Track Unveils The 714C

When TRACK designed the 714C, they were looking for something that would complement two previous releases, the 706A and 716T. The R&D team quickly determined that by modifying a successful core from the past and wrapping it with a brand new cover, they would be able to accomplish the task at hand.

Core: The 714C features a core shape that we successfully used in the past in both the 718A and 716T. The original Robot core gave them the big backending 718A while the Modified Robot core gave them the strong rolling 716T. For the new 714Crelease, the densities were modified once again to create a strong continuous motion at the backend of the lane. This new version is the Modified Robot 2.0.

Cover: The 714C marks the first time TRACKhas solely used one of their new “Continuation” covers. For this new release, they use the Gen XC (Xtra Continuation). Some of the unique additives found in this new cover were recently combined with additives from our Gen XT cover. The combination of the two, created one of the best hybrid covers ever developed which can be found on our recently introduced 811C/T.

Finish: The final step that completes the ball development process is the finish. Having the right finish allows for the perfect combination of core and cover to shine for a wide variety of bowling styles. For the 714C, TRACK went with 800/1000/2000/3000 Abralon® as our finish of choice. This finish process allows for easy length on medium to oily patterns while creating the perfect amount of continuation at the back end of the lane. Look for the 714C January 8th, 2013.

Ebonite Adds the Exceed This Month

The Ebonite Exceed contains the popular (Warning Sign and Innovate) Verve core with Red / Navy / Yellow HTR 3.0 HYBRID coverstock finished to 3000 with Abralon ® completing the pearl/solid/hybrid trifecta. Look for the Ebonite Exceed this month.

PBA Plans A Summer Swing in Milwaukee

After a five-year absence, the Professional Bowlers Association (PBA) will return to the Milwaukee area with a unique four-tournament, three bowling center Summer Swing in late May, PBA Commissioner Tom Clark announced today.

 
The PBA Summer Swing will include two-day tournaments at AMF Waukesha just west of Milwaukee, AMF West in Milwaukee proper and AMF Bowlero in suburban Wauwatosa. Each of the three events will produce a five-player stepladder final which will be televised on a tape-delayed basis, and the qualifying rounds of the three preliminary events will serve as a foundation for a fourth championship tournament which also will be conducted at Bowlero. Tournament names will be announced later.

“Milwaukee has been the home to some of the most important events in bowling history,” Clark said, “and we hope the PBA Summer Swing will add to that legacy. It’s a great bowling community with great bowling fans, and we couldn’t be happier to be coming back to town.”

The PBA Tour’s last Milwaukee appearance was in 2007 when qualifying and match play rounds for the United States Bowling Congress Masters were held at AMF Bowlero Lanes before the ESPN finals were conducted on specially-constructed lanes in Miller Park, the home of the Milwaukee Brewers, for the second time. That tournament was won by reigning PBA Player of the Year Sean Rash.

In October of 2004, the USBC and PBA made history when the Masters finals were conducted in Miller Park for the first time. That was the first time a championship bowling event had ever been staged in a major league baseball stadium. Danny Wiseman of Baltimore won that edition of the Masters. In between those historic events, USBC (which formerly made its home in suburban Greendale, WI) and the PBA conducted Masters finals in U.S. Cellular Arena in downtown Milwaukee in 2005 (won by Mike Scroggins) and the Wisconsin Exposition Center at Wisconsin State Fair Park in 2006 (won by Doug Kent).

 

Prior to those USBC Masters tournaments, Milwaukee had long been an annual stop on the PBA Tour, beginning in 1966 when USBC Hall of Famer Bill Lillard won his lone PBA Tour title in the Miller High Life Open.

The entry fee package for all four tournaments will be $600 for PBA members and $700 for non-members. The tournament field will be limited to 192 players. Entries open March 15. PBA Touring I and Touring II members will have first priority followed by non-touring members. Non-members will be confirmed on a first-come basis.

Tentatively called the Summer Classics I, II and III, each will offer a $50,000 prize fund. Classic IV will pay $100,000 in prize money. All four winners will earn berths in the 2014 PBA Tournament of Champions.

All four tournaments will be covered by PBA’s Xtra Frame online bowling channel (for subscription information, visit pba.com and look for the Xtra Frame logo).

Barnes and Parkin Win World Bowlers Tour Finals

Chris Barnes of Double Oak, Texas, and Missy Parkin of Lake Forest, CA, successfully concluded two years of international travel when they captured Bayer Advanced Aspirin World Bowling Tour (WBT) men’s and women’s finals titles to kick off the 2012-13 Professional Bowlers Association television season at South Point Hotel and Casino, Las Vegas, NV.

Barnes, a 14-time PBA Tour champion, defeated reigning WBT men’s champion Mika Koivuniemi of Finland, 244-228, while Parkin defeated Liz Johnson of Cheektowaga, NY, 238-190, in the women’s finals during the GEICO PBA World Series of Bowling (WSOB). Both finals, which featured three players who qualified by earning points in World Tenpin Bowling Association-PBA International Tour events over a span of two years, aired Sunday on ESPN. Both champions earned $20,000.

Barnes, who won the Columbia 300 Vienna Open in Austria in October to lock up his berth in the WBT men’s finals, edged Mike Fagan of Dallas, 258-244, in the semifinal match before closing with a string of six strikes for a come-from-behind victory over his close friend, Koivuniemi, in the title match.

“Any win feels good,” Barnes said. “Mika and I always have good matches. I’ve been fortunate the last three times, but I’m pretty sure it’ll even out whether I like it or not.”

The key to Barnes’ victory was three 10 pins left by his long-time international rival on the right lane in the third, seventh and ninth frames.

