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Mazzotta 'Aces' Moto GP... July 28

Press release by Ace Racing, LLC.

July 25, 2010

Ace Racing earned a hard-fought 15^th place finish in the AMA American Superbike final Sunday at Laguna Seca with Bravo Condoms pro rider Hawk Mazzotta making his debut for the team a successful one.  After only one quick shakedown day on the Ace Racing Yamaha R-1 prior to Friday, Hawk used the Monterey Challenge, which was a semi-pro charity event on Friday morning, to further get acquainted with the bike and crew, carding a second place finish in the process.  With a promising start to the weekend, the team was looking forward to some more results from Mazzotta as well as Stevie Bonsey in his second race on the Ace Racing Yamaha R-6 in Daytona Sportbike.

Mazzotta and the Ace Racing crew quickly found that some drastic changes were going to need to be made to the bike after the opening AMA Superbike practice session, because the pace that was good for second place in a charity race wasn’t going to cut it out with the AMA boys.  After completely changing the bike around overnight, Mazzotta was able to qualify 18^th, which wasn’t quite what he or the team were hoping for, but they made progress with the bike and had some ideas to try in morning warm-up so things were looking up for the race.

After the Sunday morning warm-up was cancelled due to poor visibility because of the dense fog at the circuit, the team was forced to make a gamble on the settings for the race and hope it worked out.  Mazzotta launched the Ace Racing Yamaha off the line well and was inside the top twenty at the start.  After working his way past a few competitors during the opening laps, he found himself with a gap to try to make up to the next group of riders.  The rest of the race was spent trying to close this gap to no avail, as well as maintain his gap over the riders chasing him.  Mazzotta was able to keep his pursuers at bay for the remainder of the race and hold on to his 15^th place finish.  Considering this was the team’s first ever AMA Superbike start and first race for Mazzotta for Ace Racing, team owner Ace Robey was definitely satisfied with the results.

In AMA Daytona Sportbike, Bonsey spent Friday’s practice trying to reacquaint himself with the Ace Racing Yamaha R-6 as well as roadracing in general after spending the last few months racing AMA Flat Track.  He was able to get up to speed more Saturday in qualifying but still wasn’t happy with his 22^nd starting spot on the grid.  On Sunday during the race, after launching his customary rocket start Bonsey was up into the top twenty immediately and working his way forward.  He was already lapping faster than he had qualified and after a few laps had worked his way up to 15^th when his bike went into a false neutral while downshifting, causing him to run off the track.  He was able to get back on, losing a few spots in the process, and then began to catch and start to pass the riders back that had gotten around him when his transmission problems surfaced again, with the same off-track excursion as a result.  Bonsey decided to play it safe and bring the bike back into the pits rather than risk injuring himself or another rider.

Although Bonsey’s mechanical problems weren’t what the team was hoping for, Mazzotta’s top fifteen in Superbike was definitely something to be proud of in what was the team’s first ever AMA Superbike start.

Ace Racing would like to thank our sponsors Bazzaz Performance, Catalyst Racing Composites, CRG, Concept Five, Dunlop, Lee's Cycle, Leo Vince, Mach One Motorsports, Motion Pro, Yamaha, Yoyodyne.

Ace Racing would also like to give a special thanks to Bravo Condoms for providing such excellent hospitality for crew and guests throughout the race weekend.  Bravo!

-Ace Racing    www.aceracingllc.com