Sixteen year-old Stefano Mesa is joining forces with the Desmomaniacs/DucatiMiami team this year to ride a Ducati 848 EVO alongside Barrett Long in the AMA Pro Racing series, the full CCS Florida season, and some events in the Las Americas series as well. The first of the new machines has already arrived from Italy and will be piloted by Long at the CCS Florida season opener at Homestead-Miami Speedway on February 13th. A second EVO has been shipped from Italy and is not expected to arrive in time for the first race. Mesa first rode a borrowed 848 during a track day session at Jennings GP last year and was impressed. “Wow, this bike is really smooth,” he said. “Much smoother in the turns than the R6.”
After test riding Long’s machine during a Homestead track day, he was hooked. “The bike has a lot of torque and is much faster and easier to ride. It’s really light in the turns.” He stated that he felt really comfortable on the bike and was confident with his lap times. Both bikes are expected to be ready for the first AMA Pro Racing event at Daytona in March. Mesa will be competing in SuperSport class and Long will be joined by Les Moscariello, who will ride in the Daytona 200 Daytona SportBike race.