Article de début de saison

Par :
Freelance motorcycle racing writer Larry Tate

Teenagers and veterans shine in spring openers
LARRY TATE
SPECIAL TO THE STAR

Apr 26, 2008

Racing season in Canada opened last weekend at Shannonville Motorsport Park with a superb mix of seasoned veterans and scary-fast rookies basking in mid-June weather – miraculous for April 20 near Belleville (particularly considering the low single-digit temperatures and driving rain only a week before at the first test session).

The feature winner in Pro Superbike was Calgary's Clint McBain, making a rare stop at the RACE series. He wanted to get in some testing on his new Alberta Cycle-sponsored Suzuki before the first Parts Canada national event May 25 at the Calabogie Motorsports Park venue, and collected a bit of handy prize money to boot.

He was also introducing teenage stepson Cody Matechuk to racing, and an impressive start it was, with Cody carding a fifth out of 18 riders in the SV Cup race.

Long-time Shannonville hero Frank Trombino shadowed McBain for second in superbike, and later copped the win in the Pro 600 race – but only after teen Karl Daigle lost the front end and crashed just before half-distance while leading. Daigle managed to recover and get back on track (with chief referee Chris Chapelle's pants belt helping to hold his fairing together!) to finish ninth and score a few points toward the season championship.

Appropriately (given Danica Patrick's maiden win in IndyCar racing this weekend) another newcomer showed well in this contest, as first-year Pro Marie-Josée Boucher from Montreal finished a terrific third in her first-ever Pro race. Boucher, one of the two fastest of the impressive crop of female racers that the Womens' Cup series has spawned, looked comfortable as well as quick in her Pro debut.

Catherine Nadeau, the only other woman to jump to the Pro ranks after last season, was a no-show, and rumours have it that she may sit out the year due to cost/sponsorship issues.

Boucher also set something of a record by winning the Womens' Open race by the smallest margin anyone could ever recall – neither she nor second-place finisher Genevieve Lesieur knew who'd won, nor did I (I was doing checkered flag duty in that race so was centimetres from them). The timing system came up with a 0.007 second margin; at more than 160 km/h that's not much distance at all.

Another newcomer (this one still in high school), Jodi Christie, lived up to his debut 2007 season by taking a clear win in the hard-fought Amateur 600 class. He was closely chased by Alain Levebvre early on, but eased away to a comfortable six-second win.

Some riders wanted Christie bumped into the Pro ranks after his amazing 2007 year, but officials decided that tossing a 16-year-old into the lion's den in his second year of racing was asking a bit much. Still, you can believe the Canadian distributors are watching him closely, and Yamaha is already helping him out.

More youngsters dominated the GP classes – in the combined 125 Pro and Amateur race, the combined ages of the first four finishers probably wouldn't have been more than 55. The oldest of the group, Josh Wong, is all of 16, and he finished second behind aptly-named Ben Young, a recent import from Scotland.

They both ride as Pros, and third overall and first amateur was Ken Riedmann (whose dad was a fast GP rider in the 1980s), followed by Steve Nickerson. At a young-looking 13, Nickerson has a ridiculous amount of racing experience

U.S., with Canadian content

The Parts Canada Superbike series held its usual pre-season test session at the Jennings track in northern Florida April 15-16 and, while the turnout was light, most of the heavyweight factory guys showed up.

Two-time defending national champ Jordan Szoke took his Kawasaki ZX-10R to the fastest time, closely followed by Calgary's Chris Peris (who just signed with the Blackfoot Suzuki team based in his home town), and Kevin Lacombe, still on a Yamaha but with Scott Miller's Fast Company team this year.

After the official test, most of the group went to play at Barber Motorsports Park in Alabama for the second U.S. AMA round of the season, with some impressive results posted. Peris and Szoke finished ninth and 10th in the first superbike feature, then 11th and 12th in the second part of the double-header.

In the Superstock race (a class more closely aligned to the Canadian superbike rules), Szoke carded an excellent fourth, with teammate McCormick in sixth. Francis Martin and Matt McBride, Peris's teammates on the Blackfoot team, took an eighth and 14th.

