Casas claims a close one

By John Hopkins

MONT-TREMBLANT, Que. – Peterborough, Ont.’s Tomas Casas took his third victory of the Honda CBR250R National Race Series in typically dramatic fashion at Le Circuit Mont-Tremblant on Saturday.

Riding his Peterborough Cycle Salvage-backed entry, the 13-year-old grabbed the lead two laps from the end of the 10-lap race and held off points leader Ryan Roche and Stacey Nesbitt, respectively for the victory.

Roche finished 0.370 secs. behind on his Brooklin Cycle-backed CBR250R and Nesbitt was only 0.609 secs. behind for the Powersports Canada team.

“I was staying back and waiting for the last two laps to make my move,” said Casas, who spent most of the race lurking in third or fourth place. “I think I got better drive onto the back straight so I made my pass there.”

Roche had claimed the fastest qualifying time at 2:15.111 but the Pickering, Ont. racer was moved to the second row of the grid as a penalty for missing a riders’ meeting. He nevertheless made a great start to actually move up to second by the time the field reached the first corner.

His runner-up finish allowed Roche to slightly extend his lead in the CBR250R standings. He now goes into Sunday’s race with 324 points to the 316 of Nesbitt. Casas is a distant third on 238, having suffered two costly DNFs.

With Roche’s penalty Nesbitt started on pole and led from laps three through eight. But she admitted to getting on the gas too early coming out of turn eight on lap nine, which allowed Casas and Roche to overtake her.

“I had a slide and had to correct it,” explained the St-Lazare, Que. racer. “On the last lap they [Casas and Roche] seemed to gap me on the exit of [turn] 12 and that was it.”

Nesbitt dedicated her podium finish to her Uncle Ivor, who died recently. Indeed, the defending Honda CBR125R National Challenge champion put in a brave ride on Saturday, as her family had rushed to get her to Mont-Tremblant after returning from Ireland, where her uncle had lived and much of her extended family is based.

After mixing it up with the three “kids” Montreal’s Costa Mouzouris finished fourth overall and won the Media Challenge for the fifth time. Representing Inside Motorcycles, Mouzouris now has 271 points to the 193 of Alex Crookes of Eat, Sleep, Ride, who finished seventh on Saturday.

Longueuil, Que.’s Bertrand Gahel finished second in the Media Challenge race and Laval, Que.’s Pascal Bastien edged Dominic Aubry for third.

Race Results