AMA Sanctioned ASRA Sprint Series Presented by Pirelli Tire from Summit Point Raceway
Summit Point, WV – It wouldn’t be Memorial Day at Summit Point Raceway without the AMA Sanctioned ASRA Sprint Series Presented by Pirelli Tire and the Championship Cup Series celebrating the holiday with fans, friends and family during the Summit Point Cyclefest. With 200 riders and 988 entries the event was by far the largest motorcycle road race in the United States this season.
The feature events got underway Monday afternoon with the ASRA SportBike race and two “Young Guns” wasted no time in getting to the front and setting up a personal battle for the win. From the flag it was 2015 ASRA SportBike Champion Xavier Zayat on his Yamaha YZF-R6 battling with Jody Barry on the Kawasaki ZX-6R for the lead leaving the rest of the field to fight for third place. Then on lap five, a red flag for a multiple bike incident brought the field back together for a four-lap sprint to the checkered flag. On the restart, Ryan Jones joined the front runners to make it a three-bike battle for the lead and in spite for running the quickest lap of the race, 1:13.515, Zayat came in second by a mere 0.075 to the winner Barry. Jones finished third just 1.105 seconds behind the runner-up Zayat. The win brought Barry up to third in the points with 61, Zayat is in second with 65 points and Bailey Cox leads the championship with 75 points after three rounds.
The ThunderBikes rolled out next and all eyes were on the New Jersey Moto3 winner Tyler Scott to see the youngster could continue his winning ways against the class regulars. While Tyler was able to set fast lap at 1:19.023, his Honda NSF250 was no match for the Suzuki SV650 of defending National ThunderBike Champion Ray Hofman who turned his holeshot into a victory over Bart DeFrancesco’s SV650 by 2.9 seconds. Tyler Scott rounded out the podium in third and set off to prepare for the upcoming Moto3 race. The win keeps Hofman perfect with three wins in three races and stretches this championship lead to 23 points over second place DeFrancesco with five rounds left.
The fastest grid of the day was ASRA SuperStock with Mark Heckles and Frank Babuska gunning for the 10-year-old lap record set by Jeff Wood back in 2008 of 1:11.796. These two did not disappoint as they both went for it hard from the flag and Heckles pushed his Yamaha R-1 to the front and a new lap record for ASRA SuperStock of 1:11.420. Then while Babuska rode his Suzuki GSX-R1000 to the limit searching for those extra tenths, he could only come close with a 1:11.638. Engaged in the fight for victory and the record the two front runners moved away from Ryan Jones on his BMW S1000RR and battled to the final flag where Heckles edged Babuska by .038 seconds for the win. Jones finished third after holding off Tim Bemisderfer by .812 seconds. With his third place finish, Ryan now holds a seven-point lead over Babuska and Heckles in the chase for the championship with five rounds remaining.
With ASRA Moto3 lining up for the final race of the day Tyler Scott was the rider everyone watched to see if the NJMP win was just a fluke. Well, it was not, and the “Young Gun” took off on his Honda NSF250 and never looked back. A USGPRU veteran Brandon Paasch returned to his roots and showed he could still pilot the Honda RS125 but was no match for Scott on this day, finishing second 16 seconds behind the winner. Taking the final podium position was Stu Aitken-Cade on his RS125 giving him a 21-point lead in the 2018 championship over Scott.
In Amateur action, Carsten Wagner topped the SuperStock class, Dorsey DJ Birch took SportBike, Paul Blake won ThunderBike and it was Christian DeJesus as the top Amateur finisher in Moto 3.
The next event for the AMA Sanctioned ASRA Sprint Series Presented by Pirelli Tire is Virginia International Raceway on June 9-10, 2018.
The American Sportbike Racing Association (ASRA) is the parent organization to the Championship Cup Series (CCS), the largest amateur motorcycle road racing organization in the United States issuing over 2800 licenses per year. ASRA promotes eight AMA sanctioned Sprint Series and seven AMA sanctioned Team Challenge road racing events for 2018. The CCS Series sanctions 40 events at popular tracks around the United States, including Daytona International Speedway, New Hampshire Motor Speedway, Homestead Miami Speedway, Road America, New Jersey Motorsports Park and Virginia International Raceway among other fine venues. In 2018 ASRA and CCS will provide riders with access to millions of dollars of sponsorship awards through participation in its sanctioned events.
For more racing information visit www.asraracing.com or www.ccsracing.us or call us at (817) 246-1127. Join CCS and ASRA in the greatest road racing experience available today!