Ups&downs

Ups&Downs

ROUNDUP

UP: To Ben Spies, for rewriting the record books. This past June at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, the 23-year-old two time AMA Superbike champion won his

seventh-consecutive Superbike race, breaking a tie with Yoshimura Suzuki teammate Mat Mladin and Honda factory rider Miguel Duhamel. The win was all the more impressive given that Spies crashed his GSX-R1000 in practice earlier that same day, suffering a cut to his chin that required six stitches to close. With five races remaining in the season, Spies leads the title chase over Mladin by 40 points, 378 to 338.

UP: To the Orange County Dualies, for coming up with a fun way to raise money for childhood brain-tumor research. The Southern California dual-sport adventure club raised an estimated $42,000 for the Pediatric Brain Tumor Foundation with its annual screening of the classic Bruce Brown film, On Any Sunday-on the largest screen west of the Mississippi, no less! As in past years, director Brown and stars Malcolm Smith and Mert Lawwill attended the event. For more information, log on to www.ride forkids.org.

DOWN: To Death, for taking another Dunlop from motorcycle racing. This time, it was 47-year-old Robert, brother of the late Joey, who was killed last May while attempting to qualify for the North West 200 roadrace. According to reports from the BBC, Dunlop’s 250cc GP bike seized at more than 160 mph, sending him over the bars in front of other riders, one of whom was unable to avoid hitting him. Dunlop, who had 15 victories at the North West 200, had retired from racing in 2004, but he decided to give it another go only a year later. His brother Joey, with 26 victories at the Isle of Man TT, was killed while racing in Estonia in 2000. Robert is survived by his wife Louise and children William, Daniel and Michael.