Ledesma Dominates again at Firebird Mark Ledesma continued his reign over the southwest at Roadrace Southwest/CCS round two this weekend. He started it with a win during the GTO race in a warm up for Unlimited GP qualifying on Sunday. He propelled his North Valley Honda CBR 1000RR to the pole with a record lap time that he would break again in the actual race. He credited his Michelin tires with helping him strike a 54.294-second lap time that is the fastest time ever recorded on Firebird East. Another Mark of Southwest Region and international fame was aboard, Mark Miller that is, who was keeping his skills fresh for his run at the Isle of Man in May of this year. The rider of the weekend though was again Ivan Garza. He had his ZX-10 on hand but it was not ready, so he chose to run all nine of his races on his Mezcal Beneva ZX 600 Kawasaki. He finished all in the top five except one, when he did not finish after smoking a tired and abused clutch late Sunday. Saturday’s weather was warm and sunny in comparison to other organizations in the west who sat out while it rained. The action started to get hot with the Tracktime GTL class being won by USGPRU regular Jon Schendel who is riding a bike prepared by Carlos Neves. Bob Russell took a win in the Cobbs/AZ Sportbike Supply LW Supersport riding his Dunlop shod Shelley’s Racing SV 650. Sunday was just as nice with temps getting into the 80’s, leaving many to wonder if newcomer Bridgestone and their tires would stand up to the heat. In the AJ’s Performance/TintWizard Unlimited Superbike, Ledesma stole the show and left Joe “Eight Ball” Dawson and Davie Stone to battle for second. Joe took the spot on his Lockhart Phillips Suzuki. Stone now on Michelin powered his Allstoneallthetime.com machine into third. Next was the Value Pools and Spas LW Superbike in which pool foreman for Value, Jon Jewett, won. He stated afterwards that company owner Chuck Coyle still had to pay. After lunch, Ivan Garza still showed an inner hunger for wins in the Moto-Services MW Grand Prix. On his recently acquired Bridgestone’s, he held off Nicky Moore who came to Phoenix only to find no Pirelli distributor with which he is contracted. Nicky found one set of three-year-old “Blues” and decided to race anyway. Nicky then won the Racers Edge MW Supersport minutes later on his Trackday.net Yamaha. Later in the day, Raymond Thibedeau won the Jim Cox Racing Amateur MW Supersport race also aboard a Yamaha. Nicky Moore capped a great warm up for Barber with a win in the Powerstands MW Superbike race after a great duel with local Jon Blaylock and his Racers Edge Honda. The big races of the day, Amateur and Expert Unlimited GP, were a bit different this weekend. Trevor Gilreath on his Bikeworld Suzuki won the amateur race after a race long battle almost lost in the last turn with AzTrackday.com’s Patrick Bertinelli. Patrick nearly named another turn after himself when his last chance pass nearly put him in the gravel trap. Trevor shrugged off the pass and won handily. In the expert race, everyone was ready for a battle of the heavy hitters. With veteran names like Ledesma, Miller, Dawson and Lenny Beckman on the grid and newer faces Stone, Garza and Jason Caldwell, it should have been epic. However, Mark Ledesma put his Honda on the front from the start and started laying down record times while everyone else could just watch him go. Miller got into a groove in second and was not bothered by Joe Dawson who had a short battle with 600 rider Garza. Davie Stone, who is having a rough transition to expert life, had a mechanical failure and retired early after putting in some impressive rides on a still sore shoulder. Check into www.roadracesw.com for all results, upcoming events, forms and the best forum in the west!