ASRA National Road Racing – Sprint Races
Jones, Mesa and Cece Top Classes, Thomes Strikes a New Note
Summit Point, WV – Incredible weather this Memorial Day weekend and no exception on Monday with brilliant, high cumulus clouds, blue sky and 78 degrees for the post-luncheon ASRA action. The four ASRA 7-lap sprints got off to an exciting start with the Sportbike class.
Stefano Mesa and Ryan Jones got a good start, with Greg Melka and Justin Jones in the fight down to turn one. Melka grabbed the lead very briefly, but as the leaders came back to the front straight the order was Ryan Jones, from Mesa, Melka and Justin Jones. By lap two, Mesa had retired, Ryan Jones was out front from Justin Jones and Melka, and all three were nose-to-tail. The trio circulated six more laps with Ryan Jones making a 600cc motorcycle about as wide as full dress Harley. Both Melka and Justin Jones said they tried every corner on the track, and it didn’t matter how late they braked, Ryan Jones matched them. An excellent piece of riding for an impressive win. The fast lap of the race came on lap two for Ryan Jones with a 1:14.443.
Ryan Jones then took his Thunderbike and proceeded to the grid for Race 2. From the start Jones crept away from the field for his second ASRA win of the afternoon. Only Brian McGlade bested Jones’ lap times as he tried to close the gap mid-race. But coming off turn ten onto the front straight on lap five, McGlade slid to the outside of the track and the bike danced end-over-end spitting McGlade into the gravel trap and bringing an end to his charge towards the leader. McGlade walked away from the crash.
Stefano Mesa turned a disappointing Sportbike retirement into ASRA Superstock lemonade, dominating the field and putting on a bit of a speed show as he demonstrated complete control of the race while turning a best lap of 1:11.370. That hot lap was good enough for an ASRA, Summit Point, race lap record for Superstock Expert. Great job, Stefano!
Perhaps one of the more interesting stories of the weekend surrounds a new rider named Shane Thomes. Thomes is a 25-year-old from Red Lion, PA who brought a Yamaha R1 to the track for his first weekend of racing. A lot of folks start on a 600cc machine. Not the young Mr. Thomes. He did explain that he has been on two wheels since childhood, but on Saturday for his first-ever ASRA Superstock qualifying session, Thomes turned a 1:15.658, breaking Carsten Wagner’s 2018 ASRA Superstock Amateur qualifying record of 1:15.929 by 0.271 seconds. Nice work on your first qualifier.
Interestingly, Wagner also set the race lap record on that same weekend back in 2018 with a time of 1:15.729. Today, astonishingly, Shane Thomes dropped more than 1.5 seconds from his qualifying time and turned a new ASRA Superstock Amateur lap record of 1:14.191, breaking the old record by a whopping 1.538 seconds. A little math tells us that time is 2.8 seconds off the well-seasoned Stefano Mesa’s Superstock Expert record, also set today. If Thomes decides that he likes racing his Yamaha (The expression on his face said, “Yes!”), watch out for Shane Thomes in 2019 and 2020.
ASRA Moto 3 buzzed the action to a titillating conclusion. While Trevor Cece took a decisive win by a nearly 5-second margin, two fellows named Mark Dickerson and Luigi Mora tangled, and a race broke out. For seven laps the two were within a tenth or two of one another, until the lap that counted, when Mora slipped past Dickerson for the second step on the podium. Good show!
ASRA and CCS motorcycle road racing are sanctioned and operated by the American Sportbike Racing Association of Fort Worth, Texas. For more information about riding with the series’ that train more riders for professional road racing careers, go to our websites at ccsracing.us and asraracing.com.
More, from a press release issued by Rodio Racing:
14 Year-Old Gus Rodio Doubles Aboard the Rodio Racing Kawasaki Ninja 400 at Summit Point
(Above) Gus Rodio (196). Photo by David Vape Vang/Noiseless Productions, courtesy of Rodio Racing.
Gus Rodio, in his first Expert season racing CCS, finished first in both GT500 and Superbike 500. Setting a personal best lap of 1:23.1, Rodio finished Superbike 500 a full 22 seconds ahead of the pack in just 6 laps.
Following up on that performance, and looking to chase faster riders, Rodio also pulled a 3rd place in Supersport Lightweight again setting a personal best time of 1:22.9 against the usual gaggle of SV650’s, KTM790’s and similar machines.
“The bike was on rails the entire weekend”, Rodio said. “We thought we were shredding tires, but realized no matter the compound or pressure, they were all wearing the same.” Rodio uses his MotoAmerica spec Dunlop tires for all his races to develop a consistent feel for them.
“This was a good confidence booster going into the next MotoAmerica round” Rodio added. Having secured his first top 10 finish at VIR last time out, the Rodio Racing team heads to Road America this weekend to build on that confidence.
Rodio Racing is sponsored by: N2 Racing, EvolveGT Track Days, Bell Powersports, K-Tech Suspension, Innovative Motorcycle Research, NJMiniGP, Vortex Racing, Motool, Spellcaster Productions, Kathedral Event Center, Category 5 Racing and Jonco Collision.