Carpenter and Gibson Ride Through Pain to Finish Strong in St. Louis

Riverside, CA (March 5, 2007) – The Cernics Kawasaki Racing Team headed into the Edward Jones Dome in St. Louis looking to extend its top ten streak to seven races.  Paul Carpenter’s seventh place finish completed the task in front of 58,131 fans.  This task is equally amazing since the Cernics Kawasaki Racing Team is only one of two full privateer teams with a streak of at least seven top ten finishes.

A serious crash last weekend in Atlanta left Carpenter banged up and bruised coming into Saturday’s event.  Although Carpenter felt good Saturday morning, he quickly realized that his body felt otherwise during the first qualifying practice session.  “I struggled from the very first practice with arm-pump,” he recalled.  “I haven’t had arm-pump all year and I got it really bad today.”

Team Manager Derek Sorenson explained, “Paul took a pretty hard hit to his forearm last week at Atlanta.  He thought it was healed but there may be some deep tissue damage that caused him to pump up.  Overall, he had a great result considering he rode half the race like that.”

Carpenter’s teammate, Jeff Gibson had a tough crash in one of the qualifying practice sessions and injured his wrist.  The injury was so severe that he didn’t know if he was going to be able to compete tonight.  Once again Sorenson commented, “You just can’t ask for more out of Jeff tonight.  He was hurting really bad and didn’t decide to ride until the last possible minute.  He went out and secured important championship points with a twelfth place finish.”

“Both Cernics Kawasaki riders were incredible tonight,” exclaimed team owner Billy Whitley.  “What more can you ask from our guys?  They both rode through the pain and earned some impressive results tonight.”

The Cernics Kawasaki Racing Team will travel to the Daytona International Speedway in Daytona, FL next week for round ten of the Amp’d Mobile AMA Supercross Series on Friday March 9, 2007.

Team Sponsors
Cernic’s – Kawasaki Motors Corporation – Pro Circuit – Pirelli
Alpinestars – VP Racing Fuels – Snap-On – RK – Excel – Bell – Cycra – Athena – Etnies – Moose Racing – TAG Metals – Silkolene – N-Style – Fast 50s – Motion Pro – OGIO – LightSpeed – UNI – Sunline – ARC – American Racing ATX Series – EBC – Hinson – Spy Optics