FMRRA: Florida Motorcycle Road Racing Association
Round 6: Homestead Miami Speedway
May 18-19, 2019
Close Finishes, New Records, and Larger Grids Proves That Motorcycle Racing in Florida is Alive and Growing
Florida Motorcycle Road Racing Association’s returned to Homestead Miami Speedway this past weekend for the first of two rounds at the iconic South Florida track during the 2019 season.
Christian Miranda started the weekend’s first race from the pole in the SuperStock 600 Grande Corsa and quickly took advantage of the position pulling a healthy lead in the start of the twelve-lap race and a class track record. Jamie Starace made some great passes in the opening laps and moved from mid-pack up into fourth place overall, contending for the podium, before unfortunately started to experience some mechanical problems which caused him to lose speed. Miranda continually lowered the class track record three more times during the race, ultimately with a 1:27.559 on the final lap. Miranda took the Expert and overall checkered flag followed by Daryan Martin and Fabian Alvarez. Frank Custureri took the Amateur win, joined Dustin Richards and William Wend on the podium.
The SuperStreet 300 and Moto3 Grande Corsa saw Fabian Alvarez leading the field from pole position. In lap two the new young star, Yandel Medina overtook the current Overall Championship points leader, Dustin Richards, to slide into the second position overall. Alvarez took the overall win followed by Yandel Medina (first in class for Moto3 Amateur) and Luis Collante (leading the SS300 Amateurs). Medina was joined on the Moto3 Amateur podium by Dustin Richards and Yvette Lamar (in second and third). Jerry Pellegrino and Mitchell Espinosa took second and third, joining the class winner Collante in the class celebrations.
Sean Dwyer started from the pole in the SuperStock 1000 Grande Corsa followed by Black Ops Racing teammate, Todd Wagner. In lap five, Alejandro Nieves Jr. set an Amateur class track record with a 1:29.390 and ultimately took third overall. At the start of the last lap, Ricardo Sune was able to work his way around Shannon Andrus after nipping at his tire and grabbed third in class in the process. The Expert podium saw Dwyer secure the win (continuing the firm hold on the Class Overall Championship), followed by Wagner and Sune. Nieves Jr took the Amateur victory (and third overall) joined by Romulo Ruiz and Michael Zumbrum in the class top three.
The Superbike 600 Grande Corsa saw Sean Dwyer again started from the pole; however, Max Angles was able to take advantage of a great start and took over the lead for the start before Dwyer reeled him in. Wayne Reyne started putting down some blazing fast laps, smashing the Expert class track record lap after lap (ultimately with a 1:27.142), passing Angles and chasing down Dwyer. The three continued to make moves all within less than a second of each other. Unfortunately, a racer went down in lap nine and the race was ended on a red flag. Angles was in the lead and took the victory followed closely by Reyne and Dwyer. The Amateur podium saw Dustin Richards take the win, followed by Adrian Mitchell and Samir Suarez.
The Twins Grande Corsa saw track records being broken lap after lap. In the end, Carl Cohen set the Production Twin Expert track record with a 1:37.504 along with the overall race win followed by Jonathan Pellnitz and Thomas Hannigan (taking the Amateur win). Michael Norman joined Cohen and Pellnitz on the Production Twin Expert Podium, while Gabriel Figueroa and Kevin Greimel followed Hannigan to victory circle in the Production Twin Amateur class. Hurricane Racing’s Don Dufresne and Yvette Lamar swept the Formula Twin Amateur class, while Gino Angella returned to the series winning the Formula Twin Expert class.
The Sunoco SuperBike 1000 Grande Corsa again saw Alejandro Nieves Jr. setting an Amateur class track record with the 1:29.629. Christian Miranda had a bad start and tried to hold onto Max Angles’ lead, but ultimately had to retire with a mechanical after nine laps. Angles took the overall win followed by Nieves Jr (Amateur win) and Joshua Marino. Josh Anderson took third in expert and joined Angles and Marino at the podium.
The SuperStock 600 Sprint saw a field of 26 racers take the grid, and Amateur Frank Custureri quickly broke his class track record from the morning with a 1:31.873, while Max Angles broke the Expert class track record with a 1:27.487. Even more impressive, Angles and Christian Miranda crossed the line for a photo finish with Angles taking the victory by a margin of .003 seconds! Michael Rouleau joined the two on the podium in third Expert position. Meanwhile Custureri again took the Amateur victory closely followed by Dustin Richards and William Wend.
The SuperStreet 300 and Moto3 Sprint again saw the young Yandel Medina make an impressive showing in the Moto3 Amateur class, passing Dustin Richards in lap three to secure the victory and second overall. Fabian Alvarez took the overall victory followed by Medina and Richards. Alvarez was joined on the Moto3 Expert podium by Brian Robbins and Charlie Ohana. In the Moto3 Amateur field, Andres Mejia took third in class behind Medina and Richards. The SuperStreet 300 Expert class was dominated by Jonathan Pellnitz with Michael Norman in tow, while Luis Collante led the Amateur 300s across the checkered line followed by Andres Londono and Jerry Pellegrino.
