th. I was pissed.

Race 2 was Heavyweight Twins Superbike. Now I had to deal with Brian Stokes on a 150hp Aprillia and Larry Denning on a 999R.  Both were fighting for a $10,000 first place purse from the manufacturers. I knew I was looking at 3rd at best with some serious competition. I got a pretty good start this time and went into T1 in 4th place. I made the pass for 3rd on the brakes going into T10. I knew Van Salt was fast so I had to put a serious lap together. I put in 2 good laps and looked
back to see Russell Massecar in 3rd about 50 feet behind. I couldn't let up. I kept hitting my marks and slowly putting a bigger and bigger gap on Russell. I ended up bringing it home in 3rd place. I was very excited. Mark Sutton who built my
motor was watching along with some of the Ducati Austin guys(who are currently all unemployed). It was really cool.  Road racing world was there and asked a few questions so it was a very gratifying win.

I ended the year with 4 regional Championships and a 3rd and 4th place on the National level.  I've had so many people help out this year that I don't know
where to begin. First would be my dad who flies up from Florida to drive to every single race with me and finds most of our sponsors. I want to thank BR-111 Exotic Hardwood Flooring for helping me out with a garage full of Pirelli tires. Without fresh rubber on the bike I wouldn't be able to have the confidence to hang it out there like I did this year. Also contributing were Sienna Motors, Maximum Hardwood Floors, and PSA Group who kept me funded to enter the races and pay for all the miscellaneous expenses that come up. Also a big Thanks to Ducshop Racing for building me a killer & Reliable motor. Also thank you to Pirelli, EBC Brakes, Genesis Accounting, Tom Choppin, Sobre Rodas Magazine Gazeta Brazilian Newspaper, Engead Studio, Motorcycle Leather Exchange and Battley Cycles