A TOUGH WEEKEND FOR TEAM RIGHTSFORBIKERS.COM

Bradenton, Fla…The SunTrust MOTO-ST Series season opener at Daytona International Speedway, March 2, proved to be a tough weekend for Team RightsForBikers.com.

Fielding Justin Filice and Robert Fisher in the Buell Motorcycle Company SuperSport Twins class (SST) and Jason Edmonds, John Linder and Rodolfo Ramirez in the BMW GrandSport Twins class, Team RightsForBikers.com was set for a good run.

“However in racing things don’t always go the way you plan,” explains team owner, C.J. Czaia.  “And, this was definitely one of those times.  We ran in the two-hour practice and both our Suzuki SV1000 and our Ducati 1000S were running perfectly.  We had just put a new engine in our SST Suzuki and with our practice results we figured we were good to go.”

When the Green Flag waved, both bikes thundered off the start and began to move up through the field.  Nine laps later, the Suzuki lost power and limped back into the pits.

“The crew checked it out,” continues Czaia, “but to no avail.  The engine had seized and there was nothing we could do to get back out on the track.”

“It was really disappointing,” said Filice who recently inked a contract to ride for the team throughout the 2008 season.  “Hopefully this was our one unlucky race for the season and it will be smooth sailing from now on.”

While our SST bike was out of the running, the team’s No. 69 GST Ducati going strong.  “The entire team did a great job,” says Czaia.  “Everything went perfectly and when the race ended we took first place in class.”

However, it was a victory short lived as the team was penalized for exceeding the class horsepower limit in post-race tech.

“We went through tech after practice and were fine,” says Czaia.  “We put the bike away, brought it out before the race and didn’t touch it.  I’m not sure what happened.  We should have been fine, but apparently we weren’t.  We were the first through tech and perhaps the bike was still too hot.  I don’t know, but it is definitely something we have to work on.  While it was a tough weekend for us, we will be back in full force ready to fly our Czaia & Gallagher PA and PIAA colors at Round 2 at Virginia International Raceway, April 27.