Sean Dwyer started from the pole and dominated the SuperStock 1000 Sprint. Although Dwyer ran away from the field there was still some great battles further back. Amateur Alejandro Nieves Jr. in particular laid down some laps and worked his way through the field ultimately passing Shannon Andrus and Todd Wagner in the final two laps to take second overall and showing he will be an upcoming force to be reckoned with in the series. Dwyer, Wagner, and Andrus made up the Expert podium, while Amateur Nieves Jr. was joined by Gabriel Zolczer and Romulo Ruiz in class.
The Formula 40-600 Sprint was an all-out battle between Expert Class Championship leader Alejandro Rei and Michael Rouleau. Rei took the win by a close margin of 0.391 seconds and Bob Damerau rounded out the Expert podium. Yoan Chavez took the Amateur victory with Maykel Peres and Andrea Diotallevi joining him in the victory circle.
Wayne Reyne started from the pole in the Euro Cup Sprint and finished in first overall after leading the field with confidence. Carl Cohen took second in Euro Light Expert. Alfie Luzzi and Kevin Gremel were the top of the Euro Light Amateur Class. Meanwhile the Euro Max Amateur class saw a close finish with Marianny Garcia besting Romulo Ruiz by 0.299 across the line while Val Lavrik rounded out the top three in class. Ricardo Sune took home the Euro Max Expert honors followed by Jon Foy.
Josh Anderson made an impressive showing in his FMRRA Formula40-1000 debut with the overall win and setting the class track record. Ricardo Sune narrowly held off Vaughn Ali for second overall (and Expert) by a margin of only .038 seconds. Gabriel Figueroa took home the top honors in the Amateur class followed by Robert Rubsky and Michael Zumbrum, in second and third respectively.
The spec-tire Bridgestone Cup saw Shannon Andrus start from the pole and take the overall win. The fight for second place behind him was intense with multiple changes. Coming from the back of the 12-bike grid, Gabriel Zolczer worked his way through the field of six laps and ended up taking second place overall, only a second behind Andrus, with one of the most dedicated drives of the day. Marianny Garcia joined Andrus and Zolczer to round out the 1000 podium. Jose Lloreda ultimately took home first in the 600 class and narrowly held back Razvan Dutu by 0.558 with Maykel Peres not far behind.
Gino Angella started from the pole in the Twins Sprint followed by Carl Cohen and Jonathan Pellnitz. Pellnitz had been experiencing some braking issues throughout the weekend and ultimately was unable to hold off Cohen for the overall victory taking second shortly behind. Ray Cull took home third in the Production Expert class. Gino Angella took the top spot in the Expert Formula class, while Joseph Shallow and Don Dufresne rounded out the Amateurs in first and second. Thomas Hannigan had a huge victory leading a big gap on the Production Amateur field. Kevin Greimel and Gabriel Figueroa took home second and third in class behind Hannigan.
Ricardo Sune won the Formula 50-1000 Sprint followed by Bob Damerau in the Expert division. The Amateur podium saw Robert Rubsky on the top step with Michael Zumbrum and Thomas Annis making up the top three.
The Sunoco SuperBike 600 Sprint saw Max Angles take home the gold again with Sean Dwyer and Michael Rouleau rounding out the Expert top three. Dustin Richards had a great start off the line and was able to hold out the Amateur class victory. William Wend and Adrian Mitchell took second and third respectively in class behind Richards.
The last race of the day was the Sunoco SuperBike 1000 Sprint and Black Ops Racing’s Sean Dwyer and Todd Wagner crushed the field with a 1-2 finish, followed by Alejandro Nieves Jr in third overall (Amateur first in class). Josh Anderson took home Expert third, while Romulo Ruiz and Gabriel Zolczer joined Nieves Jr on the Amateur podium for the finale.
Florida Motorcycle Road Racing Association heads north to Savannah, Georgia and Roebling Road Raceway for Round 7 on June 22-23, before returning to Homestead Miami Speedway for the double points series finale on July 27-28
FMRRA thanks all of our 2019 sponsors for their support of our racers’ passion and the sport. Our Sponsors, Racers, and Fans make it possible to continue to deliver professional, safe, and fun race weekends to the South Eastern motorcycle community
Sunoco Racing Fuels
Southern Racing Fuels
Palm Beach County Sports Commission
Dunlop Racing Tires
Bridgestone Tires
Continental Tires
Vanson Leathers
MYLAPS Sports Timing
Florida Track Days
Full Season Championship Results and Individual Race Results are conveniently available online at:
https://panamsbk.com/championships/
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