AMA Sanctioned
ASRA Sprint Series Presented by Pirelli Tire
May 3, 2015
New Jersey Motorsports Park – Thunderbolt
Millville, NJ
Heckles, Miller and Rapple Victorious In ASRA Competition at NJMP
Millville, NJ– The AMA sanctioned ASRA Sprint Series presented by Pirelli Tire came to the New Jersey Motorsports Park for the second round of the 2015 championship and what a round it was.
The ASRA Sportbike competitors were the first to flex their muscle at the Thunderbolt Circuit and it was clear this was not going to be a cake walk for former SportBike Champion Mark Miller Jr. From the first lap it was Miller hounded by Justin Holderman and Xavier Zayat at every turn making the veteran ASRA racer use all his tricks to keep the challengers at bay. For the first 5 laps, Holderman matched pace the veteran Miller, but on lap 5 of the 8 lap contest, the “Young Gun” Zayat moved past Holderman for second place. Feeling the pressure from a new challenge, Miller kept his head down and the two slowly pulled away from Holderman who settled for a solid third place. The final three circuits showed the talent of the lead duo as Zayat tried his best to get past Miller and was thwarted at every turn. At the flag it was Mark Miller, Jr. 0.447 second ahead of runner-up Zayat with Holderman 7.3 seconds back in a lonely third place. With his second place finish, Xavier Zayat takes an early lead in the 2015 Championship with a 22-point cushion over Stefano Mesa and Mark Miller Jr with 6 rounds left in the championship.
Next out were the ASRA ThunderBike competitors and the Suzuki SV 650 riders were out in force at NJMP. At the drop of the green flag it was a five-bike battle, with ASRA Team Challenge racer Sam Wiest in the lead followed by George Demetropolis, Bart DeFrancesco, Brian Rapple and Adrian Hackett. While Wiest held the point for the first four laps, the battle for second eventually pushed DeFrancesco to the front for the next three laps but when the checkered flag flew, it was first time ASRA winner Brian Rapple with the victory. The margin for Rapple over runner-up Adrian Hackett was a scant 0.072 seconds followed by DeFrancesco in third, Wiest in fourth and Demetropolis rounding out the top 5 just 0.903 seconds behind the winner.
In the fastest race of the day, ASRA SuperStock, the big boys came out to play and what a race to see. It was obvious the Mark Heckles was not going to be disappointed by another close loss at his home track. The flag flew and Heckles took off like the proverbial rabbit with Frank Babuska, Jr. and Tim Bemisderfer trying to chase him down. After a couple of laps, Bemisderfer was able to clear Babuska and set his sights on the leading Yamaha R1 ridden by Heckles. As the pair pushed each other for the lead over the final few laps, the rest of the field faded and the real battle began. Bemisderfer, the 2014 ASRA SuperStock Champion, just couldn’t get his Suzuki GSX-R1000 into the right spot to overtake the leader and Heckles secured a 0.587-second victory over his rival.
In Amateur ASRA action, it was Dennis Pryor taking the win in SuperStock, John Guyette pulled out victory in SportBike while Sean Dougherty earned the ThunderBike win.
For complete results and point standings, please visit our website at www.asraracing.com and follow the links.
The next event for the ASRA Sprint Series Presented by Pirelli Tire is May 23-25 at Summit Point Raceway in Summit Point, WV. For more information on upcoming events, please visit www.asraracing.com or www.ccsracing.us.
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 2015. 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 2015 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.