ASRA Team Challenge Presented by Michelin Tire
Jones Express Rolls Over the Field at Summit Point 200 Miler
Summit Point, WV – The American Sportbike Racing Association Team Challenge Series Presented by Michelin Tire came to the Summit Point Summer Cycle Fest for a true test of man and machine over the 100-lap, 200 mile Team Challenge final. With temperatures in the mid-80s and only a slight breeze it was perfect weather for racing at the Summit Point Circuit and the race went off without a hitch.
As the field lined up for the start most people thought this was’ LB Sports (Lloyd Bayley) chance to gain some points on the TSE/Wolfpack team (Bailey Cox) in the Overall Championship Chase at one of his favorite tracks but Jones Express (Ryan Jones, Dustin Young) had a different idea how the story was going to play out. From the start it was the Jones Express BMW leading the way with a trio of Kawasakis (LB Sports, TSE/Wolfpack & Bubble Gum Racing) and the Yamaha of Jinba Ittia (Joel Lenk, Matt Brown) giving them all they could handle in the early stages of the 200 mile contest. Around lap 30 the leaders began regularly scheduled pit stops and the challengers seemed happy to just keep the Jones Express in sight and get deeper into the event before applying more pressure. The strategy soon began to slip away as Jones started to inch away from Bubble Gum Racing (James Fotinopoulos, Xavier Zayat, Richard O’Hare, Mark Dickerson) and the rest of the top 5 closing in on the 50-lap mark. At the crossed flags for halfway it was Jones all alone on lap 50, TSE and Bubblegum barely a lap behind when more pit stops jumbled the field as the teams got ready for the final third of the race. The BGR team made their final stop on lap 68 but a fire bottle infraction during re-fueling got them a stop and go penalty costing them 18 valuable seconds to the leading Jones Express. After the penalty, it was all BGR could do to get back on the lead lap with 12 laps to go and at the checkered flag Jones Express had a 40.040 second lead over BGR and 2 laps over LB Sports in third place while Jinba Ittia secured fourth position and TSE/Wolfpack finished fifth. The top 5 Overall were also the top 5 in the GTO class.
In the GTU class, the 2017 GTL Championship Leader Fairfax Racing (Jason Zelibor, Mark Miller Jr.) had a mechanical on their GTL bike for they used a Suzuki 600 to keep their overall hopes alive by racing the GTU class and with some hard riding, brought home a win in a new class for them. In second it was Fast Lane Racing (Rick Beggs, Jason Gibbens) on a Kawasaki and third position went to Bad Wolf Racing (Greg L’Heureux, George Federlin, Tommy Wilson) on their Yamaha.
The GTL class feature some humor and some feel good moments during the event. With the top 4 teams riding Suzuki SV 650s, it came down to hard racing and team work that put LWT Racer 171 (Todd Alberico, Benjamin Loyle, Sean Dougherty) in victory lane with the win. Second position was the Not A 565 team (Sam Wiest, Doane Richardson) with Grease Monkey Racing (Eric Helmbach, Jon Helmbach) in third and LWT Racer (Anthony Rosati, John Dodson, William Finnerty) finished in fourth place.
The next stop for the ASRA Team Challenge Presented by Michelin Tire is Virginia International Raceway on September 17, 2017. For more information visit www.ASRAracing.com and follow the links or call 817-246-1127 (9 to 5 Central Time Monday through Thursday).
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 eight AMA sanctioned Team Challenge road racing events for 2017. The CCS Series sanctions 40 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.
For more racing information visit www.asraracing.com or www.asraracing.com or call us at (817) 246-1127. Join CCS and ASRA in the greatest road racing experience available today!