Sean Dwyer’s day got off to a rough start when he crashed out of the lead in lap two of the first race of the day, GTO, during the June 27 CCS Florida event at Homestead-Miami Speedway. After picking up the pieces and swapping machines, he went back out to win his next three races. Another incident in the Heavyweight Superbike event knocked him back down again. But, he returned on another GSXR1000 for the Unlimited Grand Prix race. And, after taking over the lead from holeshot winner, Santiago Villa, before the end of lap one, Dwyer put his head down and opened a gap, and took his fourth checkered flag of the day without challenge. Villa finished second on his Prieto Performance prepped GSXR1000, just ahead of Jeff Lampe’s Kissimmee Motorsports sponsored ZX10.
On the podium, Dwyer commented about his ups and downs that day, stating, “I think I’ve just been getting a little cocky, like I haven’t fallen down in so long. I thought it was impossible to crash. The past couple of events have tested me a little bit. But, we’re going pretty good and the set up’s working awesome. I keep making a couple of mistakes and I’m going to clean that up.” Of the competition, he exclaimed, “Villa is a heck of a competitor, he knows I going to bring the ‘A’ game in the shootout, and he’s always coming for me. So, I know when he wins, it’s going to make me cry.”
After the race, Villa remarked, “This weekend has given me a little bit of confidence. I’m beginning to ride again, the way I rode in 2007. We’re getting there. And we want to catch Dwyer, of course. And, if you want to be the best, you have to beat the best. I have to keep pushing and I just want to thank my team, Prieto Performance. They give me the best bike.”
Lampe stated, “We had a rough day yesterday. We had a little bit of an oil filter catastrophe out there in practice and crashed pretty hard in turn ten. I can’t thank my mechanic enough. It almost cracks me up, sitting here, that someone would work that hard to get me back out here.” He continued, “We’re just grateful to be out here. Just tried to finish. I didn’t have anything for these two guys here riding really good.”
Villa is currently the overall points leader in the CCS Florida region. “It feels great,” he stated, “being with Dwyer and fighting for the championship.”
Villa was the winningest expert of the day, winning five of his ten classes. His fellow Prieto Performance riders dominated the unlimited, heavyweight, and middleweight classes, topping the podium all day with a total of seventeen victories. Sean Cassell, the winningest amateur racer of the day, swept his classes, taking home six first place trophies. The youngest member of the team, Stefano Mesa took home two first place and two second place trophies. And, in the lightweight classes, Greg Blutter also took home two first place finishes.
The MotoCourse Performance riders also dominated the top box on the podium in the lightweight and thunderbike classes. The team’s combined victories totaled eleven. Most notably, Bimota mounted expert Kevin Mendez, and amateur Kat Zimpel, simply dominated the lightweight classes with four first place finishes each. This was Zimpel’s second, back-to-back, clean sweep weekend at the speedway.
Shootout winner, Dwyer also stated that he plans to compete in some AMA National events this year. “I’m going to try to get out definitely for Barber. And we’re trying to do VIR as well. It will be cool to get out there with the big boys and see if we can’t get a top ten.”
UNLIMITED GRAND PRIX RESULTS: 1. Sean Dwyer (Suz GSX-R1000); 2. Santiago Villa (Suz GSX-R1000); 3. Jeff Lampe (Kaw ZX-10R); 4. Gustavo Sanchez (Yam YZF-R1); 5. Michael Corbino (Yam YZF-R6); 6. Daniel Guevara (Suz GSX-R600); 7. Ken Wilson (Yam YZF-R1).