Pace and Places
Dalton Timmis Insurance SuperPole at Shannonville offered a tight group of six riders at the front of the grid for Sunday’s first Mopar CSBK Feature race, even though quality track time had been in very short supply this Spring in Ontario. With rain affecting Thursday (all day) and Friday’s official sessions, it was encouraging that five riders joined Champ Jordan Szoke’s Express Lane/Motovan BMW S1000RR (fastest at 1:04.12) at the front of the strong field.
As is the case when the field is tightly grouped in terms of lap times, the start was crucial, and Szoke was joined up front by Kenny Riedmann’s Liqui Moly/Sturgess Cycle Kawasaki ZX-10RR Ninja and the Rider’s Choice BMW of Matt McBride when the start lights turned off – the same three that disputed the lead early in the race last year.
Scot-Build BMW pilot Ben Young was straining to catch the leaders in fourth, chased by the Royal Distributing BMW of second row starter Michael Leon, Bodhi Edie’s Z1 Yamaha YZF-R1 and returning series star Jeff Williams on his brand new BMW. Both Edie and Williams have won Feature races in the past, although 44-year-old Williams’ success was at Calgary in 1999!
Szoke picked up the pace mid-race, taking the point and pushing for his 15th straight series win – also making him the only racer that could possibly win all the races in 2017, as accomplished previously only by Szoke – three times – in 2010, 2015 and 2016.
Riedmann showed well on his new Ninja and netted a solid second, Young working up to third while McBride faded with equipment issues. The top eight finishers all lapped within a second of Szoke’s best time, with the winner quickest of all with a tour at 1:04.59 and Riedmann very close at 1:04.63. Edie wound up fifth after a tip over at the Hairpin, but earned the fourth-best lap at 1:04.87.
X Factor Next
The second round of the Mopar CSBK Tour takes place on the Technical, clockwise layout of Grand Bend Motorplex June 8-11. This is the first-ever National at Grand Bend, and many of the series regulars have never competed at the southern Lake Huron summer tourist area.
On a rare warm Spring day, Szoke tested both his BWM’s at the venue in June, getting the opportunity to start dialling in his machinery. Rookie Pro and Flat Track star Doug Lawrence (Pro 6 Suzuki GSX-R1000) also managed a number of laps on a borrowed bike.
Some National regulars have raced with Regional group SOAR at Grand Bend, and reigning RACE SuperSeries Champ Leon certainly knows the multi-layout venue well. Top local expert is expected to be Scott Rupert on a Suzuki, although former top Amateur National competitor Steve Nickerson has recently run at the front locally on a Honda CBR1000RR.
Event staff have been busy preparing a plan for the venue, famous for hosting National-level drag events for both cars and bikes. With eleven turns, several linked in terms of approach, insiders expect middleweight class machines to be able to lap just as fast as the 1000cc machines at the Motorplex. No one knows what the ultimate lap time will be for the track, but the front runners are expected to complete a tour in just over one minute.
Casas Scores Break-through Victory
Freshly back from a training session with Valentino Rossi’s Yamaha Academy in Italy, just-turned-18 Tomas Casas started his third Pro season with a new Peterborough Cycle/Parts Canada-backed Yamaha R6, and a solid win in Liqui Moly Pro Sport Bike. This is the anticipated break-through that experts have predicted for Casas, who is now the favourite for the Middleweight crown.
Biggest challenger to Casas at the opener was Kawasaki-mounted, eventual second place finisher Kris Garvie, absent from the Tour for over a year. No one knew former Honda pilot Garvie would purchase a stored, sorta-ex-works ZX-6R Ninja two weeks before the opener, try it once and decide to return to National action. Pole position proved the potency of the Garvie-Kawasaki pairing, as did Garvie holding the lead for the first half of the race.
Mitch Card had a rough weekend in his return to the series full-time after his pair of Amateur National titles in 2012. None the less, the Yamaha-mounted ace charged from the back of the grid to net third, and those points could be crucial later in the Championship.
With long-time title holders Szoke, Riedmann and Honda’s Jodi Christie no longer active in Sport Bike, Card has the most wins of active racers with two from last year at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park; Fifth at Shannonville Louie Raffa (Honda) has won once, and Casas is now also on this very short success list.
Rookie Pros Show Form
The top Amateurs from 2016, Magneti Marelli Superbike Champ Jean-Marc Bilger, Shoei Premium Helmets Sport Bike Champ Chris Brent and fellow Honda 600-mounted front-runner Jacob Shaw-O’Leary, all showed well in their Pro National debuts.
The strongest effort came from Brent on his Stinson/Hindle/Human 2.0 Honda CBR600RR, on the pace from the get-go in Qualifying. Brent just missed the podium in Liqui Moly Pro Sport Bike, netting fourth and suggesting a podium is a reasonable expectation this season.
Bilger didn’t do as well, opting not to race his Vortex-backed ZX-6R Ninja in Sport Bike, and then placing 16th after more troubles with his ex-Riedmann ZX-10R in the Feature. However, Bilger’s race pace would have placed him somewhere around 12th if he hadn’t experienced various issues.
For Shaw-O’Leary, a crash at home at Atlantic Motorsport Park the week before Shannonville made things complicated, and a pair of falls at the National with the Pro Cycle Honda had the team scrambling to deal with clutch issues. A seventh in Sport Bike, battling with fellow impressive rookie David MacKay (expected to feature at Grand Bend), means Shaw-O’Leary salvaged some points and should improve as the season progresses.
Ninja Upstarts and star Amateurs in Action
It was no surprise when Jared Walker dominated Saturday’s opening race of year two of the Kawasaki Ninja 300 Spec Series, showing that the pre-season favourite was definitely out to take the National crown. Walker was starting to pull away in Sunday’s race two, but a fall coming off the back straight opened up the lead options.
National first-timer Xavier Paradis, backed by magazine Moto Journal/Cycle Canada, was third in his first National race, but took control at the front after Walker’s misfortune to earn an early break-through victory in race two. Second in the opener, Johann Plancque was third in part two, while Jake LeClair opened with a fifth but climbed to second on Sunday. Amy Szoke went 4/4, close to the podium twice, in her return to regular series after a seven season maternity leave!
Meanwhile, Walker remounted and charged through to salvage sixth, gaining series points that will be useful later over the ten race series. Walker also set the quickest lap of the race by half a second, at 1:18.96.
Jared’s older brother, Cameron, had a good debut in Shoei Premium Helmets Amateur Sport Bike, placing fourth on a Yamaha YZF-R6 behind victor Samuel Desmarais (Kawasaki), Jean-Francois Aubin (Suzuki) and Vincent Levillain (Yamaha). The impressive Desmarais also won the Magneti Marelli Amateur Superbike opener on the same ZX-6R Ninja, Dave Natale second on an Aprilia and Aubin third aboard a Yamaha R1.
