AMA Sanctioned
ASRA Team Challenge Series Presented by Michelin Tire
August 23, 2015
Summit Point Circuit
Summit Point, WV
LB Sports Lloyd Bayley Plays Superman, AGAIN
Summit Point, WV– The AMA sanctioned ASRA Team Challenge Series presented by Michelin Tire made final trek to the Summit Point Circuit for Round 6 of the 2015 Championship on August 23 and 19 teams took part in the 200-mile contest. From the drop of the green flag it was GTO heavyweights LB Sports and Grease Monkey Racing jumping in front of the field and showing the way to the rest of the teams. The Grease Monkey team (Eric Helmbach, Alex Shaw) led the first 7 circuits, then LB Sports (Lloyd Bayley) took the point on lap 8 and held on to the narrowest of margins until GMR made their first pit stop on lap 32. This allowed LB to open the gap and that was it for the rest of the race. While GMR was able to close up within a few seconds, it was clear that Bayley was not going to let them lead if he could help it. By lap 40, only LB Sports and GMR were on the lead lap and they continued to move away from the field. After GMR made their final stop on lap 65, LB Sports was the only bike on the lead lap until their final stop on lap 82. Re-entering the race with a 37.066 second lead, LB Sports kept enough of a pace so GMR could only gain a tenths of a second per lap and as the checkered flag flew on lap 100, it was “Superman” Lloyd Bayley completing his second straight 200 Team Challenge win. The second position Overall went to GMR 28.277 seconds back while the final podium position was taken by GTU winner MDM/Bubblegum 3 laps down to the LB Sports team. The Overall victory move LB Sports into the point lead over GMR by 6 points with two rounds remaining.
The GTO class was LB Sports in first, GMR in second and Barry Motorsports (James Barry, Jeremy Cook) returning to the series to finish a solid third place. The win gives LB Sports an 18 point lead over GMR going into the final two races.
Early in the going for the GTU class, MDM/Bubblegum (James Fotinopoulos, Justin Holderman, Xavier Zayat) battled Bad Wolf Brewing Company (Greg L’Heureux, Tommy Wilson, George Federlin, Victor Carrell) in the early going but when BWBC pitted on lap 33, it looked like easy sailing for the MDM crew. After their stop on lap MDM came out in second place and gave chase to the leading BWBC team. At lap 44, MDM regained the lead and the combination of extra pit stops and problems during one of the stops allowed MDM to pull away to a three lap margin of victory. The Motorcycle Xcitement Team (Bruce Higgs, Mark Schweber) had its share of hiccups early but soldiered on to finish the race in third for the GTU class. The Jinba Ittai team blew a motor on lap 75 and were scored with a 6th place finish and their point lead in the championship is now just 3 points over MDM/Bubblegum with 2 rounds to go.
When the day started, the leader in the 2015 GTL Championship Mavros Motorsports Seth Starnes, Dustin Young, Bart DeFrancesco), had a 20 point lead in the title chase and hoped to seal up the championship before the VIR round in a month. What they hadn’t planned on was pressure from Rawspeed Racing (David Hanig, Mark Evry) and the LWT Racer 61 Team (Sam Wiest, William Finnerty) who made the best of their local track knowledge. Early in the race it was Rawspeed at the point with LWT Racer 171 (Todd Alberico, Benjamin Loyle) in second while LWT61 held on to third place. As pit stops started to change the flow of the race, each of the top team took turns at the point until lap 39 when Rawspeed pitted. This put LWT 61 in the lead until lap 45 when they returned the favor by pitting for the first time. This let Rawspeed build a 19.820 second lead and appeared to have the race in the bag until their third and final stop. Here is where race strategy paid off as he LWT 61 team was on a one stop strategy and this gave them a 12.085 second lead with 25 laps to go. While Rawspeed gave it a good run, they just “ran out of laps” and it was LWT Racer taking the win in GTL by 13.922 seconds. The LWT Racer 171 captured 3rd place and Mavros Motorsports settled for a disappointing 4th position. The win cuts the Mavros Motorsports point lead to just 8 over LWT Racer 61 with 2 races left in the series.
For complete results and point standings, please visit our website at www.asraracing.com and follow the links.
The next event for the ASRA Team Challenge Series Presented by Michelin Tire is September 19-20 at Virginia International Raceway in Alton Virginia. 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.