Round 2 Report: Jodi Christie

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Category: Team News

Published on Thursday, July 10, 2014 18:00 EDT

Christie walks away from St-Eustache with a pair of 2nds 

The Accelerated Technologies Honda Canada team fell short of victory at the second round of the Mopar Canadian Superbike Championship held at Autodrome St-Eustache. In an eventful weekend with many riders crashing throughout the duration of the weekend, the team was pleased to gain points toward the Mopar Pro Superbike and Hindle Exhaust Pro Sport Bike championships and finish the weekend with no crashes.  

The team had a great start to the weekend. With Friday morning's practice sessions being rained out, Jodi made the most of the afternoon and topped the leaderboard in Pro Superbike and was 3rd in Pro Sport Bike. Starting off with some drastic changes to the Honda CBR600RR and CBR1000RR machinery, this was a great kickoff to the weekend. 

Saturday was a beautiful sunny day, and Jodi was eager to get out and ride. With the team working on bettering the setups overnight, Jodi went out and topped the leaderboard in the both classes on Saturday morning. In the afternoon, the team tried to come up with the best plan for the qualifying sessions; experimenting with the Dunlop soft rear tires was a gamble because they had not tried the soft compounds all weekend at the track. In Pro Sport bike Jodi went out and laid down a lap to make sure he was on the grid, then pitted to mount a new Dunlop soft rear. This proved to be beneficial as Jodi put in a flyer lap and placed himself on pole for Sunday's race!  

With the tire knowledge gained in the Sport Bike session, Jodi and the team discussed a similar plan for Superbike qualifying. With a fresh Soft Dunlop rear slick ready for the last half of the top-10 Showdown portion of qualifying, Jodi started the 10-minute session using the medium compound and locked himself on the grid. With a quick tire change Jodi was back out on track to put down a flyer, bettering his time to qualify 2nd on the grid for the race on Sunday! 

With stock cars running on the Autodrome St-Eustache oval on Saturday night, the track was much slower and slippery on Sunday morning. Jodi logged just enough laps to get comfortable again and went back to relax before the compact afternoon schedule would get underway. Up first was the Pro Sport Bike race and Jodi felt confident going in. With a 2nd-place start into corner 1, Jodi settled in and gave his tires two laps to come in on the right side; with only two quick right-hand corners it takes a little longer to get heat into the right side of the tire at this track. Jodi then put his head down to close a gap of at least a second to catch the leader of the race. Once Jodi caught up the battle began, and Jodi got into the lead on lap 11 of the race. Jodi then tried to put his head down and make his own gap, but it was short-lived as a lapped rider came into play and helped the 2nd-place rider close up. Jodi was clearly at a power deficit, but continued to push hard for the remainder of the race. Jodi was passed on the penultimate lap down the back straight, but countered into the next corner; but there he pushed wide and was overtaken again. Jodi tried everything he had on the last lap but couldn't make up enough time to make a pass.  

With just a short break between races, Jodi tried to refuel and relax before the Superbike event. Jodi got a dream start on his CBR1000RR, and pulled out a gap of just over one second on the first lap. He continued to race hard at the front, but with a medium compound tire Jodi got reeled in by Jordan Szoke, who had opted for the soft Dunlop for the race. Jodi was overtaken into the braking zone off the back straight on lap 5, and took the opportunity to study Jordan on the track for the next few laps. All went to plan until a few laps from the end, when lapped traffic came into play. Jodi was caught on the outside of a rider as Jordan made a pass on the inside, and had to run off the track to not hit the slower rider. This was enough for Jordan to pull a gap that was impossible to close with just over a lap to go.   

Jodi Christie: "I am happy with how qualifying went on Saturday, I was able to go a bit faster with the soft rear in both classes. I felt I didn't utilize it well enough in the Superbike qualifying, but we put in our best effort. Settling for 2nd in Sunday's Sport Bike race is disappointing. It was clear that we had a great-handling bike but I was losing out on the back straight. In Superbike, it was frustrating to finish second again; my team has been putting in so much effort and I should be able to repay them with race wins. Unfortunately I was caught out on the outside of a lapped rider and had to run through the grass in order to not make contact. The next round is AMP and I will come out strong and fight for the win that we deserve!" 

Watch the races online at these links: 

Hindle Exhaust Pro Sport Bike

Mopar Pro Superbike

Results - Mopar Canadian Superbike Championship, Round 2, Autodrome St-Eustache, QC 

Hindle Exhaust Pro Sport Bike 

1. Raphael Archambault (Suzuki) 

2. Jodi Christie (Honda) 

3. Kenny Reidmann (Triumph) 

4. Trevor Daley (Honda) 

5. J-F Cyr (Triumph) 

Mopar Pro Superbike Feature 

1. Jordan Szoke (BMW) 

2. Jodi Christie (Honda) 

3. Sebastien Tremblay (Kawasaki) 

4. Trevor Daley (Honda) 

5. Kristopher Garvie (Honda) 

Point Standings 

Hindle Pro Sport Bike 

1. Kenny Reidmann (96) 

2. Jodi Christie (91) 

3. Will Hornblower (62) 

4. Raphael Archambault (54) 

5. Elie Daccache (49) 

Mopar Pro Superbike 

1. Jordan Szoke (112) 

2. Jodi Christie (90) 

3. Trevor Daley (71) 

4. Sebastien Tremblay (66) 

5. Kristopher Garvie (56) 

Jodi Christie Racing competes in the Mopar Canadian Superbike Championship with support from Accelerated Technologies, Hindle Exhaust, Bazzaz, Dunlop, Pro 6 Cycle, Aim Sports Data Acquisition, DID Chains, Orient Express, Blue Streak Racing, Motion Pro, Elka Suspension, Motovan, Motul Oil, Zero Gravity, Renthal, Sunstar, Joe Rocket Leathers, Shoei Helmets, Mikey Moto, Bickle Racing, Andrew & Peter Trevitt, Gary & Roslyn Christie and TCX Boots. The next round of the CSBK series takes place at Atlantic Motorsport Park in Shubenacadie, NS on July 25-27. Follow the team on Facebook (JodiChristieRacing) or Twitter and Instagram (@JCRacing20). For more information about the Canadian Superbike Series and to watch the races online, visit www.csbk.ca. 

From a press release