On the overalls for the AMA weekend, Yoshimura Suzuki ace Mat Mladin crushed the competition and his teammates with two strong victories. International

It was a good weekend around the world for Suzuki, as the Suzuki Endurance Racing Team (SERT) took the top two spots at the Le Mans 24-Hour world endurance race in France. Defending world champions Vincent Philippe, Matthieu Lagrive and Julien Da Costa lost the lead to their teammates when the bike crashed during the night session, but they recovered to take second behind second-team riders William Costes, Guillaume Dietrich and Barry Veneman.

The Acropolis Moto Expert Yamaha team out of Greece rounded out the podium in third, while two private Suzukis took the fourth and fifth places.

Shannonville, Ontario, Fabi Track 18-19-20 Avril

Geneviève Lesieur revient de Shannonville où elle a disputé les premières manches du championnat régional R.A.C.E. La fin de semaine a été marquée par des températures record de 27 degrés, contribuant à rendre les courses très physiques en ce début de saison.

Dans la classe féminine, malgré un départ raté Lesieur réussie à terminer la lutte si serrée au fil d’arrivée que la gagnante a dû être déterminée à l'aide de preuves informatiques, qui l’ont malheureusement consacrée 2e avec une différence de 7 millièmes de secondes:

«J'étais évidemment désapointée, mais avec du recul, je suis très fière de mon comportement en piste, je n'ai jamais abandonné! Je crois que la pilote Marie-Josée Boucher ne soupçonnait pas que j’étais si près… je l’ai donc prise par surprise au dernier virage pour nous retrouver côte à côte au fil d’arrivée.»

Chez les hommes, dans les classes Amateur 600 et Superbike, Geneviève a bien tiré son épingle du jeu en récoltant une 8e place en 600 et une 6e en Superbike:

«C’était la première fois que je coursais sur la Fabi Track et même si je visais un top 5, mes temps étaient exceptionnels. Pour ajouter un peu plus de pratique, je m’étais inscrite à la classe Superbike (1000cc et moins) dans laquelle je devais me mesurer à des motos plus puissantes, c'était une bonne expérience et ma 6e place est donc très prometteuse!»

C'était également la première fin de semaine de la saison pour toute l'équipe Chainé Performance/Sport Patoine:

«J'ai adoré rouler avec les membres de l'équipe, il y a eu beaucoup de respect tant en piste que dans les puits. En plus de tous bien performer, nous avons eu bien du plaisir à collaborer ensemble!» ajoutait Lesieur.

Prochaine course: 2-4 Mai, Shannonville, RACE Régional Round 2, Nelson Track

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Shannonville, Ontario, Fabi Track April 18-19-20
Geneviève Lesieur is back from Shannonville where she competed in the first rounds of the R.A.C.E. regional championship. The weekend was marked by temperature record of 27 degrees, contributing to make the races physically very hard at this season beginning.

In the Women's class, despite a bad start, Lesieur managed to fight until the very end causing a finish so tight that the winner had to be determined using transponders evidence, which unfortunately put her 2nd with a difference of only 7 thousands of a second:

"I was obviously disappointed, but looking at it from now, I am very proud of my racing on the track, I never gave up! I think the pilot Marie-Josée Boucher did not suspect that I was so close… I have therefore taken her by surprise in the last corner resulting ourselves to be side by side at the start / finish line."

For mixed, in the Amateur 600 and Superbike classes, Genevieve has been very successful by collecting an 8th place in 600 and a 6th in the Superbike:

" It was my first career race on the FABI track and even if I aimed a top 5, my lap times were exceptionals. To get more track time, I registered in the Superbike class (1000cc and below) in which I would measure up to more powerful bikes, it was a good experience and my 6th place is very promising!"

It was also the first weekend of the season for the entire Chainé Performance / Sport Patoine team:

" I loved to race with my team members; there were a lot of respect both on and off the track. In addition to everyone very good week-end performances, we had much fun to work together!" Lesieur said.

Next race: May 2-4, Shannonville, RACE Regional Round 2, Nelson Track

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Quelques photos trouvées ici et là sur le web... merci aux amis de Facebook! hihihi




Départ raté chez les filles... :S