Team CANIDAE Reaches Out to Race Fans Everywhere Over the Weekend

This past weekend, Team CANIDAE Racing struck out across North America, from Mexico to Florida to New Orleans to Texas and Arizona, supporting Independent Retailers and sharing the message of Responsible Pet Ownership to hundreds of thousands of race fans and pet owners on behalf of CANIDAE All Natural Pet Foods.

It was a big week for Team CANIDAE with a total of six different events taking place. First up, Branden Jesseman continues to gather steam on the CANIDAE Motosport Kawasaki Supercross team. After winning his qualifying heat, Branden finished on the podium Saturday with a strong second place in New Orleans at the Live Nation SuperCross East-5 race. This was Jesseman's best race of the season and he is in top form heading into St. Louis next weekend.  Read the full story

Jerry Toliver and Jim Dunn Racing turned in their best performance yet in the still-young 2009 NHRA Full Throttle Series season. Toliver has only had 10 total passes in the CANIDAE Monte Carlo so far and keeps improving. At last weekend's 40th annual ACDelco NHRA Gatornationals at Gainesville Raceway in Florida, Toliver edged out Force Racing's Mike Neff in the first round. Toliver lost traction in the second round and was bested by veteran John Force. Read the full story

Managed by Ed Torrance, the CANIDAE Kawasaki Team Green amateur riders made their mark on the second amateur national of the new season by dominating the week in Texas, with an astonishing total of 1st, 2nd and 3rd place finishes to their name. The Team Green riders are one step closer to racing at the Amateur National Motocross Championships at Loretta Lynn’s. Full information coming to the CANIDAE Racing blog soon.

The 23rd Tecate SCORE San Felipe 250 race saw 226 total starters with only 162 finishers. This grueling 232.4 mile race in San Felipe, Baja California, Mexico concluded Saturday. In the Class 10 division, Scott Gailey and Scott Whipple shared driving duty and powered the CANIDAE Class 10 machine to a third place finish with a time of 6:20:30. Congratulations guys!

In sand drag news, the 2009 NSDA series completed its second race of the season in Yuma, Arizona with some awesome racing on eliminations day. After racing the same day and finishing 3rd at the San Felipe 250 in Mexico on Saturday, driver Scott Whipple and crew member Carl Boley raced back to Yuma making it just in time for the final qualifying session of top fuel.  Whipple and crew ripped off an amazing 2.382 on their only qualifying pass good for the #3 spot on the ladder. Whipple, with only one pass under his belt, went on to be narrowly defeated by only 6/100th's of a second by Matt Ludlow, who ran his career best pass of 2.34 and low ET for the event, in eliminations on Sunday. Shane Switzer went on to grab his first top fuel win. Congratulations to Shane, Mike and his entire crew for a great win. Whipple and the 2008 championship CANIDAE Top Fuel Team currently sit in 3rd place in their quest for another season championship just 12 points off the leader. Whipple was pleased with the team's efforts, and to be the first and only person to race in the Baja 250 and a Sand Drag event in the same day!

In the Top Alcohol bracket, our hats are off to Nick Januik who won his first NSDA T/A championship from our own 2008 T/A season champion Mike DeNunzio when Mike couldn't make it to the line in time after suffering engine damage in his semi final heat win. Take good care of that Nick. Mike wants it back soon!

Stay tuned to www.canidaeracing.com and canidaeracing.blogspot.com for more racing updates. Great job Team CANIDAE!

CANIDAE Motosport Kawasaki takes on the Georgia Dome!

The CANIDAE Motosport Kawasaki team pulled into Atlanta, GA ready to race for the 2nd round of the “East” series for the Lites riders and the 8th round overall. The last time the Lites guys raced was almost a month ago on January 24th, in Houston, TX. Since that time, the team has lost Hunter Hewitt to a broken femur leaving just Branden Jesseman to battle in the 250cc class and Tommy Hahn to fight for a win in the Supercross (450cc) class.

The #74 Kawasaki of Jesseman jumped out of the gate in the # 4 position when Heat # 2 got underway. As the pack filtered through the first corner, Jesseman was in 5th and working his way forward. As Jesseman went wide in the second corner, the # 309 bike of Spenser Dally went down forcing Jesseman to slam on the brakes and find a way around the downed rider, moving him back in the pack. Branden would recover nicely and work his way up to 7th by the end of the first lap. Branden would eventually finish the race in the 6th position, and advance on to the Lites Main Event.

Tommy Hahn took to the track in the first Supercross heat race of the night. Tommy would get out of the gate with a mid-pack start and finish the first lap in 12th position, well outside a transfer spot for the Main Event. Hahn would work hard and move his Kawasaki into a transfer position when the checkered flags flew, ending up in 8th place.

CANIDAE All Natural Pet Foods sponsors the "Lucky Dog" Last Chance Qualifier, which is the final opportunity for all remaining riders to make it into the "Big Show.” # 20, Nico Izzi and # 34 Matt Goerke were the last two "Lucky Dog's" to qualify for the 20 rider Main Event in the Lites class and Charles Summey and Nick Wey would move on in the premier class.

The Atlanta crowd, at 68,933 strong, was ready for the main event and the racing left no one disappointed. When the gate dropped, all 20 riders shot down the long start straightaway and into the first left hand corner. Branden Jesseman was inside the top 10 trough the first section and would finish lap one in 6th. Jesseman would move back one spot to 7th where he would stay for the next 5 laps before making a pass on Will Hahn (brother of team CANIDAE Motosport Kawasaki 450 rider Tommy Hahn) for the 6th spot and then up to the 5th position when he got around the stalled bike of Austin Stroupe. With 4 laps to go, Jesseman would pull to the back wheel of Matthew Lemoine in the fourth spot. With a great move, Branden would drive around the outside of Lamoine in a tricky section and take over the 4th spot but only to leave the door open for Blake Wharton as he would cut to the inside of Jesseman leading up to the triple jump sending him back to 5th where he would eventually finish. The excellent finish would move Jesseman up three positions in the championship points stands, into 7th. 

Tommy Hahn lined up for the Supercross Main Event ready to face the demanding Atlanta track and the rest of the stacked field. Hahn would get off the start line mid-pack but quickly find himself at the back of the pack after the first corner chaos. Tommy would put on a strong charge moving up as high as 14th but the night was not his and he would have to settle for a 16th place finish. 

Check back for the next report as the series moves into the Lucas Oil Stadium in Indy!

Jason Cobb