AMA Road Racing: Chris Fillmore Wins His 4th Vance & Hines XR1200 Series Race at RedBull Indianapolis MotoGP

Chris Fillmore on the #55 Bruce Rossmeyer's Daytona Racing/Revolution Performance-sponsored XR1200 leads the breakaway front runners during mid-race of the AMA Pro Road Racing Vance & Hines XR1200 Series presented by Harley-Davidson Insurance race 1 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on August 27.  Following closely on his heels is eventual winner Tyler O'Hara on his #29 Tyler O'Hara Racing XR, with Steve Rapp on the #5 Parts Unlimited/Vance & Hines-sponsored XR1200 and Jeremy McWilliams on his #99 Harley-Davidson of Bloomington/Indiana Biker's Choice-sponsored XR.

Fillmore made up for his crash during race 1 from Saturday afternoon, by leading Rapp and O'Hara home to the checkers in race 2, and in the process gapping Rapp in the championship battle by 12 total points heading into the season ending round at NJMP over the Labor Day Weekend.  McWilliams finished 5th yesterday, with Rapp's team mate, Michael Barnes bringing his #34 machine home in the 4th spot.
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Fillmore Finds Retribution in Vance & Hines XR1200 Race 2 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway

Championship Battle Narrows via Vance & Hines XR1200 presented by
Harley-Davidson Insurance Doubleheader

INDIANAPOLIS, IN (August 28, 2011) - After suffering heartbreak in yesterday's AMA Pro Vance & Hines XR1200 presented by Harley-Davidson Insurance Race 1, Chris Fillmore -- who crashed out, and out of the points, after Jeremy McWilliams made contact -- took his revenge on the field with a determined victory in Race 2. Finishing ahead of his closest championship rival, Steve Rapp, Fillmore crossed Indianapolis Motor Speedway's famous Yard of Bricks with a margin of just .169 seconds after a race-long duel. Yesterday's race winner, Tyler O'Hara, finished third.

"My plan going in to yesterday was to kind of play it a little bit conservative," said Bruce Rossmeyer Daytona Racing GEICO's Fillmore, whose victory today allowed him to extend his lead over Rapp from three to twelve points. "After the crash I had on Friday, I wasn't sure how I was going to be on the bike. Yesterday didn't go as planed, so today I came in with a game plan of trying to throw down and pull away. It didn't happen, and those guys were right there the whole time, so we just had to race it out. It was a little stressful for me, but I wasn't going to let them by and I was going to do everything I could to keep it out front."

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Chris Fillmore celebrates during the podium ceremonies at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway after winning race 2 in the AMA Pro Road Racing Vance & Hines XR1200 Series presented by Harley-Davidson Insurance on August 28.  AMA Pro Road Racing photo by Brian J. Nelson.

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Taking his second runner-up position in as many days, Parts Unlimited's Rapp diced furiously with Fillmore and O'Hara through each lap of the ten-lap race. "I tried [to win] from the front yesterday," said Rapp, "and the only thing different today was that I tried from second-place and it was the same result. It was a good race today; it was nice that it was just me and Fillmore at the end just going for it. I was definitely faster going through Turns 5, 6, 7 -- I could make up all the time on him there -- but the straightaways were tougher."

Wearing a Gary Nixon tribute shirt over his leathers, yesterday's winner, Tyler O'Hara, was once again a major factor in today's race, leading the opening three laps and staying right in the thick of things throughout. "On the victory lap yesterday," said O'Hara, "I was doing some burnouts and I messed up my clutch. It sounded really bad, but we got it fixed last night so I was happy to be out here on the grid today. The racing was just awesome from Lap 1," O'Hara continued. "Steve and Fillmore were just on it -- they weren't making any mistakes. We were racing back and forth swapping positions, and everyone was racing clean. It was aggressive, and I had a lot of fun."

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Chris Fillmore #55 leads Tyler O'Hara #29, Jason DiSalvo #40 and Steve Rapp #5 during race 2 action in the Vance & Hines XR1200 Series rounds at the RedBull Indianapolis MotoGP weekend on August 28.  AMA Pro Road Racing photo by Brian J. Nelson.
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Michael Barnes piloted the Drag Specialties XR1200 to his second fourth-place finish of the weekend, followed by Jeremy McWilliams (Harley-Davidson of Bloomington) and Canadian Harley-Davidson XR1200 Cup Champion, Steve Crevier (Motosports Plus/STS Racing). Latus Motors Racing's Jason DiSalvo -- yesterday's third-place finisher -- again worked his way into the lead group but suffered a Lap 6 mechanical heading down the front straight that forced him off the track.

The incredible footpeg-dragging action of the AMA Pro Vance & Hines XR1200 presented by Harley-Davidson Insurance doubleheader aired within hours of Race 2's finish, via a 6 p.m. ET broadcast on SPEED. With just a single race left in the 2011 Vance & Hines XR1200 season, a total of thirty-two points will be up for grabs when the Harley-Davidson field rolls out at New Jersey Motorsports Park, putting all the pressure -- and all the eyes -- on Fillmore and Rapp this Labor Day Weekend.

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Participants in the RedBull Indianapolis MotoGP round of the AMA Pro Road Racing Vance & Hines XR1200 Series presented by Harley-Davidson Insurance line the yard of bricks for a photo session to honor the first event involving the Milwaukee-based brand taking part in the doubleheader round at IMS.  AMA Pro Road Racing photo by Brian J. Nelson.
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For tickets to and information about the September 2 - 4 AMA Pro Road Racing season finale at New Jersey Motorsports Park, visit www.njmp.com. To learn more and be a part of the AMA Pro Road Racing Championship, visit www.amaproracing.com and join us on facebook.com/AMAProRoadRacing and twitter.com/AMAProSBK.

AMA Pro Racing is the premier professional motorcycle racing organization in North America, operating a full schedule of events and championships for a variety of motorcycle disciplines. Learn more about AMA Pro Racing at www.amaproracing.com. For additional information contact: AMA Pro Racing Communications, (386) 492-1014, communications@amaproracing.com

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Here's a brief story on race 2 in the AMA Pro Road Racing Vance & Hines XR1200 Series presented by Harley-Davidson Insurance event at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, from Paul Carruthers at Cycle News.com:

http://www.cyclenews.com/articles/road-racing/2011/08/28/fillmore-takes-xr-race-two/

And thanks to AMA Pro Road Racing for this link to the results from race 2 at Indy from yesterday afternoon:

http://amaproracing.com/rr/events/results.cfm?year=2011&eid=2011011142&discipline=RR&class=XR&type=F&rnum=2&class_sort=all

And also from AMA Pro Road Racing, this link to the complete event results from IMS (PDF versions):

http://results.amaproracing.com/live/results/pdfresults/rr/2011/R1142/default.aspx
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