Villa Takes First Victory CCS Florida Homestead-Miami Speedway June 24, 2007 Santiago Villa seized his first Unlimited Grand Prix win at Homestead-Miami Speedway, returning to racing after a two-month recovery from a bad crash at Fontana during an AMA event. And although Villa complained of pain during Saturday practice sessions, he did not show any signs that he was hurting on race day. In fact, he was the winningest Expert racer of the weekend with three first place finishes out of a total of nine podium finishes. Race action came to a stop mid afternoon at Homestead when opposing storm fronts clashed over the speedway, generating severe lightning, hail, and winds up to 60 mph. After an hour of bad weather and destruction of tents set up in the pits, the rain lessened as the storm moved out of the area. Due to time constraints, the remaining races were shortened to five-lap sprints. The final event of the day would be an all out-run for the money as well as the open-exhaust bonus for the Shootout. At the start of the race, the rain had ceased and the track was finally beginning to dry up. At the drop of the green flag, Greg Melka nailed the holeshot and led the first half of the race on his Yamaha YZF-R6. Villa and Marco Martinez were in hot pursuit, and just before the halfway mark, Villa took over the lead on his newly acquired ex-M4 EMGO Suzuki GSX-R1000 and started to open a gap on the competition. Behind him, Melka and Martinez battled for second place. Villa took the checkered flag without further challenge. Melka, Martinez, Lars Remsen, and Gustavo Laya rounded out the top five. Villa also won the Unlimited Supersport and Unlimited Superbike events. He finished second in Middleweight Superbike and Middleweight Grand Prix, and third in GTO and Heavyweight Superbike. After the race he stated, “It’s an honor for me. I grew up in this sport and now winning is so sweet and in this track, it’s unbelievable.” SHOOTOUT RESULTS: 1. Santiago Villa (GSX-R1000); 2. Greg Melka (R-6); 3. Marco Martinez (GSX-R1000); 4. Lars Remsen (GSX-R1000); 5. Gustavo Laya (ZX-6R); 6. Michael Rouleau (GSX-R1000); 7. Alexander Miniaci (R-6); 8. James Ozyjowski (GSX-R600); 9. Barrett Long (Ducati 1098); 10. Maikel Cusimano (GSX-R1000).