Kaleb De Keyrel, Ray Hofman, Stefano Mesa and A. David Rhodes each won a race during the opening round of the ASRA National Series Sanctioned by ASRA, held March 17-19, at Daytona International Speedway.
De Keyrel won the ASRA SportBike Expert race on his Yamaha YZF-R6, the victory in the ASRA ThunderBike Expert race went to Hofman and his Ducati 749, Mesa triumphed in ASRA SuperStock Expert on a Kawasaki ZX-10R, and Rhodes got first place in ASRA Moto3 Combined on a Yamaha 125.
“I got the holeshot right away,” on a Pirelli-shod Anderson Racing Yamaha YZF-R6, 19-year-old De Keyrel told Roadracingworld.com. “The first part of the race I was taking it easy, feeling it out and seeing where the other competitors were at. On lap five, I think it was me, [Greg] Melka and a guy on a Kawasaki [Tony Storniolo]. There might have been one other person in the group.
“Melka got by me on lap five, and after that I put my head down. I was like, ‘I’ve got to get away from these guys or we’re going to have a cat-and-mouse battle to the line.’ I knew I didn’t want that to happen to me like what Barney [Michael Barnes] did to me last year. He caught me and drafted me to the line. So I put my head down for three solid laps and kind of pulled away from everyone.”
De Keyrel charged to the finish line and won the 10-lap race by 5.862 seconds over Kawasaki-mounted Storniolo, who edged out third-place finisher Greg Melka.
De Keyrel, who won multiple CCS sprint races during the weekend and finished sixth in the Daytona 200, hopes that his performance at Daytona will create more opportunities to go racing in 2017 with Anderson Racing.
“Honestly, everything’s kind of up in the air right now,” said De Keyrel. “I’m not sure where John [Anderson, Team Owner] wants to go with it. He wants to do some of the CCS rounds, some of the CRA rounds up in Minnesota, and he was talking this weekend about maybe doing some selected MotoAmerica rounds. But we’ll have to see what happens. I want to do MotoAmerica. The best guys in America are racing in MotoAmerica, and that’s where I want to be, but we’ll have to see what happens.”
ASRA National Championship Series Sanctioned by AMA
Daytona International Speedway
Daytona Beach, Florida
March 19, 2017
Provisional Race Results (3.51-mile course):
SuperStock (1000cc) Expert:
1. Stefano Mesa (Kaw ZX-10R), 10 laps
2. David Loikits (Suz GSX-R1000), -22.144 seconds
3. Ryan Jones (BMW S1000RR)
4. Vasiliy Zhulin (Yam YZF-R1)
5. Will Gawler (Kaw ZX-10R)
6. Felipe MacLean (Kaw ZX-10R), -1 lap, one-lap penalty for flag infraction
7. Shane Horton (Kaw ZX-10R), -1 lap
8. Marcin Bienacki (BMW S1000RR), -2 laps
9. Frankie Babuska, Jr. (Yam YZF-R6), -8 laps, DNF
10. Anthony Kosinki (Yam YZF-R1), DQ, failed post-race inspection
SuperStock (1000cc) Amateur:
1. Jeremy Whitehurst (Yam YZF-R1), 10 laps
2. Jonathan Patti (Yam YZF-R1), -6.199 seconds
3. Jessica Capizzi (BMW S1000RR), -1 lap
4. Ben Hicks (Yam YZF-R6), -1 lap
5. Jim McConville, Jr. (Suz GSX-R600), -1 lap
SportBike (600cc) Expert:
1. Kaleb De Keyrel (Yam YZF-R6), 10 laps
2. Tony Storniolo (Kaw ZX-6R), -5.862 seconds
3. Greg Melka (Yam YZF-R6)
4. Darren James (Yam YZF-R6)
5. Brandon Paasch (Suz GSX-R600)
6. Carl Soltisz (Yam YZF-R6)
7. Bailey Cox (Yam YZF-R6)
8. Arthur Aznayuryan (Yam YZF-R6)
9. Dan Ortega (Yam YZF-R6)
10. Peter Bernacchi (Yam YZF-R6)
11. Daniel Spaulding (Kaw ZX-6R)
12. Timothy Wilson (Kaw ZX-6R)
13. Joseph Pultrone (Yam YZF-R6)
14. Brian Houck (Suz GSX-R600)
15. Kuna Jadhav (Yam YZF-R6)
16. Declan Fitzpatrick (Kaw ZX-6R), -1 lap
17. Gabriel Wingard (Yam YZF-R6), -4 laps
SportBike (600cc) Amateur:
1. Nate Redding (Kaw ZX-6R), 10 laps
2. Adam Wingard (Yam YZF-R6), -23.685 seconds
3. Jeremy Whitehurst (Suz GSX-R600)
4. Ben Hicks (Yam YZF-R6)
5. Jim McConville, Jr. (Suz GSX-R600)
6. Robert Vlasak (Yam YZF-R6), DQ, failed post-race inspection
7. Matthew Marlowe (Yam YZF-R6), DQ, failed post-race inspection
ThunderBike Expert:
1. Ray Hofman (Duc 749), 7 laps
2. Charlie Mavros (Duc 749), -31.258 seconds
3. Brian McGlade (Suz SV650)
4. Al Smith (Duc 749)
5. Mark Evry (Duc 1000)
6. Sergio Di Molfetta (Duc 749)
7. Douglas Fogg (Buell XB-12R)
8. Gerald Young III (Suz SV650)
9. Savvas Kosmidis (Suz SV650)
10. Brian Rapple (Suz SV650)
11. A. David Rhodes (Yam 250), -1 lap
12. Marcos G. Martinez (Duc 749), -1 lap
13. Billy Pedro (Suz SV650), -1 lap
14. Robert Fisher (Duc 749), -5 laps, DNF
15. Sam Wiest (Suz SV650), -5 laps, DNF
Moto3 Combined:
1. A. David Rhodes (Yam 125), 7 laps
2. Fabian Alvarez (Yam YZF-R3), -0.379 second
3. Alex Ferreira (Yam YZF-R3)
4. Molly Calkins (Kaw Ninja 300)
5. Veronia Tsai (Yam YZF-R3), -1 lap
6. Ray Hofman (Kaw Ninja 300), -6 laps, DNF