The Championship Cup Series returned to racing at Summit Point Motorsports Park June 13th-14th with a full paddock and packed grids for a Twin Sprints weekend of racing. This was the first completed event of the season for the Mid-Atlantic and Southeast regions, following a handful of schedule changes and event cancellations due to the COVID-19 pandemic crisis. Racing was finally underway again with193 competitors signing up for a total of 1,172 race entries.
The first round of racing started Saturday morning with Mark Heckles dominating the Unlimited classes and claiming victory in three of his four races. Heckles was able to put his Ryders Alley Yamaha YZF-R1 out front for early leads in all of his classes and maintain an advantage over the rest of the field to win the Unlimited Superbike, Unlimited Supersport, and Unlimited Grand Prix races.
Stefano Mesa, not to be outdone, dominated the Unlimited classes on Sunday, finishing the weekend undefeated with four victories. Mesa tailed Heckles throughout most of the 25-minute GTO race on Saturday morning as the two front runners wove their way through lap traffic. But at the end, Heckles was down a lap as Mesa won his first race of the weekend and his only race of the day on board his Kawasaki ZX-10R.
Mesa and Heckles continued their battles for the lead throughout the day on Sunday with Heckles on point with the holeshots and Mesa working his way to the front. Mesa went on to win the Unlimited Supersport, Unlimited Superbike, and Unlimited Grand Prix classes. During the Unlimited Superbike race, he was super close to the lap record he set last August. Mesa ran his fastest lap of the weekend halfway through the race with a time of 1:10.752, a difference of a little over .02 seconds away from last year’s fastest lap of 1:10.728. His goal is to come back during the August 15-16th event later this year and beat that.
The Twin Sprints event produced a handful of big winners throughout all the classes. Tyler Scott led the way in the Lightweight fields, winning the Lightweight Grand Prix race on Saturday, and the GTL, Lightweight Grand Prix, Lightweight Superbike, and Thunderbike races on Sunday for a grand total of five victories.
The Middleweight classes were led by battles between Greg Melka and Xavier Zayat throughout the weekend with Melka nabbing early leads in all his races and Zayat in hot pursuit. The two swapped positions for the lead with Zayat winning the Middleweight Superbike race on Saturday and the Middleweight Supersport, Middleweight GP, and Heavyweight Superbike races on Sunday. Melka claimed victories in Saturday’s Middleweight Supersport and Heavyweight Supersport races on Saturday, and the Heavyweight Supersport race on Sunday.
Gus Rodio was the winningest expert of the weekend with seven victories, winning the Superbike 500, Moto 3, and Supersport 500 races on Saturday. He was back out front leading the way on Sunday to take victories in the GT 500, Moto 3, Superbike 500 and Supersport 500 races.
The overall winningest racer of the event was amateur racer Kyle Carrington with a grand total of nine first place finishes. Carrington won the Rookies Cup GTL, Ultralight Superbike, Lightweight Superbike, and Lightweight GP races on Saturday. The next day, he finished first in the GTL, Lightweight GP, Lightweight Supersport, Lightweight Superbike, and Ultralight Superbike races, completing the weekend undefeated.
The CCS Mid-Atlantic region is scheduled to compete with the Atlantic region next at New Jersey Motorsports Park July 4-5th. The Southeast region’s next event will be another Twin Sprints weekend August 1-2nd at NC Bike, and will include the Mid-Atlantic and Atlantic regions.
Full race results, lap times, points standings, as well as information regarding the remaining 2020 schedule, licensing information, rules, and general information for all regions are available online at: www.ccsracing.us.
- Mark Heckles (Yam YZF-R1)
- Vasiliy Zhulin (Yam YZF-R1)
- Tommy Wilson (BMW S1000RR)
- Paul Scalph (Yam YZF-R1)
- Antal Halasz (Suz GSX-R1000)
- Mike Bliss (Yam YZF-R1)
- Vincent Spivey (Yam YZF-R1)
- Justin Tiller (Yam YZF-R1)
- Jesse Ruehling (Kaw ZX-10R)
- Chris Bettis (Yam YZF-R6)
- Stefano Mesa (Kaw ZX-10R)
- Mark Heckles (Yam YZF-R1)
- Vasiliy Zhulin (Yam YZF-R1)
- Paul Scalph (Yam YZF-R1)
- Mike Bliss (Yam YZF-R1)
- Richard O’Hare (Yam YZF-R1)
- Jason Waters (BMW S1000RR)
- Antonio Rodriguez (Kaw ZX-10R)
- David Loikits (Suz GSX-R1000)
- Antal Halasz (Suz GSX-R1000)