FMRRA: Florida Motorcycle Road Racing Association
Round 3: Palm Beach International Raceway
January 4-5, 2020
People say the third time is the charm. Round 3 saw many new faces break through to finish on the podium!
After an exciting weekend full of massive grids, the 2020 FMRRA Team Championship continues to be a close battle between the 2018-2019 Team Champions, Hurricane Racing, and this year’s upstart Free Hugs By Westside. Hurricane Racing holds a narrow margin with 1558 points over Free Hugs By Westside’s 1419 points. Not to be left out of the fight, BPM Motorsports and South Florida Cycles are still in contention with 1018 and 833 points respectively. With five rounds left in the season it is still anyone’s game.
The SuperStock 600 Grande Corsa started out strong and had a great battle at the front between Christian Miranda and Gabriel DaSilva. DaSilva lead for the first six laps before Miranda was able to get around him after chasing his back tire. In the next lap DaSilva made a fantastic move in the back of the track and regained the lead. Narrowly holding on and taking the overall victory over Miranda by 0.48 seconds after twelve laps. Daryan Martin rounded out the Expert podium, while Patrick Plowman made a fantastic showing taking home the Amateur victory handily over Robert Llanos and Thomas Hannigan.
The Lightweight (SuperStreet 300 and Moto 3) Grande Corsa saw twenty-nine bikes take the field for ten laps. Amateur Yandel Medina made an impressive start and lead the field for the first six laps before expert Tyler Scott was able to take the lead. Medina ultimately took second overall (and first in class) while setting a new amateur class record of a 1:28.646. Third across the line was Samuel Lochoff (second Moto3 Expert) followed by Avery Dreher winning the SuperStreet 300 Amateur ranks. Adrian Mitchell rounded out the Moto3 Expert podium. Medina was joined on the podium by Eric Watts and Belladonna Britanni in second and third in class. Michael Norman took home the SuperStreet 300 Expert win followed by Bikepass Motorsports’ principal German Vacca and Boelo Lussenburg Jr. Dreher was joined on the SuperStreet 300 Amateur podium by Carlos Salvatierra and Jerry Pellegrino.
MotoAmerica star (and FMRRA veteran) Stefano Mesa returned to Florida this weekend and showed his mettle quickly in the SuperStock 1000 Grande Corsa. Setting some blazing times and battling it out with his longtime local rival, Sean Dwyer, the fans were treated to some great racing and a glimpse at the battle to come later in the afternoon. Mesa ultimately took home the Expert victory with Dwyer and Vasiliy Zhulin in second and third respectively. Andy Vanbilliard, Daniel Gourley, and Jordan Coccia made up the Amateur podium.
Another rising talent in the series was on display in the Sunoco Superbike 600, with Max Angles dropping the class record from the pole lap after lap. On lap eight, he turned his fastest with a 1:17.978 on the way to a victory over Christian Miranda and Teagg Hobbes. Amateur Andrea Diotallevi took a narrow 0.290 win over Alex Yampolskiy followed by South Florida Cycles’ Alfie Luzzi.
Moto Corse Performance bikes laid down their dominance in the Twins Grande Corse with Scott Billings and Carl Cohen taking the top two spots overall (and in the Formula Twin Expert class). Teagg Hobbs rounded out the top three in class. Jonathan Pellnitz took home the Production Twin Expert win over Ian Nichols and Daniel Pelletier. The Formula Twin Amateur field saw Yandel Medina, Donald Dufresne, and Sardis Campodonico take the podium. The always popular Production Twin Amateur field was topped by Thomas Hannigan with the win and Jarrod Wilson and Jacob Carter in second and third, respectively.
Stefano Mesa started from the pole in the Superbike 1000 Grande Corsa and took home the overall Expert win. The battle for second was intense between Sean Dwyer and Max Angles. Angles got the jump over Dwyer on the start, but lost the lead in lap two. After five laps of intense racing, Angles was able to get the lead back and held on through lap traffic and into the final checker. Andy Vanbilliard took home another 1000 Amateur win followed by John Sackett and Jesse Hwilka in class for the podium.
After lunch, the paddock saw the largest sidecar grid yet with 9 bikes taking to the field. As the class is set up with an open formula it was exciting to see some close racing at the front between the two Formula 1 builds of Peter Essaf/Johnny Crown and Henry Nelson/Bonnie Stroud. After six laps and plenty of lead changes, Essaf/Crown ultimately proved their teamwork and the 14SC machine came out on top. The 8NZ of Tony and Lisa Doukas rounded out the podium behind Nelson/Stroud.
Max Angles started from the pole in the SuperStock 600 Sprint and kept the lead to the finish over Gabriel DaSilva and Christian Miranda for the top three Expert. The Amateur race was much closer, with Jonathan Spignolio narrowly leading Patrick Plowman over the line followed by Robert Llanos.
