Shannonville Report: Stacey Nesbitt

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Category: Team News

Published on Thursday, June 12, 2014 12:10 EDT

Stacey Nesbitt nabs CSBK Amateur Sport Bike win

Round one of the Mopar Canadian Superbike championship kicked off June 6-8 at Shannonville Motorsport Park, Ontario. The season got off to a strong start and by end of Friday practice Stacey was second on both AM Sport Bike and AM Superbike timesheets. Jon Cornwell continued to refine the set up on the OCM Racing/FTR/Honda Canada CBR600RR in preparation for Saturday qualifying. AM Sport Bike qualifying was first up in the afternoon. Track temperature had improved with the warm, sunny weather. Stacey eventually qualified second, just missing pole by 0.103 seconds. In the AM Superbike qualifying the bike was not driving out of the turns properly so she was relieved to be only 0.2 seconds down on her earlier time to end up third on the grid - a front row start for both races. The drive problem remained in the first Sunday warm up practice but fortunately was resolved for the second warm up.

An average start in AM Sport Bike saw Stacey enter Turn 1 in seventh position but she moved up two places by Turn 3. She continued to work her way up to second. Mid distance saw Stacey make a move to the front only to loose it again on the back straight. It was a tight four way battle for the lead. With a lap and a half to go Stacey made another move in Turn 2 and was able to gain enough distance to hold it at the end of the back straight. Stacey said “I thought it was the last lap so we I came around and saw the last lap flag I had to keep the pace up for one more lap”. Indeed she pushed hard on the final lap with a time of 1:08.689, over a second faster that her previous best time, to cross the line first by 0.477 seconds.

The AM Superbike race was the last race of the day with Stacey again using the OCM Racing/FTR/Honda Canada CBR600RR. At the lights Stacey was in down in sixth and had to battle for a number of laps. She was eventually able to get by and set off after the group  front. By the last lap she was fighting for the final podium position but there was not enough time to mount a challenge against the superbikes. She crossed the line in fifth place. 

A delighted Stacey said “This weekend the bike handled the best ever. I am very happy to have had Jon and Pat helping me out – thank you.  It feels great to be back on the top step of the podium at a national and to take my first ever win on a 600. A big thank also goes to OCM Racing (Amir & Mike) and Honda Canada”

It was a bonus to pick up the Ipone award for the rider in the Amateur Sport Bike class who brings the greatest level of Professionalism and Presentation to the race weekend.

Stacey  competes with support from OCM Racing, Honda Canada Inc., FTR, Jon Cornwell, Arai Helmet Americas, Pro 6 Cycle Inc., R&M Electrical, Powersports Canada, Fast Company, Bluestreak Racing, Hindle Exhaust, Mikeymoto, International Supershow, Club Ouest Gym and Lucky Stripe. 

The next round of the CSBK series takes place at Autodrome St-Eustache in St-Eustache, QC, on July 4-6. Follow the team on www.statoniracing.com or facebook (Statoni Racing Team). For more information about the Canadian Superbike Series visit www.csbk.ca.

From a press release