Stefano Mesa won the Unlimited Grand Prix race at Homestead-Miami Speedway on his Westside Performance Kawasaki ZX-10R at the end of a long, hot, humid day, and after four first place finishes in other classes. Mesa nailed the holeshot at the start of the race with the rest of the field close behind as they worked their way through the turns in the first lap of the race. As the frontrunners dove into turn ten for the first of six laps, Bruno Silva made his late braking move passing underneath Mesa and taking over the lead.
The ART Performance Kawasaki ZX-10R machine piloted by Silva held on to the lead for the next few laps as the leaders started to work a gap between themselves and the rest of the pack. But, in lap four, Silva lost traction coming out of turn one, running wide and off into the grass in turn two, dropping him down to fourth. With two laps to go, he was charging hard and looking for a way around second place, Felipe MacLean’s Yntegra Kawasaki ZX-10R. Mesa was out front, alone and claimed his fifth victory of the day. MacLean, Silva, Sean Dwyer, and Fernando Silva rounded off the top five.
On the podium, Silva stated, “The race was really good, except for the time that I went off the track. I want to first of all thank God, for the opportunity to be here and also thanks to my family for all their support. Happy Father’s Day to my father and all fathers here. I also want to thank ART Performance for the amazing bike they are putting together, Pirelli tires, and Eric, from GMD Computrack.”
“It was a great race,” exclaimed MacLean. “We were going very strong. The strongest I went on the weekend. And, then Bruno went out in turn one, and basically that makes you think a little bit of the win. Well, the finish of the race, being second in the Shootout is amazing. It’s been a while and we’re working and working to be on the top. Thanks to my family, Dave Weaver, the mechanic, my daughters, they allow me to come here on Father’s day and that’s great. Thank you all. Thank you Henry for the show and we’ll be coming to the next race.”
Mesa said, “First of all I want to say Happy Father’s Day to all the fathers out here. You guys are amazing. My dad, he’s my number one supporter. Always been, always will.” He continued, “The heat made me feel so bad today. I was all over the place. The first couple of races I felt great, and I was on point. After that, after lunch, I didn’t really feel myself. I knew Bruno was going to be fast right off the bat, so I kind of just stayed behind him to see what he was going to do. The track was really, really hot, so I kind of was riding on my mind not to high side, not to crash. Bruno was riding really fast, MacLean has been on point all afternoon. It was a good race. It was kind of given to me because Bruno left the track, but, it’s always a good race when we’re here.”
Mesa’s first victory was in the opening race of the day, GTO, where he battled for the lead with Bruno Silva in the nine lap event that would set the tone for the day. Mesa was back out front and took victories in the GTU, Unlimited Supersport, and Middleweight Superbike classes. He finished second to Silva in the Unlimited Superbike race. At the end of the day, he remarked, “It’s amazing. Today was a really hot day and you’ve always got to have your stuff together for the last race. This is the main event so we all put everything, all the effort for this race. And finally, we’ve been up here for a couple of events and I really couldn’t do it without Westside Performance, Dunlop tires, Palmetto Bay Collision, Shoei helmets, One-X leathers, CCS, all the corner workers, just everybody, you guys are amazing.”
He continued, “Dunlop tires are always great, always great grip. Westside performance is always bring me a great machine. My R6, my superbike I finally got it together, I clicked. I think it was my fastest lap time on an R6, I’ve ever done over here, that was a 1:25.3. So, I’m really stoked about that. There’s plenty more coming. Lucas Silva started pushing me again, so that’s great, We have Bruno, we have MacLean that’s coming really fast behind me so we’re just going to keep getting faster from here on.”
Amateur racer William Redfern ran undefeated and also took home five first place finishes. Redfern won the Amateur GTO, Ultralight GT, Ultralight Thunderbike, Unlimited Superbike, and Formula 40 races while riding his A Buyer’s Choice Home Inspections Yamaha YZF-R1 and Kawasaki Ninja 300 machines.
The CCS Florida Region is scheduled to compete next at Homestead-Miami Speedway on July 23-24th. 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. Felipe MacLean (Kaw ZX10R)
3. Bruno Silva (Kaw ZX-10R)
4. Sean Dwyer (Kaw ZX-10R)
5. Fernando Silva (Yam YZF-R1)
6. Marcin Biernacki (BMW S1000RR)
7. Istvan Paulik (Duc 1199)
8. Ronald Daugherty (Apr RSV4)