Nesbitt stretches CBR250R points lead

By John Hopkins

BOWMANVILLE, Ont. — The battle for the Honda CBR250R National Race Series title will go down to Sunday’s season finale at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park after championship contenders Stacey Nesbitt and Ryan Roche finished second and third, respectively in Saturday’s race.

Tomas Casas of Peterborough, Ont. claimed his third straight win on the Peterborough Cycle Salvage-backed entry, beating the Powersports Canada entry of Nesbitt by 0.586 secs. As a result, St-Lazare, Que.’s Nesbitt takes a 13-point lead over Pickering, Ont. racer Roche, 406-393, into Sunday’s race.

Pascal Bastien of Laval, Que., representing Moto 123, took the Media Challenge division win in the CBR250R class but CMG Online’s Costa Mouzouris from Montreal locked up the title with second place.

Casas led all 10 laps on Saturday despite constant pressure from Nesbitt, and these two were able to pull clear of the rest of the field.

“I was trying to pull away,” said the 13-year-old Casas. “My Dad was showing me a gap of one second, so I had to keep pushing to the end.”

Nesbitt admitted to losing some ground in lapped traffic that dropped her just far enough behind Casas to prevent a last lap move for the win.

“He [Casas] gapped me when we were going by a lapped rider and I just couldn’t make it back up.”

Roche was part of a four-rider pack disputing third overall, as he battled Calgary’s Sean Smith and top Media Challenge competitors Bastien and Mouzouris. Roche led that pack across the line with Smith next up, while Bastien nipped Mouzouris for the Media win. Kevin Duke of Westminster, Calif., representing motorcycle.com, took third in the Media Challenge.

Inside Motorcycles managing editor Graeme Jones was sixth in the Media Challenge, battling regular series competitor Matt Chandler in his road race debut.

Race Results

Point Standings

Media Challenge