UtahSBA: Hicks found his way into King Of The Mountain GTO (2023)

The Utah Sport Bike Association hosted their third round of the Utah Motorcycle Law Masters of the Mountains Race Series on June 19 at Utah Motorsports Campus' East Track. Despite the Utah sun beating the paddock with temperatures approaching the triple digits, road racers from across the country were out in full force to find the limits of their bikes.

The Friday leading up to Round 3, UtahSBA teamed up with partner Apex Trackdays to host 10 New Racer Certification (NRC) students and 12 Advanced Racer Course (ARC) students. The NRC students learned the meaning and importance of different flags, as well as what to do in certain racing scenarios to keep themselves and other racers safe. NRC students also learned various techniques on and off the track to simplify the students' racing season. These techniques ranged from line selection to gearing up for a race. ARC is a course taught by drivers Jerry Hicks and Brian Childree for racers. The course is designed to help racers develop their skills and enhance their racing season. Racers learned bike prep, season strategy and on-track skills. The classes were very successful with many riders safely cutting lap times as the day progressed. On Saturday, the UtahSBA also taught Advanced Rider Training (ART). ART partners with the Yamaha Champions Riding School (YCRS) and teaches skills developed by the world's best riders. The ART students got class time, practice time, and when the racing was over, the ART students hit the track to get it all going.

As Saturday's race day began, the UtahSBA was up early to have race bikes inspected and prepare for a busy day of racing. After the riders had their coffee and squeezed in their leathers, they started to hit the track for the Moto Station/Pirelli and Trackstar/Dunlop King of the Mountain qualifiers. The pace was slower in the early morning Q1 session, Eric Jones set an early 1:39.089 but was soon overtaken by Jerry Hicks with a 1:37.378. Q2 was much more eventful with Hicks setting an early 1:35.926 and Anthony Norton coming close to a 1:36.713 for P2. On the fourth lap, Bill Davis clocked a 1:37.686 to earn him P3, and on the fifth lap, Hicks dropped his time to 1:34.549 to cement his pole position.

With qualifying over it was time to race and the late morning Legion of Speed Novice GTO class did not disappoint. The lights went out, the engines roared to life and the frenzied sprint straight ahead began. David Behrend's holeshot could be closely followed by Matthew Cooper who started P4 on the grid. Remington Mathews had a strong start from 12th and was able to move up five places for the first lap, then take another two places on the outside of the second lap and move him into P5. As racers came flying straight ahead to start the second lap, Mathews attempted to take an aggressive inside line into the first corner to take fourth position when disaster struck. While making the pass, Edwin Hofeling's rear set jumped over Mathew's rear slick, sending Mathews and his S1000RR low out of the race. Behrend, Cooper and Victor Arias then held the lead at the start of the third lap. As racers charged forward straight into the first turn, yellow and medical flags waved to indicate the incident, and Cooper passed Behrend into the turn. This move gave Cooper a 30 second penalty from his final result as he was unable to return the position and although he grew a gap on the track it was not enough to hold onto P1 at the end of the race. On lap three, Sam Arquit started moving around his CBR 1000 and caught Arias in third at the start of lap four. Arquit knew that if he could be smooth in the corners he could shut out Arias in the straight. Arquit made a move on Arias that came all the way to the front and poked him into the first turn. A few laps later, Arquit noticed that Behrend was tired from the Utah sun and the long run. Arquit was just biding his time and waiting for Behrend to make a mistake. Arquit found his opening when Behrend made a little early break into turn 13 and made a pass on the inside to take the lead. The Novice GTO finished with Cooper in the lead, but received a 30-second penalty that put Arquit in first place. Second on the podium was Victor Arias and third was John Tillotson.

