Top 10 finish for Cernic's Kawasaki in Houston

Riverside, CA (February 11, 2007) - Houston’s Reliant Stadium was host to round 6 of the Amp’d Mobile AMA Supercross Series and the Cernic’s Kawasaki Racing Team  looked to continue their top 10 streak in front of 49,973 spectators.  In the last four races, Paul Carpenter or Jeff Gibson have finished in the top 10 and the team was looking to put both riders in that position this week.

Carpenter and Gibson finished their respective heat races in 6th place and got to go back to the pits to relax before the Supercross main event.  “Both riders rode really well in their heat races and both could have got into fifth place,” explained Cernic’s Kawasaki team manager, Derek Sorenson.  “However, both heat races were fairly uneventful and all of the riders just sort of fell into a groove and everyone just seemed to follow.”

The main event looked like it was going to start very well for Carpenter since he was heading into the first turn in about 5th position.  However, another rider from the outside of the gate pinched him off at the last minute causing him to brake and fall to the back of the pack.  The two Cernic’s Kawasaki teammates found themselves racing next to each other at the end of lap one with Gibson in 12th and Carpenter in 13th.  After their poor starts, both riders started moving through the pack until Gibson fell in the sand portion of the track and couldn’t get restarted quickly.  Ultimately, Carpenter rode to a strong 9th place finish and Gibson finished in 17th.

Team owner, Billy Whitley added, “Overall, it was a good weekend.  The heat races went well and we just had a little bad luck in the main.  It looked like Paul was going to have a great start until he got pinched off in the first turn, and Gibson was riding strong until he went down.”

The Cernic’s Kawasaki Racing Team will return next week for round seven of the Amp’d Mobile AMA Supercross Series at San Diego’s Qualcomm Stadium on February 17, 2007.