Twins Sprints Firsts for CCS Florida
CCS Florida – Homestead-Miami Speedway
June 2-3, 2018
by Lisa Theobald
CCS Florida’s first Twin Sprints weekend produced a handful of multiple race winners and some fresh faces on the podium. Following weeks of seemingly unending rain in the area, the skies were finally clear for a bright and sunny, incident free, weekend of racing at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Many CCS Florida regulars were not in attendance due to schedule conflicts, so the weekend provided a fresh perspective of race battles.
Veteran racer Gino Angella dominated the lightweight classes on his Gino Angella Racing’s new Suzuki SV 650. Angella took home the most gold medals of the weekend with a whopping total of nine first place finishes during the two day event. Angella began his winning streak on Saturday with his first victory in the Lightweight Formula 40 class. He came back out in the Ultralight Superbike race and edged out Jonathan Pellnitz to claim his second victory of the day. And, since it worked out so well for him the first time, he went back out and finished ahead of Pellnitz again in the Lightweight Superbike and Lightweight Grand Prix races.
Angella started his Sunday winning streak with his first victory of that day in the 25 minute GTL race. He continued to win all four of his remaining sprint races without challenge, claiming the gold for the Lightweight Grand Prix, Lightweight Formula 40, Lightweight Superbike, and Ultralight Superbike races. Angella is sponsored by Dunlop, EBC, Aurora Holdings, LLC, and VP Fuels.
Fabian Alvarez was one of several other big winners of the weekend with seven victories. Alvarez was able to nab an early lead in his first race of the weekend and dominate the rest of the field to take his first win in the Combined Superbike 500 race on his Yamaha YZF-R3. Charlie Ohana finished behind him in second and Juan Zuluaga in third. Alvarez was back out front early again in the Combined Moto 3 race to take his second victory over Morten Frederiksen and German Vacca. He finished the first round of twin sprint races with his final win of the day in the Supersport 500 race.
Alvarez was back out front on Sunday for the second round with victories in the GT 500, Moto 3, Superbike 500 and Supersport 500 races. After the races, Alvarez thanked those who support him, including Theromsman Suspension, Alberto Alvarez Diaz, West Side Performance, Angelito Racing, and Josh Way, noting that he was able to make a small improvement in his lap times.
Alejandro Thermiotis returned to Florida to clean up in the middleweight classes on his MV Agusta F3 with a total of seven wins during the weekend. On Saturday, he won the Middleweight Superbike, Middleweight Grand Prix, and Middleweight Supersport races. Sunday, he went to battle in the first race of the day, GTU, to claim victory over Bob Damereau and Julio Vallette. He went on to take early leads and open gaps over his competitors with his final three wins in the Middleweight Supersport, Middleweight Grand Prix, and Middleweight Superbike races.
Dustin Richards was the winningest amateur of the weekend with eight victories (out of the12 races he ran) . Richards’ first victory on Saturday was in Amateur Middleweight Superbike class on board his Hurricane Race Team Yamaha YZF-R6. He came back out to win the Unlimited Superbike, Middleweight Grand Prix, Middleweight Supersport and Heavyweight Supersport races. He started the second day taking home the first place gold medal in the 25 minute Amateur GTU race, then went on to finish first in the Middleweight Grand Prix and Middleweight Superbike classes.
Other notable multiple race winners in the expert classes include Bob Damereau with four wins, Marcos Martinez, also with four wins, Chris Sullivan with three wins including Saturday’s Unlimited Grand Prix race, and Julio Vallette with two victories. In the amateur ranks, Derek Sutton took home seven first place gold medals, Thiago Fonseca won five classes, returning racer Mike Rouleau won three races, and newcomer Edson Luiz finished with two wins.
The CCS Florida Region is scheduled to compete next at Homestead-Miami Speedway July 7-8th, for another twin sprints weekend. For race results, lap times, and points standings from past events, the remaining 2018 season schedule, and additional information on past and future events for ASRA and CCS, please visit: www.ccsracing.us.