AMA Sanctioned
ASRA Sprint Series Presented by Pirelli Tire
September 25, 2016
Blackhawk Farms Raceway
South Beloit, IL
Sealing the Deal: Heckles Secures ASRA SportBike Championship at Blackhawk
South Beloit, IL – The AMA sanctioned ASRA Sprint Series presented by Pirelli Tire came to Blackhawk Farms Raceway with 5 of the 6 class championships up for grabs and left with 4 titles to be decided at the final round at Daytona in 3 short weeks. Only Mark Heckles was successful in gaining enough points to secure the 2016 ASRA SportBike National Championship with a 5th place finish, making the trip to the final round more of a mission to pick up the trophy than a fight for the title.
The ASRA Superstock class once again featured the two fastest riders from the Mid-West facing off again in a 10-lap dash for the cash. From the start it was clear the battle was between Cory West and Jason Farrell was going to be epic as Farrell broke his existing track record of 1:07.504 with a 1:07.473 on lap 2 with his Farrell Performance Kawasaki ZX-10R and held a slight advantage over West. Not to be outdone, West pushed his Froggymoto.com BMW S1000RR to a 1:07.320 on lap 3 to set the ASRA SuperStock race record but only managed to close up to Farrell, not to take the lead. For the final 7 laps the furious pace left the rest of the field to fight for 3rd place 39 seconds behind the leaders and Farrell took the checkered flag 0.485 seconds clear of West The fight for 3ed place finally went to Tom Girard on his Kawasaki ZX-10R with David Loikits finishing in 4th place. The combination of West in second and Loikits in fourth cuts the point lead to 2-points for Loikits over West going to Daytona, setting up a real showdown for the 2016 SuperStock Championship.
Once again Jason Farrell, riding his Farrell Performance Kawasaki 636, made short work of the ASRA SportBike field jumping into the lead and leading from flag to flag. This left last year’s ASRA Amateur SportBike Champion Mark Rhoades on Farrell Performance Kawasaki ZX6R to battle with Kenny Olson and Carl Soltisz for the runner up spot. With Soltisz on his Yamaha R-6 hanging on to 2nd place for the first 8-laps, Rhoades first faced pressure from Mark Heckles and then Kenny Olson during the first 5-laps only to have Olsen move his Kawasaki ZX6R move into 3rd and the set off after Soltisz. Olsen made his move coming to the white flag and took over 2nd position and held on until the checkered flag leaving Soltisz to take 3rd. Rhoades and Heckles battled to the end with Rhoades finishing 4th and Heckles in 5th. The fifth place finish was enough to make Mark Heckles the 2016 ASRA SportBike Champion with one round left in the series.
In ThunderBike it was Kevin Van Engen finishing first with Ray Hofman in second and Jared Herbig in third with the top three ridding Suzuki SV650s. The 2016 ThunderBike Championship was secured by Douglas Fogg with one round left. This is Fogg’s second consecutive championship.
For the Amateur classes it was Mario Ruffolo with the win SuperStock, Robbie Graber in SportBike and Tim Koebert took another win in ThunderBike. All three Amateur classes will be decided at the final round in Daytona.
Next race for the ASRA Sprint Series Presented by Pirelli Tire is October 15-16, 2016 at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, FL.
For complete qualifying, results and point standing, please visit our website at www.asraracing.com and follow the links.
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 3,000 licenses per year. ASRA promotes eight AMA sanctioned Sprint Series and eight AMA sanctioned Team Challenge road racing events for 2016. The CCS Series sanctions 45 events at popular tracks around the United States, including Daytona International Speedway, New Hampshire Motor Speedway, Road America, New Jersey Motorsports Park and Virginia International Raceway among other fine venues. In 2016 ASRA and CCS will provide riders with access to millions of dollars of sponsorship awards through participation in its sanctioned events.
Join CCS and ASRA in the greatest road racing experience available today. Race CCS! To learn more visit our website at http://www.ccsracing.us or call us at (817) 246-1127.