AMA Sanctioned ASRA Team Challenge Series Presented by Michelin Tire from Blackhawk Farms Raceway
South Beloit, IL – The second round of the 2018 AMA Sanctioned ASRA Team Challenge Series Presented by Michelin Tire made its Mid-West trek to Blackhawk Farms Raceway for a near perfect race. With temperatures in the low 70’s and a dry track, the 22 teams started the race more than a sprint than a long distance event with several teams dipping into the 1:10 second range for open stage of the event.
At the green flag it was Jeff Purk on his Yamaha R-1 for the hole shot but that was short lived as the Team Germany-TSE 2 TSR (Stefan Dolipski, Charlie Nichols, Kenny Olsen) BMW S1000RR moved around to show the field the way. Unfortunately for TSE Racing (Cory West), a grid position infraction earned the favorite a stop and go penalty dropping him all the way back to 13th position on lap 3. For the first 13 laps it was Team Germany-TSE 2 TSR at the point then on lap 14, JB Racing (Jody Barry) pushed his Yamaha R-6 to the lead with TSE Racing following in 2nd. On lap 15, West was able to overcome his penalty and put the TSE R-6 out in front.
While the two front running machines inched away from the pack leaving the S.C.R. Team (Piotr Urlinski, Boris Mijalkovic ) BMW S1000RR, Farrell Performance (Calvin Martinez, Jason Farrell, Drew Jankord) Kawasaki ZX-10 and the Team Germany-TSE 1 (Stefan Dolipski, Carl Soltisz) BMW S1000RR to fight for the 3rd position for the next 38 laps.
As normally scheduled pit stops started, the JB Racing R-6 got hung up in 4th gear causing the biggest challenger for TSE Racing to struggle just to keep in contention through the last 25 laps. This opened the door for Farrell Performance and Team Germany-TSE 1 to trade 2nd position while TSE Racing worked on putting the entire field 2 laps down, with Farrell Performance eventually taking 2nd and Team Germany-TSE 1 in 3rd Overall. The 4th place finish was enough for JB Racing to hold on to a 9-point lead in the overall after 2 of 7 rounds in the championship over Farrell Performance.
For the GTO Class, it was Farrell Performance for the win with Team Germany-TSE 1 in second and S.C.R. in 3rd. The win moved Farrell Performance into the lead of the GTO Championship by 2 points over LB Sports (Lloyd Bayley) and 5 points over Jinba Ittai (Joel Lenk) with 5 rounds remaining.
In GTU, TSE Racing took the top position with JB Racing in 2nd followed by the Team Schwags (Jonathan Schweiger, Peter Bernacchi) Yamaha R-6 for the final position on the podium. The 2nd place finish gives JB Racing a 23 point lead over National Granite (Gene Buonomo, Norman Pomerleau) in the championship chase.
The GTL class had Suzuki SV650s dominate with Team Coming In Hot (Ray Hofman, Jared Herbig) for the win, followed by Moist Leathers Racing (Steve Esch, Jeremy Sparks) and South East Sales (Greg Avello, Paul James) in 3rd place. The win keeps Team Coming In Hot perfect on the season with wins in the first 2 races of the GTL Championship
The next event for the AMA Sanctioned ASRA Team Challenge Series Presented by Michelin Tire is New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon, NH on June 15, 2018.
The American Sportbike Racing Association (ASRA) is the parent organization to the Championship Cup Series (CCS), the largest amateur motorcycle road racing organization in the United States issuing over 2800 licenses per year. ASRA promotes eight AMA sanctioned Sprint Series and seven AMA sanctioned Team Challenge road racing events for 2018. The CCS Series sanctions 40 events at popular tracks around the United States, including Daytona International Speedway, New Hampshire Motor Speedway, Homestead Miami Speedway, Road America, New Jersey Motorsports Park and Virginia International Raceway among other fine venues. In 2018 ASRA and CCS will provide riders with access to millions of dollars of sponsorship awards through participation in its sanctioned events.
For more racing information visit www.asraracing.com or www.ccsracing.us or call us at (817) 246-1127. Join CCS and ASRA in the greatest road racing experience available today!