Demito Bags Two at The Rock

The clouds that rained on the first two events of the 2008 MiRock season finally parted at Rockingham Dragway, granting perfect weather for the May 3-4 FBR Shop Bike Nationals. The weekend also included Rockingham's rescheduled March race, which was run on Saturday. "I hate double races," an exhausted Vinnie Demito said at the end of the fairly hot weekend. Demito may not have been fond of the extra workload, but he was leaving The Rock with two of track owner Steve Earwood's winner's checks and the points lead in Orient Express Pro Sportbike.

Already the defending class champion, Demito is certainly starting the season off right. The Pennsylvania contractor also qualified his Velocity turbocharged Hayabusa on the pole at the similarly rained out Maryland event in April. That race will be run at Maryland International Raceway June 6-7, and Demito's 7.759 qualifying lap will be tough to repeat in the June heat. But Demito delivered a 7.752 for the top spot for May's Rockingham race.

Back in March's perfect pre-rain qualifying conditions, Anthony Navarro nailed number one with a 7.644. Navarro is also a former champion, but he bogged and lost to Dimey Eddinger in round 2 when that race was finally run on Saturday at this event. Eddinger later redlit against Demito in the March final, giving Vinnie an easy win. Navarro kept it together on Sunday, but still lost to Demito by .028 in an all-out, closely fought final round.

Schnitz Racing Outlaw Pro Street champ Dave Norris rotated the earth in March with a record 6.92 ET and 200 mph top speed, then qualified number one at Maryland in April as well. But the Rockingham track surface wasn't so kind to Norris in May, as his Suzuki's 7-inch slick spun under the influence of massive shots of nitrous. His DTM Performance quasi-teammate Ronnie Procopio took advantage and beat Norris with

Procopio made his way to Sunday's final as well, and there he found another fellow DTM racer, Robbie Hunnicutt. Still bruised and bandaged after coming off of his Pro Mod on a 168 mph pass a week earlier, Hunnicutt came through for the holeshot win over Procopio.

Like Norris in Outlaw, Norman Jackson qualified number one for March's HTP Performance True Street race and the April Maryland rainout. And like Norris, by the time a race was actually run the field had caught up with Jackson's early performance advantage. He lost to Darion "Nanu" Payne in round 2. Payne went on to beat Rickey Grayson in the final, lowering the ET record and qualifying number one with an 8.18 for the May race along the way. Then Payne lost in round 2 on Sunday, while Jackson made his way to the final. It was a costly trip for Jackson, though, as the string of 8.20s he ran getting there broke his GSXR. His old K&N Racing teammate Keith Thompson took the win on a solo shot.

Ronnie Procopio's wife Robin beat Jim Shifflett for the March Honda Suzuki of Sanford 5.60 Pro Comp win, but Shifflett won on Sunday when Gary Clontz broke. Matt Davies beat his brother Clay in Saturday's Nitrous Express Pro ET race, but a short time later Clay beat Christopher Harris in Fish's Customs Street ET. Harris made it to the Street ET final again on Sunday, but he lost again-this time on a redlight to Preston "The Finest Crabcakes in Richmond" Dickson. Harris and Dickson also raced for the FBR Shop Quick 32 spoils, and this time Harris took the win. And lastly, Andy Lynch beat Procopio's cousin Joe in Sunday's Pro ET final.