The largest grid of the day was the thirty-four bike field in the Lightweight Sprint. Always entertaining, expert Tyler Scott narrowly took the overall win by 0.815 seconds over Yandel Medina. Scott was the Moto3 Expert victor followed by Samuel Lochoff and Adrian Mitchell in class. Medina won Moto3 Amateur and was joined by Eric Watts and Belladonna Britanni in the victory circle. Avery Dreher again took home the SuperStreet 300 Amateur victory followed by Carlos Salvatierra and Jerry Pellegrino. Michael Norman bested German Vacca for the SuperStreet 300 Expert victory and the two were followed by Boelo Lussenburg Jr for third in class.
Stefano Mesa set another blazing lap time in the SuperStock 1000 Expert class with a 1:16.014 while taking home the overall victory. Expert Vasily Zhulin snagged second over Sean Dwyer in third. Andy Vanbilliard continued his amateur dominance with another win, followed by Daniel Gourley securing second over Jarrod Wilson by 0.12 seconds.
The Formula 40-600 Sprint saw returning champion Alejandro Rei secure a victory over Tim Hunt (recently returning to the grids) and Jason Campbell in the Expert class. Amateur Andrea Diotallevi impressed with another win, and was joined by Stuart Zuckerman and Maykel Peres on the podium.
The FMRRA-exclusive Euro Cup class witnessed Teagg Hobbs taking home the overall victory on his Euro Light machine, proving talent can outweigh displacement in the right hands. Hobbs was followed across the line by Euro Max Amateurs George Vazeos Jr and Sardis Campodonico. Michael Pulido joined the two Max amateurs on the podium rounding out the class. Alfie Luzzi secured the Euro Light Amateur victory with Philip Mirgliotta and Thomas Ceparano just behind. While Hobbs took home the overall victory his class saw Jonathan Pellnitz and Scott Billings in second and third, respectively.
Istvan Paulik jumped out front from the start in the Formula 40-1000 sprint and took home a well deserved overall (and Expert) victory. Alejandro Rei and Jason Campbell rounded out the Expert podium. George Vazeos Jr had to ride hard to keep the class victory with Emil Saldana taking second only .072 seconds behind him across the line. Brian Sexton took third in class behind Vazeos Jr and Saldana.
The Twins Sprint saw Scott Billings prove his victory from the morning was hard earned as he took the overall victory again followed by Formula Twin Experts Mark Tenn and Teagg Hobbs. Production Twin Expert Ian Nichols narrowly beat Jonathan Pellnitz to the check by .385 seconds, with Daniel Pelletier in hot pursuit. Jarrod Wilson showed domination in the Product Twin Amateur class with a massive lead over Jacob Carter and Ben Cardella in class. George Vazeos Jr bested the young Yandel Medina for the Formula Twin Amateur win and the two were joined on the podium by Justin Thorpe.
The Formula 50-1000 Expert podium saw Alejandro Rei on top, joined by Bob Damerau and Tim Hunt. John Sackett took a close victory (0.400 seconds) over Glen Castle and Victor Silva in the Amateur class.
Max Angles took home the victory in the SuperBike 600 followed by Expert Christian Miranda in second, but the real story was the hard won fight for third. Daryan Martin started further back in the field and lap by lap picked off Teagg Hobbs and then Fabian Alvarez to snag the Expert third place with a gap of only .033 seconds over Alvarez, and .081 over Hobbs. A photographic finish between the three for the last step of the Expert podium. Robert Llanos took home the Amateur win and was followed by another tigh gap of .511 to Patrick Plowman and Maykel Peres.
The new to 2020 Vintage Cup sprint saw a steadily growing field rounded out with nine bikes this weekend. John Turner took home the overall and Modern Vintage Max win. Repeating a theme, the Vintage Max class saw Mark Morrow with the win and Gary DiPietro in second; however, Erick Lukehart had to fend of Rian Mondriaan and George Hernandez all within a second of eachother as they came across the line for third. David Baldwin won the Vintage Light class joined by Richard Maise and Eric Watts on the podium.
The penultimate Sunoco SuperBike 1000 race saw an exciting opening start with some intense positioning between Stefano Mesa, Sean Dwyer, Max Angles, and Vasiliy Zhulin for the opening laps. The four were wheel to wheel for two laps before Angles low-sided coming on the the front straight and requiring a restart. Angles jumped right up after impacting the BottleBags and tried to get his B Bike to the grid for the restart but did not have time. On the restart the lap times continued to drop and a fantastic match between Mesa and Dwyer played out over the next three laps. Ultimately, Mesa took the win by 0.677 seconds over Dwyer and the two were joined on the podium by Vasiliy Zhulin. Amateur Emil Saldana just barely took the checker in class, being followed by Andy Vanbilliard by only 0.138 seconds and Jarrod Wilson.
FMRRA thanks all of our 2020 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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