Mesa Sweeps Homestead

CCS Florida Region

Homestead-Miami Speedway, Homestead, Florida

October 2, 2016

Stefano Mesa ran undefeated at Homestead-Miami Speedway, starting and ending the day with victories for a total of six first place finishes, including the day’s grand finale, all or nothing, Unlimited Grand Prix class.

Mesa was out front early in the GTO race on his TTR/Westside Performance Kawasaki ZX-10R after taking over the lead from holeshot winner Bruno Silva, who dominated the first few laps on his ART Performance Kawasaki ZX-10R. From there, Mesa started to open a gap on the rest of the field and ran unchallenged for the remainder of the ten lap sprint race, claiming his first victory in the first race of the day. Silva finished second with Barret Long, Fernando Silva and Ronald Daugherty rounding off the top five.

Mesa gridded up to battle the youngest Silva brother, Lucas, in the GTU class on his Yamaha YZF-R6 a few races later, with Silva nailing the holeshot on his Yamaha YZF-R6 and leading Mesa for the first half of the race. Mesa finally maneuvered his way around the young frontrunner to take over the lead and claim his second victory of the day. Silva finished second with Bob Damerau, Brad Gordon, and Kevin Hall rounding off the top five.

Mesa was able to grab the front spot from the start of the Unlimited Supersport race after the lunch break and ran unchallenged in the six lap sprint class taking his third victory of the day. Barret Long finished second with Bruno Silva, Sean Dwyer, and Fernando Silva close behind.

Mesa was the early leader again in the Unlimited Superbike and Middleweight Superbike classes, dominating the top spot. He finished ahead of Bruno Silva, Sean Dwyer, Felipe MacLean, and LIsandro Garcia in the Unlimited Superbike class, and ahead of Lucas Silva, Alex Arango, Pedro Valiente and Kevin Hall in Middleweight Superbike.

Felipe MacLean was first through turn one at the start of the Unlimited Grand Prix race on his Yntegra Kawasaki ZX-10R, running wide through turn three, and side by side with Mesa into turn four, holding on to the advantage until turn ten, when Mesa made his passing move, taking over the lead he would not relinquish for the rest of the race. Behind him, MacLean and Bruno Silva battled for second place with Barrett Long working his way through traffic on his Longevity Racing Yamaha YZF-R1, and into the chase. Sean Dwyer, who had been running with the front pack dropped out of the race halfway through due to brake failure on his machine. Silva had maneuvered around MacLean on the outside of turn six at the end of the race, taking over second place. MacLean had been shown the meatball flag for jumping the start, but failed to pull in for his stop and go penalty, causing him to be docked a lap at the conclusion of the race. Mesa took his sixth and final victory of the day with Silva, Long, Fernando Silva, and Ronald Daugherty rounding off the top five.

After the race, Mesa exclaimed, “It’s been a great day. I’ve been pretty much on point. Thanks to Thermosman Suspension, Westside Performance, everybody just always giving me a great bike to ride. My mom my dad for always supporting me. Dunlop for giving me great tires with amazing grip. I don’t think I could go faster with any other tires. My hat’s off to all the guys who helped me out to be here. Zulo Racing for tuning the bike the last day before the race. My hat’s off to him for spending the time on it. MotoCorse Performance for helping me. The whole day has been pretty good for me. I’ve been pretty good in all of the races. I knew they were going to be fast, but I had a little bit of an advantage since I’ve been good with my starts today. So, I just got up front, see who was going behind me and I didn’t see anybody close so I just put my head down and turned some laps.”

CCS Florida will meet again December 34th at Homestead Miami-Speedway for the season finale. Next on the schedule for all CCS regions is the 33rd Annual Race of Champions at Daytona International Speedway, October 14-16th for the Championship Cup Series Featuring AMA Sanctions ASRA Sprint Series Presented by Pirelli Tire and ASRA Team Challenge Series Presented by Michelin Tire.

For lap times, points standings, full results, and additional information on past and future events, please go to : www.ccsracing.us.

EXPERT UNLIMITED GRAND PRIX RESULTS:

1. Stefano Mesa (Kaw ZX-10R)

2. Bruno Silva (Kaw ZX-10R)

3. Barrett Long (Yam YZF-R1)

4. Fernando Silva (Yam YZF-R1)

5. Ronald Daugherty (Apr 1000)

6. Felipe MacLean (Kaw ZX-10R)

7. Sean Dwyer (Suz GSX-R1000)

8. Seth Starnes (Duc 1199)