AMA Sanctioned ASRA Sprint Series Presented by Pirelli Tire from NJMP Thunderbolt
Millville, NJ – The second round of the 2018 AMA Sanctioned ASRA Sprint Series Presented by Pirelli Tire made its annual trek to the New Jersey Motorsports Park Thunderbolt Circuit and both the track and the weather greeted the racers with open arms. With the normal April showers happening during the overnight hours it was dry racing action making for some exciting racing and a great turnout for the joint ASRA/Championship Cup Series event with 773 entries and 182 riders enjoying the break from winter.
On Saturday it was qualifying day and the first group up were the ASRA Moto 3 riders. From the flag it was “Young Gun” Tyler Scott setting the pace for the session on his Honda NSF250. The 12 year old earned his first ASRA Pole Position with a 1:33.295, nearly 5 seconds faster than the field.
Next group out were the ASRA SuperStock machines and it was no surprise that Frank Babuska Jr. set a new qualifying record on his Suzuki GSX-R1000 of 1:24.755 after lots of pressure from Mark Heckles riding a Yamaha R1 just a mere 0.163 seconds behind. Another qualifying record was set by Chet Finkbeiner on a Yamaha R1 for the ASRA Amateur SuperStock class at 1:31.800.
That brought out the ASRA ThunderBike and Defending ASRA and CCS National Champion Ray Hofman secured the top qualifying at a 1:33.436 while David Reuben grabbed the top spot for the Amateur ThunderBike.
The last qualifying session was ASRA SportBike and 2015 ASRA Sportbike Champion Xavier Zayat riding a Yamaha YZF-R6 to pole position. For the Amateurs, it was Raphael Donde who captured the top spot with a Yamaha R6.
By the time the races started on Sunday it was dry conditions and the first class on the track was ASRA SuperStock and Heckles wasted no time in applying the pressure to Frank Babuska Jr. Despite turning the fast lap of the race, Heckles faded on his Ryders Alley R1 after the seventh lap, allowing Babuska on his Babuska Racing Suzuki GSX-R1000 to take an 8 second victory with James Shepard finishing third behind Heckles. The Amateur class was won by Chet Finkbeiner on his Team Pro Motion R-1, setting a new record at 1:13.127.
Then it was time for ASRA ThunderBike to take to the track and after a great battle among the top 4 riders, it was Ray Hofman on his Farrell Performance Ducati 749 for the win, Bart DeFrancesco finished second on the DC Paintwurx SV650 and Tyler Scott in 3rd on the Honda NSF 250. The Amateur win went to David Reuben on the Amsoil SV650.
As ASRA SportBike took to the track, it was no surprise that Xavier Zayat gapped the field on his Metric Devil Moto Yamaha by over 16 seconds but the real battle was for second place between William Ely on the Absolute Cycle R-6 and Bailey Cox on the MRP Motorsports ZX-6. After 9 laps, Ely edged out Cox by 0.008 seconds for second position in one of the best finishes of the weekend. The Amateur SportBike class was won by Andrew Snyder on his Vortex Racing Honda CBR600.
The final ASRA race of the day was Moto3 and Tyler Scott took off like a jack rabbit for the first 4 laps when Luigi Mora’s Kawasaki blew the fill plug out of the cases and oiled the track putting Tyler and three other riders down starting lap 5. That meant a restart from running order and for a few laps Stu Aitken-Cade made things tough on the “Young Gun” but in the end Scott took the win on his NSF250 by 2.084 seconds. Aitken-Cade on his Rising Sun Cycles RS125 held off Frank Guadagnino’s VP Fuels RS125 for second place. Top Amateur in Moto3 went to Jason Wood on the Cement Works Racing Yamaha R3 who finished fourth overall behind the Experts.
The next event for the AMA Sanctioned ASRA Sprint Series Presented by Pirelli Tire is Summit Point Raceway in Summit Point, WV on May 26-28, 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.
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