2009 Power Commander News, and Press Releases
Jeff Wood
Higgins Powersports / Roadracingworld.com (HP/RRW) 2008 GSX-R 1000 Photo Credit: Brian J. Nelson
Higgins Powersports / Roadracingworld.com's Jeff Wood turns heads with Top Ten finish at Virginia International Raceway Date: 8/24/2009 12:00:00 AM

 Photo Credit: Brian J. Nelson

Jeff Wood and his Higgins Powersports / Roadracingworld.com (HP/RRW) 2008 GSX-R 1000 entered  Round 10 of the AMA Pro Racing championship with two goals in mind: to showcase the ability of the  longtime club racer and crack the top ten of the premiere American Superbike class. They succeeded  on both accounts with Wood, on a clearly underpowered 2008 privateer machine, causing a stir in the  paddock all weekend long with his Superpole performance (P8) on Friday and then following that up  with a impressive 10th place finish on Saturday before moving just one spot back on Sunday to finish 11th.

The AMA Pro Racing weekend at VIR marked the third consecutive weekend of National-level racing  for the Northeast rider with Wood having competed in the WERA National series both weekends prior  at Summit Point WV and VIR respectively. The final weekend proved to be the most challenging with  bike issues plaguing the HP/RRW effort throughout the weekend causing Wood and mechanic Glen  Piro to stay up late into the night Saturday swapping engines. With the additional help and support  of a number of top-teams is in the paddock the privateer machine was able to make Race 2's start  and finish out the weekend.

RACE ONE - 10th place
The first race of the Round 10 double-header saw Wood fourteenth (P14) into turn one after mistiming  the new AMA starting procedures causing the #19 Higgins Powersports / Roadracingworld.com Suzuki  to get a late launch. Undaunted however Wood put his head down and pushed his way through the field  until he found himself behind the factory Honda of former World Superbike Champion Neil Hodgson.  Wood followed the powerful factory bike for a number of laps before finally making a daring move on the  brakes into Turn 1 to make his way past the #100 machine. Once past Wood quickly built up a comfortable  gap which was fortunate as his GSX-R ran out of gas coming out of the final corner and was forced to coast  across the finish line with the #19 machine just making it across in front of Hodgson for the final Top 10 position.

“Race went pretty good all things considered.” said Jeff Wood “I definitely didn't do myself any favors  by botching the start but I didn't expect the light to come on and go off that fast! Once we got through  turn one though I just got into a rhythm and kept trying to move forward. Got behind Neil for a while and  that was cool to chase a World Champion like that and it wasn't easy to get by that factory machine.  Finally got past and just put a little gap there and lucky it was large enough to keep me in tenth when  I ran out of gas! We're still running the 2008 map that came with the bike that's for different fuel and the  thing is just way rich so we'll see if we can get it sorted for race two. Overall I'm pretty happy with the  result and to run with these guys and we'll see how it goes in the next one.”
 
RACE TWO - 11th place
Race two saw the HP/RRW team take to the grid on a entirely new machine. Wood and Piro were up long  into the night changing out motors in a quest to find more power and made a bevy of setup changes to the  #19 machine. All was untested however as a kinked fuel line in Sunday mornings warm-up cut power down  to 119hp and had the bike spending more time in the pits than on the track as the team frantically tried to  deduce the reason for the poor engine performance. With the assistance of a few competitor teams the  #19 rolled onto the second row on Sunday ready to tempt fate. Wood was ready this time as the green flag  flew and the 2008 Suzuki went into turn one in excellent position. By lap two Wood had remarkably moved  into sixth position and looked poised to upset a number of teams as the race progressed. The untested setup  changes struck shortly after however as the Higgins Powersports / Roadracingworld.com entry struggled with  cornerspeed as the race progressed and the star-studded competition began to move forward. Wood hung on  however for the team's second respectable finish of the weekend and finished the race just off the Top 10 with a  eleventh place finish (P11).

 “Got a great start this time so that was a nice improvement” said Wood. “The bike felt okay on the opening laps  and I ran some mid 26's and then it just became a real struggle as the tires got fully up to temp. We changed  everything on the bike coming into the race, gearing, ride height, springs, motor, you name it and we didn't really  get to test it in practice. Either way we still finished up in good position (11th) and with a field this strong and the  number of good bikes on the track you can't get too upset about that. We've had a good weekend here and I'm  happy with the results as I think we've shown what we're capable of. I've got to take a minute and say thanks to  all the guys who helped us out, you know who you are, especially the Roadracingworld.com crew. Thank you.” The Higgins Powersports / Roadracingworld.com rider then followed up his weekend actives by appearing on the  nationally-syndicated motorcycle show “Pit Pass Radio” on Tuesday the 18th. During the ten minute long interview  Wood was asked about this weekend at Virginia International Raceway, what it's like racing as a privateer  'bounty-hunter', and his goals for the future. Pit Pass Radio averages over 80,000 listeners per show and Wood's  interview is available for download on the Pit Pass Radio website (http://www.pitpassradio.com).

Team Higgins Powersports / Roadracingworld.com is proud to partner with:
Higgins Powersports, Roadracingworld.com, Dunlop, Maxima, LeoVince, Dynojet, Penske,  Vesrah, Woodcraft, Armour Bodies, Vanson Leathers, Arai, TCX, Held, Street & Competition, GMD Computrack, Sprocket Specialist, SRE, Zero Gravity, K&N, Rob's Dyno Service, LD Designs, and AestheticRain

About Jeff Wood:
Jeff Wood is a second-generation roadracer based out of the New England region. From 2005 to 2008 Jeff won an astounding and unprecedented 11 National American Sportbike Racing Association (ASRA) Championship titles and is current National #1 plate holder for the Championship Cup Series (CCS). Wood is also the co-owner of the Penguin Roadracing School, the United States’ oldest motorcycle roadracing school. For more information on Jeff Wood please visit: http://www.facebook.com/jeff.wood.racing

For more information: Team Higgins Powersports / Roadracingworld.com a: 105 Baldwinville Rd Winchendon, MA 01475 p: 978.297.1800  e: Jeff.Wood.Racing@gmail.com