Young’s Run
The trend that started at Shannonville Motorsport Park’s Mopar CSBK opener continued at Grand Bend, with Ben Young’s Van Dolder’s Home Team/Scot-Build BMW S1000RR setting the pace throughout. His Qualifying effort, setting a new outright track lap record after the clock ran out, was pure Grand Prix drama that certainly entertained the Saturday crowd.
On Sunday, Young had solid pressure throughout, with Champ Jordan Szoke’s Mopar Express Lane/Blackfoot Kawasaki right on the lead BeeMm’s tail for the entire distance. Szoke had rebounded after his struggles at the Shannonville opener, with a just-completed new Ninja ZX-10R, and “Jordan of the Jungle” wasn’t complaining about lingering injuries.
Szoke launched the expected last lap attack for the lead into the Carousel, scene of drama in 2018, but this time Szoke might have been slightly ambitious with his inside, on the brakes move. Young was ready to move back up the inside of a running-wide Szoke and retake the point, holding on to win by just .15 of a second.
When it comes to fastest laps, Szoke had the edge by just .02, so it would be fair to call this National Feature race close. Young has now won three of his last four National starts, and Szoke last took a win at Atlantic Motorsport Park’s Pro Cycle Nationals last July. With the tour now heading to Autodrome St-Eustache, north west of Montreal, one of Szoke’s best tracks should produce similarly close action at the front.
Fastest overall Superbike race lap at Grand Bend went to the Parts Canada/One Speed Suzuki GSX-R1000 of Trevor Daley, all of .01 faster than Szoke. In perhaps his best-ever career National feature race outing, Daley hung with the leaders, faded a bit in traffic, then caught back up. Eventually Daley had some drama in traffic, but it was a big step for “T-Rev” after a frustrating opener at S.M.P.
David Weaver rejoined the Daley team for round two, the American tuner focused on the suspension and electronics of the brand new Gixxer. Daley marched solidly forward in terms of performance and confidence, and has further improvements planned for the next event at St-Eustache June 21-23.
Nickerson’s Step
Steven Nickerson is a solid Pro, trying to make his next career step on a tight budget. A product of the Honda small bike development system, a young Nickerson ran well on a CBR600RR in Amateur and then stalled his National career when things went poorly with a Harley-Davidson XR1200.
Since then, 24-year-old Nickerson and family has developed their fleet of reclaimed Honda CBR1000RR Superbikes, and occasionally shown well in selected Pro National feature race starts. The distinctive pool-blue DeWildt Honda Powerhouse-backed CBR has had a serious run of bad luck, including a collision in practice last year at C.T.M.P. with a limping Szoke, but things turned around in style at Grand Bend.
As in 2018, Nickerson ran with the leaders in the early going, but this time hung in to net a solid fourth overall. After a bit of a dice with the Royal Distributing BMW of Michael Leon, Nickerson also lapped in the 1:03s, as did fifth finisher Leon.
At Grand Bend 2019 the front runners were much closer together than in the past two years, and sixth finisher Tomas Casas was 18 seconds behind Young with his Parts Canada/Peterborough Cycle Yamaha YZF-R1. In his second career 1000cc Superbike start, just turned 20 Casas continues to impress, and has suffered little drama on his way to two solid opening efforts.
Not far behind Casas was seventh finisher Samuel Trepanier’s BMW, still sore from his big Shannonville practice crash and not satisfied with his 2019 pace. Given Trepanier is considered long overdue for a first career National Pro Feature win, he will be looking to rebound closer to home for the next CSBK counter.
Natale Doubles Up
At the Shannonville opener, David Natale explained that if you really examined the cost of things, an Aprilia is a logical option for Mopar Express Lane Amateur Superbike. Aprilia’s potent vee-four has appeared only occasionally in CSBK, most impressively when the works U.S. based machine of Claudio Corti showed so well as Canadian Tire Motorsport Park in 2015.
Natale is starting to show serious form too, having now won both Amateur Superbike races in 2019. The Markham-based racer eventually pulled clear of runner-up Andrew Haick’s BMW S1000RR, while the top Sport Bike category 600cc entry belonged to third finisher Jordan Bauer’s Yamaha.
Guillaume Fortin scored fourth, right with Bauer, aboard a Kawasaki ZX-10R Ninja. Next up was Jake LeClair was his bLU cRU Yamaha YZF-R6, the reigning Amateur Lightweight Sport Bike Champ fifth, just clear of the Kawasaki ZX-6R of Christian Allard.
J. LeClair’s Next Step
Over the winter, when Jake LeClair opted not to defend his title in Lightweight (as the rules currently allow), there was discussion over just how quickly the teen-aged phenom would make the middleweight pace on Yamaha Canada’s R6. The answer is -three weekends, or two Nationals. At Grand Bend, LeClair scored his first Amateur Sport Bike victory on the Motovan-backed 600cc machine, edging the similar R6 of Jordan Bauer – another half of another promising young brother act with Pro Dylan B.
Third went to Connor Campbell and his Kawasaki ZX-6R Ninja, completing the Ontario racer top three podium sweep. Christian Allard was a close fourth on another Ninja, the top Quebec-based Amateur competitor in Parts Canada Amateur Sport Bike.
Mike Grass was best Suzuki in fifth, right with Allard, although his position had to be manually scored since his electronic transmitter didn’t function during the Sport Bike counter. Top Honda was local ace Chris Pletsch in sixth, part of a famous family in Canadian road racing.
Hart Right Some Good
Princeville, Nova Scotia’s Avery Hart attracted attention at his home venue of Atlantic Motorsport Park last July, running at the front of TSN’s Motorcycle Experience Amateur Lightweight Sport Bike with an older Ninja 250. This year, Hart is part of the powerhouse east coast WRBF Racing Yamaha YZF-R3 squad, joined by 2018 C.T.M.P. victor Keegan Gaudet of P.E.I.
In his first trip to Shannonville for the 2019 opener, Hart split the wins with Ben LeClair in a pair of close races. In his first trip to Grand Bend for round two, Hart took control, winning twice and pulling away from a very competitive pack.
On Saturday, the east coast crew were dominant, Hart clear in first while Gaudet fought his way up to his first Podium of 2019 in second. LeClair made a late push to salvage third, right with Gaudet, while potential victors Alex Berthiaume (R3) and Trevor Dion (Kawasaki Ninja 400) faded back for fourth and fifth.
On Sunday, Hart set sail from the start, eventually pulling clear by a 2018-Jake-LeClair-margin of 8.5 seconds. Dion had a strong effort to battle for second, Berthiaume just .07 behind in his first podium since mid-2018. Ben LeClair was an unhappy fourth while Matt Simpson had a lonely race to fifth with his Honda CBR500R twin, clear of stylish Ninja performer Jacob Black. Gaudet crashed mid-race and failed to score.
Next up for the competitive Lightweight group is Autodrome St-Eustache, another new venue for Hart. After that, they have a unique, Lightweight-only outing with the VRRA June 28-30, at another circuit few Lightweight racers have experienced, Calabogie. How will Hart do as he completes his 2019 National road trip?