“I left a couple of solid 10s on that lane myself,” Barnes said. “I knew that lane was tighter. I threw one shot that I thought was pretty good that didn’t even get back to the pocket.”

Forced to finish his game on the tricky right lane after Koivuniemi’s misfortune in the ninth frame gave him an opening, Barnes made a critical adjustment and threw three strikes in the 10th frame. The first strike was the one that iced the title.

“I knew I was going to move right and have to stay firm with the shot,” Barnes said. “Earlier on in my career I didn’t commit to that shot very well, but I committed to it, and made the shot I wanted to throw. It didn’t quite get up to high flush, but it was good enough today.”

As part of their ongoing rivalry on television, Barnes and Koivuniemi make a side bet that has involved things like the gaudy Madras plaid pair of pants Koivuniemi was forced to wear on television the last time he lost.

“We had a jersey bet on this one,” Barnes said of his WBT win. “I, or my fans, or his daughters will get to design a jersey that he’ll get to wear on a future TV show. And pretty much anything goes as long as it’s legal for TV.”

In the women’s finals, Johnson advanced to the title match after a thrilling 267-260 victory over PBA Tour titlist Kelly Kulick of Union, NJ. But Johnson’s strike shot evaporated in the title match. A 4-6-7 split in the second frame and a 4-6 in the fourth put her in a hole she couldn’t escape.

“I’ve come in second a lot lately,” said Parkin, who lost to Chicago’s Diandra Asbaty in the Australian Masters title match prior to the WSOB and finished second to Kulick in the U.S. Women’s Open earlier in the year. “Today I wasn’t going to let that happen again. I kind of went out with a mindset that I was going to make the pins strike. I know you can’t do that, but it was the mindset I had.

“I only had one game, and I needed to throw 10 really good shots, and I feel like I did. Luckily the pins fell my way and it was enough to win.”

But for Parkin, the victory made her international travels worth the effort.

“This year all of the travel has been particularly hard being away from family and friends,” she said. “It’s really hard; a lot of people don’t understand how much we travel. Winning this tournament after two years and having to accumulate all those points means so much.”

The second annual Bayer Advanced Aspirin WBT Finals presented by the PBA also signaled the start of a new points cycle for the international series. Points earned in WTBA-PBA International Tour events over the next 12 months will replace points earned in the first year of the qualifying cycle, leading into the third WBT Finals which will be part of PBA WSOB V in November 2013.

The 2012-13 PBA Tour season on ESPN continues next Sunday at 1 p.m. ET with the finals of the Alka Seltzer Plus Cold Cheetah Championship. Stepladder finalists will include Bill O’Neill, Langhorne, PA; Chris Loschetter, Avon, Ohio; Jeff Roche, Dearborn, MI, and top qualifier Mike Wolfe, New Albany, IN.

 

Pre- and post-telecast shows for all PBA-ESPN telecasts will be available on Xtra Frame, PBA’s online bowling channel.

MOTIV Raptor Talon Introduced

The MOTIV Raptor Talon features the low RG Predator core, which is an asymmetric beast having a .060 primary differential and .015 intermediate on the 15# model. The core revs easily and produces massive track flare. The Raptor Talon encases the Predator core with the new Fusion Solid Reactive shell, which comes out of the box with a 2000 grit sanded finish. MOTIV suggests “It starts to hook in the oil and does not stop.”

Check out the video.

PBA50 Tour Leads to ESPN Finale in 2013

A new name, new venues, a season-long points competition leading to an ESPN-televised finale, and a crop of new star players will highlight the 2013 PBA50 Tour season.

The 2013 PBA50 Tour (formerly PBA Senior Tour) schedule will consist of 11 tournaments, with new stops in Welch, MN; Tampa, FL (tentative), and Trussville, AL.

 

The season-long points competition will qualify the top three players for the ESPN-televised PBA50 Tour Finals, which will be a stepladder event conducted during the 2013 PBA World Series of Bowling V next November. Also, selected PBA50 Tour events will be webcast live on pba.com’s online bowling channel, Xtra Frame. Details regarding the televised finals and Xtra Frame schedule will be announced later.

 

“We are thrilled to be bringing a PBA50 final back to TV,” said PBA Commissioner Tom Clark. “A national audience will see first-hand that the competition on the PBA50 Tour is intense and important, and the crop of players eligible will excite all bowling fans. The PBA is committed to its over-50 membership and proud to be bringing the best of the best to a national television audience.”

 

The PBA50 Tour will also include other changes, including a revised format that advances more players to match play in selected events that attract 120 or more entries.

 

The Super Senior prize fund, for the age 60-and-older players who finish out of the regular prize list, will also be revised. In previous years, Super Senior cash spots were awarded based on total entries. For 2013, cash spots will be awarded at a ratio of 1:6 Super Senior entries, with a minimum of eight and a maximum of 10 cashing in each tournament.

 

Las Vegas will continue to host the PBA50 Tour’s two major championships, with the Suncoast Hotel, Casino and Bowling Center hosting the Suncoast Senior U.S. Open, presented by Storm, June 2-7, followed by the United States Bowling Congress Senior Masters at the South Point Hotel, Casino and Bowling Center, June 9-14.

 

The 2013 PBA50 season will again see a new crop of top-level players from the PBA Tour eligible to compete, including PBA Hall of Famers Pete Weber, Parker Bohn III and ESPN analyst Randy Pedersen. Also on the list of those becoming eligible at age 50 in the months ahead are PBA Tour champions Jack Jurek, Chris Warren and David Traber.

 

For the full PBA50 Tour schedule, click here.