Stefano Mesa won five of his seven races at Homestead-Miami Speedway during CCS Florida’s season-opening event. Race day started with Mesa working his way through traffic on his Westside Performance Suzuki GSX-R1000 to take over the lead from holeshot winner and early frontrunner, Sean Dwyer on board his Suzuki GSX-R1000 during the Expert GTO race. Behind them, Bruno Silva, Frankie Babuska, and Felipe MacLean were fighting for the lead and shuffling position. With two laps to go, Mesa pulled out of the race due to a broken shifter and Silva took over the lead. Silva went on to take the checkered flag with Dwyer and Babuska rounding off the podium.

Mesa came back out on his Westside Performance Yamaha YZF-R6 for the GTU race and quickly maneuvered around Greg Melka’s Yamaha YZF-R6 to take over the top spot and lead the rest of the nine-lap race, claiming his first victory of the day. Lucas Silva and Melka finished behind him to complete the podium.

Mesa had to work his way around Melka again in the Middleweight Supersport, Heavyweight Supersport, and Middleweight Superbike races, taking his second, third, and fourth victories of the day. 

Dwyer had nailed the holeshot again with his Suzuki GSX-R1000 and led the first two laps of the Unlimited Grand Prix race with Mesa close behind on his Westside Performance Suzuki GSX-R1000. Also looking for a way up front were Bruno Silva on his new ART Performance Yamaha YZF-R1, and Frankie Babuska working his Yamaha YZF-R1 around Felipe MacLean and his Kawasaki ZX-10R.

Mesa took over the lead by lap three and led the four-rider freight train through the remaining four laps of the sprint race to take the checkered flag and his fifth victory in the final race of the day.

During closing ceremonies, a round of applause was given for CCS fellow racer Santiago Villa, who passed away a day before the event. Villa was a four-time Florida champion number one plate holder and was honored as CCS Florida’s all-time winningest racer.

On the podium, Dwyer exclaimed, ” Oh man, we were rubbing elbows. If you don’t like watching that man, you don’t like racing. That was so much fun. We were banging on each other and that was one of those Santiago Villa type races. What a frigging race. Big hand for my boy Santiago. I’m gonna really miss him. It was great to battle with these guys. They were riding awesome all day and I’m just really stoked because I’m finally getting back to the old me.” 

Commenting on his bike, Dwyer said, “I did nothing to this thing in the off season, I knew this bike was good. It was just me. So, I came out and rode better today and was stoked with that. Just to run with them. Congrats to Bruno, Mesa , and Frankie too, he was right there. Everyone rode clean and rode their butt off and it was awesome. Thanks to my wife, Hang Dry, Dunlop, Woodcraft, my buddies, Pro Flow, Thank you.”

Silva stated, “The race was amazing. Battling with these guys who know their stuff, you can’t commit a single mistake, then they’re gone. We did a good ride. I want to thank first of all, God., my family for all their support, ART Performance, all the team, all the crew Pirelli Tires, my brother especially because he worked really hard on this bike, and Eric from GMD Computrack.”

“First of all I want to say I miss Villa,” Mesa stated. “This goes out to him. It’s amazing to be up here again.” Mesa

was presented with a set of Dunlop tires for winning the race.  “My hat’s off to Dunlop tires,” he said. “Those tires are freaking amazing. You can do anything with them. Thanks to Westside Performance, their bikes are always on point, super fast, super comfortable. Therosman Suspension for setting up the bike, as always. We don’t even have to touch them now when we come to the track. My dad, my mom and everybody that’s here. Thank you.”

The next CCS event is scheduled to run at Daytona International Speedway March 10-13th. The CCS Florida will meet to compete again at Homestead-Miami Speedway April 30-May 1. For lap times, points standings, full results, and additional information, please go to : www.ccsracing.us.

UNLIMITED GRAND PRIX RESULTS:

1. Stefano Mesa (Suz GSX-R1000); 2. Bruno Silva (Yam YZF-R1); 3. Sean Dwyer ( Suz GSX-R1000); 4. Frankie Babuska, Jr (Yam YZF-R1); 5. Fernando Silva (Kaw ZX-10R); 6. Barrett Long (Yam YZF-R1); 7. Felipe MacLean (Kaw ZX-10R); 8. Marcin Biernaki (BMW S1000R); 9. Richard Smith (Yam YZF-R1); 10. Istvan Paulik (Duc 1199).