Team News: Round 2 Report from Tomas Casas

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Category: Team News

Published on Friday, June 16, 2023 12:58 EDT

The second round of the Bridgestone CSBK season at Grand Bend was a case of what could have been for Tomas Casas and the Parts Canada Yamaha team, as a pair of incidents prevented what would have been a career-best weekend. 

The feature GP Bikes Pro Superbike class was extremely close right from the start, as Casas went fifth-fastest on Friday heading into qualifying and only a half-second off the top-three, though also only a quarter-second ahead of eighth. 

Unfortunately, that razor-thin battle went the other way for Casas in qualifying, as he squeaked into Q1 sitting seventh. In Q2, Casas managed to post his best time around Grand Bend since his Superbike debut in 2019, sitting fifth, before some late faster times bumped him down to eighth and the final spot on the third row, though only a quarter-second out of the podium fight.

The fight up to the top-five didn’t take long for Casas, however, as he got a great start aboard his YZF-R1 to move into fifth and just behind Jordan Szoke on lap one. After a brief battle with local star Chris Pletsch, Casas got back through on Pletsch and began to reel in the 14-time champion Szoke once again, both latching onto Sam Guerin in third as they chased down championship leader Alex Dumas for second. 

With Szoke then fading by the midway point, Casas eyed a spot in the top-four and a potential podium challenge when he made a rare mistake going onto the corner before the back straight, running wide and doing everything he could to keep it upright on the rough surface.

Losing a spot in the process to Trevor Daley, Casas would thankfully avoid any drama the rest of the way and limit the damage to sixth, though with a potential top-four finish and recurring arm pump issues lingering in his mind. 

“I had to use some flat track skills to keep it upright when I got off-course on the rough stuff,” Tomas said. “Unfortunately, my mistake cost me the battle for fourth place, but on the flip side I was happy to have gotten into the 1:03’s in just my second weekend at GB on the Superbike.” 

Looking to turn the page in race two, Casas was greeted by rain just before the start, a good omen for the team after both his previous career podiums came in the rain. 

The wet weather also brought plenty of chaos, as frontrunners Daley and Ben Young both crashed off the start and Szoke pulled in early. That promoted Casas all the way to second place, after another excellent start in the changing conditions. 

Unfortunately, with a career-best finish well within reach, Casas crashed in turn six, the same place a number of other riders were taken out by. He would manage to remount and rejoin the race aboard his damaged Parts Canada Yamaha machine, but almost a full lap down as he could only avoid the rest of the carnage to settle for tenth.

“When Trevor crashed in front of me giving me second place, I was just reminding myself that it’s going to be a race of attrition. To then crash out a lap or two later was quite upsetting,” Tomas said. “It wasn’t a very forgiving corner, having taken out a few of us during the race. I was pretty bummed losing out on another podium, but glad I was able to remount and finish with some points at least. ”

The bittersweet weekend showcased again Casas’ ability to fight to the front, and seemingly proved that a debut win could be right around the corner, though the pair of costly errors will drop him from third to fifth in the overall championship. 

On the bright side, by salvaging as many points as possible after the incidents, Casas and rookie Paul Macdonell were able to keep Yamaha third in the Constructors Championship and 27 points ahead of Kawasaki.

The team will now hope to turn their focus to the east coast and a better weekend at Atlantic Motorsport Park, a track Casas has yet to return to since his maiden Superbike podium in the rain in 2019 – a feat he will hope to repeat in 2023.

Tomas and the team would like to thank Yamaha Canada, Parts Canada, GBRacing, Motul, Hindle Exhaust, Bickle Racing, Flexiglass, DP Brakes, Brooklin Cycle Racing, Vortex, Human 2.0, Forsaken Motorsports, Peterborough Cycle Salvage, Trackdayhub, Laps4MD, and everyone else who has supported him in round two and moving forward.

You can follow Tomas Casas through his social media platforms below:

Instagram: @tomas_casas18

Twitter: @tomas_casas18

Facebook: Tomas Casas Racing

From a press release