Team News: Tomas Casas Round 4 Report

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Category: Team News

Published on Thursday, August 31, 2023 18:40 EDT

Casas takes trio of top-five finishes in Superbike, adds pair of Twins victories

It was a productive Bridgestone CSBK weekend for Tomas Casas and the Parts Canada Yamaha team, sponsored by Taso’s Restaurant and Pizzeria, enjoying three strong Pro Superbike races and adding wins in the Pro Twins category. 

Returning to his home track at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, just a half-hour west of Peterborough, Casas and the team were looking forward to the feature class tripleheader and three opportunities to improve upon their fourth-place standing in the championship.

Unfortunately, the team’s pre-weekend engine work hadn’t gone as planned, which meant Casas would be short on horsepower aboard his YZF-R1 for the long, crucial Andretti Straightaway at CTMP. 

Despite this setback, Casas managed to go fifth-fastest in Friday morning practice, a result that proved to be very important as afternoon qualifying was cancelled due to rain, sorting the grid based on those practice times and putting Casas on the front of the second row.

Race one on Saturday brought immediate results, as Casas latched onto the back of championship leader Alex Dumas and Sam Guerin in the battle for second. The trio would run together for the entire 20-lap race, as Casas attempted a number of passes on the pair ahead of him in an attempt to score his second podium of the season.

The lack of horsepower would prove to be a difference maker, however, as Casas would have to settle for fourth at the line - with Guerin even praising Tomas’ efforts post-race.

Sunday would bring two more opportunities in the feature class, but race two was less fortunate off the start as Dumas and Guerin quickly broke away in second and third, with triple-winner Ben Young unmatched out front all weekend.

This time Casas would find himself in a battle with 14-time champion Jordan Szoke, as the two traded places a number of times throughout the contest. However, Szoke would get the last laugh as he held onto fourth, relegating Tomas to fifth in race two.

Returning for the final Superbike race (and Casas’ fifth race of the weekend), the team found themselves in a similar position to Saturday as Casas ran with Dumas and Guerin for the entirety of the 18-lap event.

Hoping the two may get in each other's way enough that Casas could capatalize, he ran a smart race behind and eyed an opportunity late on, but it wasn’t meant to be as the two continued to edge him on the Andretti straight that prevented a pass in the last portion of the track.

Despite the frustrating outcomes, the trio of top-five finishes made a significant difference in Casas’ championship position, as he now finds himself in a more comfortable fourth overall entering the final round in Shannonville. 

“I was really hoping to get on the box and contest for a race win, but it just wasn’t meant to be this time around,” Tomas said. “Overall, despite some setbacks, we had a great weekend of fun racing and I learned a few things. I can’t wait to watch the race footage!”

As well as his Superbike efforts, Tomas also debuted the Yamaha MT-07 in the new Pro Twins category, riding the Acme Motorsports/Yamaha Financial Services machinery. He wasted little time getting up to speed on the smaller machine, immediately going faster than title leader Jeff Williams on Friday. 

Unfortunately, Williams suffered a slew of injuries in a crash on Friday and fellow Twins frontrunner Andrew Van Winkle was already sidelined by a Thursday crash, leaving Casas with no challenger in either of the weekend races.

Riding on-track with the Pro Sport Bike class, a category Casas was crowned champion in twice, he managed to bring home two comfortable Twins victories for Acme Motorsports and Yamaha, climbing into the championship mix despite running just one round of the season.

While his focus remained on the Superbike races ahead of him, Casas enjoyed his time on the MT-07 and the support of Acme and Yamaha Financial Services, even though he couldn’t battle on-track with Williams and Van Winkle. 

“Riding in the twins class was an absolute blast! Craig Atkinson from Acme did a fantastic job building that bike!,” Tomas said. ”Unfortunately I didn’t get to battle with Jeff and Andrew which I was quite bummed about. Jeff and I had been planning to draft each other to see how fast a lap time we could turn. I hope they both heal up quickly!”

The Twins experience did help Casas’ own resumé as well, as the victories moved him into the top-15 all-time for both total pro wins (11) and total pro podiums (28) in a CSBK career. 

The Parts Canada Yamaha team will now get a month to recover before turning their focus to another Superbike tripleheader, this time to close out the season as the series returns to Shannonville Motorsport Park for round five in September.

Tomas and the team would like to thank Yamaha Canada, Parts Canada, Taso’s Restaurant and Pizzeria, Yamaha Financial Services, Acme Motorsports, GBRacing, Motul, Hindle Exhaust, Bickle Racing, Flexiglass, DP Brakes, Fast Company, Brooklin Cycle Racing, Vortex, Human 2.0, Forsaken Motorsports, Peterborough Cycle Salvage, Trackdayhub, Laps4MD, and everyone else who has supported him in round one 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