Pietri Takes Victory First Time at Homestead CCS Florida Homestead-Miami Speedway May 26, 2008 By Lisa Theobald AMA Superstock racer Robertino Pietri won the Unlimited Grand Prix race his first time at Homestead-Miami Speedway on a borrowed GSX-R1000, during the CCS Florida Memorial Day event. Pietri started the day with a third-place finish in the GTO race, after working his way from the back row of the grid to finish behind Barrett Long and Lars Remsen. Pietri came back out during the Unlimited Supersport race to take his first victory of the day. Gridded on the back row again, he quickly worked his way through traffic to finish ahead of Remsen and Darren Luck. Pietri’s second victory came during the final event of the day, with the biggest and baddest at the track during the Unlimited Grand Prix race. As he was all day, Pietri was again gridded on the back row and had to move through the field to catch early front-runner Michael Rouleau on his GSX-R1000. Ahead of him Barrett Long was maneuvering his 1098 towards the top spot as he had also set his sights on the leader. The top three had already separated from the rest of the field in the first few laps as Long made his passing move down the back straight to take over the lead, with Pietri in tow. One lap later, Pietri made his passing move at the same spot and held on to the lead all the way to the checkered flag. On the podium, Rouleau commented on Pietri’s first time at the track stating, “He came to the track, it’s his first time here and I think that there was a practice or two that he actually went straight in Turn One yesterday. It takes a little bit to learn this place. It does have some different surfaces we go on, but he could have done us some favors and taken a little bit longer to learn it. My hat’s off to him. He did a great job.” Long explained a little trouble he experienced during the race, “It went OK today. I got a good start got into the lead and then I dug the shifter into one of the curbs there I think in turn three and it went into neutral and I stomped it into gear and then it got bent. It took me another two laps to learn how to shift it, and then I gave it my all.” Pietri stated, “This track is very similar to Fontana, I think. So, it wasn’t too hard to learn, so my team, Prieto Performance, they made my job really easy because they gave me a very fast bike and there’s a lot of straightaways here. Eric with GMD Computrack, we worked out the suspension pretty good. And, you know, Pirelli gave me the good tires that last basically the race, and I just had to ride the bike and be in good condition.” Long claimed two victories with the 1098, finishing first in the GTO and Supertwins races. He also finished second in GTU and third in Middleweight Superbike on the Ducati 848. Luck picked up the most Expert wins of the day, with four first-place finishes. He won in the GTU, Middleweight Supersport, Middleweight Superbike and Heavyweight Superbike classes on his GSX-R600. Rodolfo Ramirez dominated the lightweight classes with three first-place finishes on a borrowed SV650. He won the GT Lights, Lightweight Superbike and Lightweight Supersport races, and also finished second in Thunderbike. RESULTS: UNLIMITED GRAND PRIX: 1. Robertino Pietri (Suz GSX-R1000); 2. Barrett Long (Ducati 1098); 3. Michael Rouleau (Suz GSX-R1000); 4. Marco Martinez (Suz GSX-R1000); 5. Lars Remsen (Suz GSX-R1000); 6. Darren Luck (Suz GSX-R600); 7. Jeff Lampe (Kaw ZX-10R); 8. Kyle Keesee (Yam YZF-R6); 9. Alexander Miniaci (Suz GSX-R600); 10. Dean Smith (Suz GSX-R1000).