Posted: Tuesday, 20th September, 2005 : 12:15 PM - - 4,148 Reads

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Ward won the Nashville round of the championship last year and is a strong favorite coming into this Saturday’s race.

Ward, a former multi-time AMA Motocross and Supercross champion from Newport Beach, Calif., carries a four-race winning streak and 27-point lead in the AMA Supermoto Championship coming into the Music City Motorplex round. German Jurgen Kunzel stands second in the series and is still seeking his first victory in the championship. Young Chris Fillmore, an 18-year-old up-and-comer from Michigan, is third in the standings.

Ward and Fillmore both ride for the powerful Troy Lee Designs Honda squad, leader of the team standings, while Kunzel is a member of Red Bull KTM.

Ward, who raced in the Indianapolis 500 in May, got off to a slow start to the season missing the podium in the first four rounds of the 2005 campaign, but he rallied with four straight wins in the Copper Mountain (Colo.) two-day event last month. Early series leader Doug Henry led coming into Copper Mountain, but crashed and was injured in that event and is expected to miss the rest of the season.

“Nashville is important,” Ward said. “It’s a night race so that brings some unique challenges to the race. With Henry suffering his misfortunes and Kunzel having a sub-par race weekend at Copper Mountain I find myself with a pretty good points lead, but in this series you can’t let up or take anything for granted. It would be nice if I could add to my lead this weekend.”

Graves Motorsports Yamaha rider Mark Burkhart comes to Nashville hoping to keep his undefeated Supermoto Lites season alive. Burkhart, from Pickerington, Ohio, is a perfect four for four in the Lites class. Burkhart holds a solid series lead over a pair of Kawasaki riders from California, Brandon Currie on the Team Currie Troy Lee Kawasaki and Joel Albrecht of Two Brothers Racing Kawasaki.

The closest championship race so far this season is found in the Supermoto Unlimited class. There Darryl Atkins, of Team HMC / Generations of Sonoma, former motocross star Micky Dymond, of All Access Racing and Aussie newcomer Troy Herfoss, who rides for Husqvarna are all within eight points in the championship points chase.

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