A busy day of support class races produced plenty of thrilling results at Atlantic Motorsport Park on Sunday, which included the first national champion of the year being crowned in round four, presented by Pro Cycle and Canadian Kawasaki.
Mack Weil captured the first title of the year in the Niagara Race Crafters Ninja ZX-4RR Cup, clinching the inaugural championship with his seventh win out of eight races.
The Snow City Cycle Marine Kawasaki rider has dominated the pro split in his rookie season, extending a 120-point lead over Dave Walker with only four races and 108 points remaining on the year.
Weil would take his fourth win in a row over amateur Jean-Pascal Schroeder, who moved to within 18 points of the championship lead in their split as points leader Adolfo Silva hopes to return from injury for round five.
J.P. Tache won a pair of Importations Thibault Pro-Am Twins races on Sunday, after their Saturday race was postponed to create a one-day doubleheader.
The Aprilia rider took both victories outright on the combined grid, besting fellow pro Dallas Reynolds on both occasions to add his second and third victories of the year.
The pair of runner-up results were enough for Reynolds to extend his championship lead in the pro split to 23 points, with Craig Atkinson finishing third in the pro field both times to keep his hopes alive in second overall.
East coast favourite Vincent Wilson was the top amateur in both Twins battles, finishing third on-track and enjoying a pair of duels with Reynolds.
The big day extends Wilson’s lead in the amateur standings to 58 points, winning his seventh race on eight tries to inch closer to his own national crown.
Goran Radisic’s impressive streak of top-two finishes continued in dominant fashion on Sunday, as he captured his fourth win of the AIM Insurance Amateur Superbike campaign to open up a 33-point lead over Tyler Brewer.
Radisic, who began his career at AMP and had plenty of friends and family in attendance, jumped out to an early lead for the PMR BMW team and never looked back, with Zaim Laflamme crucially sandwiching himself between Radisic and Brewer to finish second while Brewer could only salvage third after his race one win.
Serge Boyer moved one step closer to a national championship in the EBC Brakes Amateur Sport Bike category, winning a thrilling battle with Laflamme for his fourth victory of the year and seventh top-two finish in a row.
Laflamme pushed the championship leader right to the wire as he tried for the weekend sweep, but Boyer would hold on by 0.267 seconds to open up a 45-point advantage.
Championship rival Laurent Laliberté-Girard was forced to settle for fifth once again, seeing his 22-point deficit at the season’s midway point more than double following round four.
Local star Baillie Ives completed the perfect weekend in the Super Sonic Road Race School Pro-Am Lightweight class, outlasting a late charge from Gary McKinnon to take the outright victory on Sunday.
Ives was an unbelievable 25 seconds clear of next amateur Scott Connolly on the day, needing not to battle with pro championship leader McKinnon, but that didn’t prevent the Brookfield, Nova Scotia native from escaping with the on-track win anyways as he held off the veteran McKinnon by 0.691 seconds.
Despite falling just short on-track, McKinnon still did enough to beat next-best pro Jacob Black in third, extending his championship advantage to 97 points while Black moves into second overall.
As for Ives, the Yamaha rider will turn his 63 point pre-weekend deficit into just a nine point gap after securing the rare perfect weekend, having taken pole position, an incredible comeback win on Saturday, and a start-to-finish victory on Sunday.
Full results from Sunday’s action can be found on the series’ official website.