Stefano Mesa, age 19, will not be competing on his DMS Racing Kawasaki ZX-10R Superbike this coming weekend in the Subway Superbike Doubleheader AMA Pro Superbike event at Road America due to financial difficulties for his team.
“Unfortunately I will not be racing AMA this coming weekend in Road America because of Team lack of funds!” the Colombian-born racer posted to his personal Facebook page Wednesday morning.
Roadracingworld.com was unable to reach Mesa on his cell phone for further comment as of post time.
Mesa finished third in the 2013 AMA Pro SuperSport East Championship and has two career AMA Pro SuperSport race wins to his credit.
He joined the DMS Racing team for the 2014 season and finished 10th and 12 in the opening two races at Daytona International Speedway.
Mesa, a multi-time CCS Florida class Champion, has also won 10 CCS races on his DMS Racing Kawasaki so far in 2014.
A statement attributed to DMS Racing published in the media states the team is abandoning its AMA Pro Superbike program “temporarily” and refocussing its efforts on its CCS racing activities. The statement goes on to say the move is because the team has had “difficulty closing sponsorship deals, the absence of television coverage as a major championship and the results achieved in the first round at Daytona…”
Roadracingworld.com has contacted DMS Racing and asked for a copy of the statement, but it had not been received at post time.
More, from a press release issued by DMS Racing:
DMS Racing Team will not continue in the AMA Pro Superbike this season and will focus on CCS
DMS Racing Team has taken the decision to abandon temporarily the AMA Pro Superbike and focus on Championship Cup Series (CCS) , due to the difficulty closing sponsorship deals, the absence of television coverage as a major championship and the results achieved in the first round at Daytona, without being all that bad, were not the expected .
The team has chosen to race CCS because of its greater impact in Florida, where the commercial interests of DMS are. AMA Pro Superbike had national coverage in USA last season through a broadcaster as important as CBS Sports and this season only has just online internet broadcasts, reducing its spread and makes it less attractive to potential sponsors.
Thus, the DMS Racing Team will not be in the second round of the AMA Pro Road Racing, which takes place from May 30 to June 1 at Road America, Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin and its next appearance will be in the next CCS round, scheduled in June at Homestead.
Mauricio Comitre, President of Direct Motorsport: “It was a difficult decision but our AMA Pro Superbike drop out is mainly due to the limited diffusion of the championship and also the weak results obtained in Daytona. From now on, we will focus on CCS, which is a much more commercially attractive championship for us and where our team regularly achieves good results. Our drop out of the AMA Pro Superbike is not goodbye but a see you later and hopefully in the future we can return to a stronger and more widespread championship with riders that allow us to fight for the podium”.