Stemper Doesn’t Win, But Still Enjoys Successful Weekend At MG

Although Casey Stemper didn’t go to the Pro Extreme Motorcycle finals for the third straight time at this past weekend’s Northeast Drags II presented by Penske, he didn’t go home empty-handed either.

He began the weekend on Thursday with a radio appearance with 105.7 Rocks in Harrisburg, Pa. The fun continued at the track where Casey and the Innovative Performance Racing team were recognized as Best Appearing Crew. The team also kept up their appearances on track with Casey scoring the number one spot in qualifying with a 4.110 at nearly 171 miles per hour.
In the quarterfinals, however, a shifter malfunction forced him to abort the run, handing the win to Ronald Procopio, who went on to runner-up in PXM.

“We started off having another great race weekend,” told Karne Stemper, Casey’s mother and an integral part of the IPR team. “With our Best Appearing Crew award, the radio appearance and number one qualifier, it’s hard to ask for more. Unfortunately, in the second round of eliminations our shifter got bound up and would not shift out of second gear, but we still feel like we had a very successful weekend. We go into every race focusing on improving our program. We know that we have one of the fastest – if not the fastest – back halves out there in the PXM world, so we are focusing now on getting our short numbers better.
“We had great success accomplishing this task in round two with an impressive 1.01 60-foot time. Are we sad that we weren’t able to go to the finals? Of course, but you can’t predict mechanical difficulties. We are very happy that we tried what we did in round two to improve our 60 foot times and it worked. Now, we will move forward from this point. Terry and William are absolutely fantastic tuners and we couldn’t ask for a better team package. Casey is always on his game and accomplishes what he sets out to do. We couldn’t be happier with our continued success and improvements with our race program and foresee more success in the near future.”

Stemper

Casey Stemper had a positive outlook as well.

“I’m living the dream,” added Casey. “My family and this team are incredible and really make my job of driving easy. It’s disappointing to have your day ended by a mechanical issue, but with the success we’ve had already this year, there’s no way I can complain. Plus, getting the number one qualified spot is always a great accomplishment, but especially in among the competition we have in PXM. I want to say a special thanks to all our fans cheering us on at every race!”

“We are definitely looking forward to the next ADRL event in St. Louis,” continued Karne. “With our tune up success, our motor is living on strong and with the opportunity to have access to many great components our job is that much easier. Special thanks to Bill at Robinson Transmissions for his trans components, Paul Gast for getting parts to us in a hurry. We appreciate all of your support.”

(Photos by ADRL/Richards)