Heckles Wins Two ASRA Nationals At Summit Point Raceway

Heckles Wins Two ASRA Nationals At Summit Point Raceway

© 2016, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

AMA Sanctioned

ASRA Sprint Series Presented by Pirelli Tire

May 29, 2016

Summit Point Raceway

Summit Point, WV

Heckles Pulls Off Double in ASRA Races at Summit Point

Summit Point, WV– The AMA sanctioned ASRA Team Sprint Series presented by Pirelli Tire enjoyed perfect conditions at Summit Point Raceway with low 80s and a slight breeze helping keep the action on the track fast and furious for the afternoon’s featured events.

With SportBike leading off the day, it was time to see if Carl Soltisz and Ricky O’Hare had come up with a way to slow Mark Heckles charge for the 2016 Championship. At green flag both O’Hare and Soltisz got the jump on Heckles and the two set off trying to lose the championship leader. While the effort was valiant, it was short-lived as Heckles passed both by lap three and slowly started inching away from the challengers. With Heckles in front, the battle for runner-up became a three-bike fight as Tommy Wilson joined the fray and kept the pressure on O’Hare and Soltisz, until O’Hare was forced to pit on the last pit for mechanical problems. That left Heckles with a 4.045-second margin of victory over Soltisz while Wilson was 0.056 behind Soltisz for third position and that completed the Yamaha YZF-R6 sweep of the podium. This was Heckles’ third consecutive win in the SportBike class and a commanding lead in the championship.

As expected in SuperStock, Frankie Babuska, Jr. took his Yamaha YZF-R1 straight to front at the green flag but Heckles, fresh from his win in SportBike the race before, was not about to let the young lion get away from him this time. Heckles was able to get his Yamaha YZF-R1 past Babuska to lead lap two and the pair started leaving the pack until Babuska’s machine suffered electrical gremlins half-way through the fourth lap. With Babuska out, Heckles pulled out to a 12.091-second lead over Tim Bemisderfer on his Kawasaki ZX-10R and cruised the last lap to his second victory of the day. Lloyd Bayley rode his Kawasaki ZX-10R to a solid third place to keep his title hopes alive with five rounds left in the 2016 championship.

The battle for the ThunderBike pole was tight and the start of the race was just as tight as Brian McGlade, Sam Wiest, Bart DeFrancesco and Arnold Hastings all launched in unison and stayed nose to tail for the opening laps. On lap five, DeFrancesco’s transmission started having issues and forced him to the side of the track. Next lap it was Wiest who had his luck run out with a tip-over in turn 1 to end his day. That left McGlade and Hastings to fight for the win and in spite of running the fastest lap of the race at 1:19.729, Hastings was forced to settle for second place in the nine-lap contest. George Demetropolis finished third making it an all Suzuki SV650 podium in ThunderBike.

For the wins in the Amateur classes, it was Jeremy Whitehurst in SuperStock, Bailey Cox in SportBike and Christopher Heiser for ThunderBike.

Next race for the ASRA Sprint Series Presented by Pirelli Tire is June 11-12, 2016 and Virginia International Raceway in Alton, VA.

For complete qualifying, results and point standing, please visit our website at www.asraracing.com and follow the links.

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 3,000 licenses per year. ASRA promotes eight AMA sanctioned Sprint Series and eight AMA sanctioned Team Challenge road racing events for 2016. The CCS Series sanctions 45 events at popular tracks around the United States, including Daytona International Speedway, New Hampshire Motor Speedway, Road America, New Jersey Motorsports Park and Virginia International Raceway among other fine venues. In 2016 ASRA and CCS will provide riders with access to millions of dollars of sponsorship awards through participation in its sanctioned events.

Join CCS and ASRA in the greatest road racing experience available today. Race CCS! To learn more visit our website at http://www.ccsracing.us or call us at (817) 246-1127.

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