By John Hopkins
ST-EUSTACHE, Que. – Tomas Casas of Peterborough, Ont. picked up his first career national victory in round four of the Honda CBR250R National Race Series at Autodrome St-Eustache on Sunday.
The 13-year-old grabbed the lead from Ryan Roche on the penultimate lap of the 14-lap race and held off Saturday’s race winner Stacey Nesbitt by just 0.535 secs. at the line. Roche was just 0.053 secs. behind Nesbitt in third.
“It was a fun race. Yesterday I learned some better lines, especially through the last corner,” said Casas, who had finished third on Saturday. “I had planned on leading the last lap. When I was behind Ryan I knew I was faster than him and I took advantage.”
While Saturday’s race had been a spectacular four-rider battle, Sunday’s was even better. The same quartet disputed the top spot, with top Media Challenge competitor Costa Mouzouris mixing it up with Casas, Nesbitt and Roche. The order of the top four was seldom the same for two laps in a row and Nesbitt was the only one of the group not to lead across the start/finish line during the race.
Casas led Roche, Nesbitt and Mouzouris to start the last lap. Roche tried to get around the outside of Casas in the last turn but that opened the door for Nesbitt, and the St-Lazare, Que. rider was able to get underneath to snatch the runner-up spot.
“Ryan is normally really good through there but when he went wide I was able to get inside,” said Nesbitt, who for the second race in a row got a poor start from the front row of the grid. “I keep on hitting false neutrals off the line and I did it twice today.”
Roche continues to lead the class standings with 193 points to the 175 of Nesbitt. Sean Smith, who was fourth in class on Sunday, is third in the standings with 136 points, just two more than Casas.
Inside Motorcycles’ Mouzouris was fourth overall and claimed his fourth straight win in the Media Challenge. Second went to Pascal Bastien of Moto123 and Jean-Pascal Schoreder from MotoPlus was third.
Mouzouris now has 215 points in the CBR250R Media Challenge standings to the 123 of Eat, Sleep, Ride’s Alex Crookes.
Race Results
1. Tomas Casas, Peterborough, Ont., 13:49.056
2. Stacey Nesbitt, St-Lazare, Que., +0.535
3. Ryan Roche, Pickering, Ont., +0.588
4. Costa Mouzouris, Montreal, Que., +1.169*
5. Pascal Bastien, Laval, Que., +15.145*
6. Jean-Pascal Schoreder, Montreal, Que., +21.295*
7. Sean Smith, Calgary, Alta., +35.768
8. Eric Moffette, St-Jean, Que., +36.122*
9. Alex Crookes, Toronto, Ont., +50.590*
9. Didier Constant, Montreal, Que., +1 lap*
Fastest Lap: 58.538 by Tomas Casas on lap 9
*–Media Challenge
All competitors aboard Honda CBR250R motorcycles
Point Standings
1.Ryan Roche, 193
2. Stacey Nesbitt, 175
3. Sean Smith, 136
4. Tomas Casas, 134
Media Challenge
1.Costa Mouzouris, 215
2. Alex Crookes, 123
3. Pascal Bastien, 87
4. Neil Graham, 81
5. Jean-Pascal Schroeder, 76
6. Derreck Roemer, 70
7. Didier Constant, 56
8. David Booth, 46
9. Eric Moffette, 32
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