After a break to let everyone cool down, the riders began preparing for the King of the Mountain race. The racers were toasted, marshals cleared the track and the lights went out. Hicks, who hadn't figured out how to use his launch control in the previous round, finally made use of the launch control on his ZX-10R. He spun off the grid from pole, held onto first position and got his Pirelli SCX onto the race line at the first corner. Norton and Jones followed Hicks through the first round and into the second. Genaro Lopez, who was forced to be at the back of the grid due to a lack of qualifying, started from 14th place. Lopez was so confident in his launch that he initially opted to take an outside line. On the first lap, Lopez was able to get into the middle of the pack, so he put his head down and rushed to make safe but aggressive passes. With that, Lopez was able to work his BMW into fifth place on the second lap. In turn, Lopez made a big move on the outside of Bill Davis and moved up to fourth. Hicks led, followed by Norton, Jones and Lopez. Hicks began to notice vibrations and a rattling noise coming from the left side of his bike. He may have thought his toe guard had come off, but it later turned out to be the heel guard off his butt. On the fifth lap Ty Bengford in Attitudes crashed too close to the track to continue the race and race control red-flagged the race. Racers left the track and entered the pit lane, where they were told that the race restart would be determined by the racer's last known position. The new grid had Hicks on pole, followed by Norton, Jones and Lopez. When the lights went out, Hicks pulled off the line and Jones was able to take the holeshot. Lopez also had a good start, taking second on the first lap, followed by Norton, who left Hicks in fourth. Hicks just stayed focused and got a first inning hard drive. He got a few passes to hold the two right-handers and managed to block the line into the next left turn. Hicks then made a move for the lead at the gate to turn seven and was able to stay consistent from there. As the riders crossed the line to begin the final lap, Hicks led closely followed by Lopez, Norton, Jones and Davis. Davis powered his race machine through Jones on the eighth lap to take fourth place. Norton finished third behind Lopez, who finished second, and Hicks took home the win in KOM Round 3.

After the races, we caught up with Hicks to congratulate Genaro Lopez on his win in the Napa Auto Parts Tooele Stock 1000 Series. Hicks said: "As expected he took another step forward and is consistently a challenger who eventually got the better of me in that race. I hope we continue to improve throughout the year and get the lap times I think we are capable of ."

Hicks would like to thank the Moto Station crew, Pirelli tires and his wife Carrie for their continued support. Hicks also wanted to give kudos to Kory Cowan for helping him change wheels, which got him away from the sun for a while. Hicks also gave a wink to the students who took the ARC last Friday. “The group was very involved and super fun. I hope they were able to learn something from the experience and make continuous improvements."

As the afternoon race day progressed, it was time for the Vortex Open Superbike race. Norton was on pole, Hicks had P2 and Davis was on P3. Rev limiters sounded as the lights went out on the East Line. Norton had a perfect start and was able to get the holeshot in the first corner with Hicks close behind. Hicks passed Norton for the lead before the first lap was over. As the riders came straight ahead to begin lap three, it was Hicks in the lead, followed by Norton and Davis. Lopez was late to the grid and didn't have time to engage his launch control. By the time the racers went through the first lap Lopez was last, it was time for him to make another comeback. Lopez worked his way through the races until he was behind Davis on lap three, and from there Lopez made a charge on Davis for the third podium finish. Lopez still had good pace and hoped to overtake Norton, but with the race cut by a lap, it was not to be. Lopez finished the race in third ahead of Lopez, Norton was second and Hicks won the Vortex Open Superbike Series.

The third round was full of thrilling and exciting racing that forced the riders to push their bikes to the limits. In Redline Realty Moto 3, Mark Taylor battled Brian Gerwe and Rachel Kuns for the first lap lead. Taylor started his trajectory in the Moto 3 group after the first round. At the start of the second lap, Kuns overtook Grewe boldly at turn two to move into P2, Grewe held on to finish third on the podium, Kuns took a well-deserved second place and Taylor led the Moto 3 race for victory. In the Toxic Moto Racing/Michelin Middleweight Superstock event, Brian Chidree was on pole. When the course turned green, it was Peter Hofpointner who was able to grab the holeshot. Childree followed Hofpointner closely until he turned seven when he passed Hofpointer for the first time. Richard Findlay held onto third across the finish line after starting sixth. Hofpointner held onto second place and Childree had the middleweight Superstock win.

UtahSBA: Hicks found his way into King Of The Mountain GTO (2023)

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