Motorcycle races stay close

Rob O’Brien/Cdnsuperbike.com

Jordan Szoke (#1) leads Brett McCormick (#6) during the second Parts Canada Superbike feature race at Mosport International Raceway last month.

Larry Tate

SPECIAL TO THE STAR

The close competition of bike racing championships around the world has temporarily halted, as everyone takes a deep breath to relax during the traditional early August break.

It's great to see that every major championship is still up for grabs.

Canada

Kawasaki's Jordan Szoke and former teammate Brett McCormick, now riding for Suzuki, have been having a back and forth battle all season in the Pro classes of Parts Canada Superbike and Yoshimura Pro Sport Bike. While Szoke has a lead in both classes after the double-header event at Mosport July 18-19, the points structure means that just one crash or mechanical problem in the two remaining races could reverse that situation.

Szoke, who's now surpassed veteran Steve Crevier for the most Superbike wins in Canadian racing history, is gunning for an absolutely unprecedented fourth consecutive double in the two premier classes.

McCormick, still in high school, is looking to get his own name into the record books this season and break Szoke's streak.

There's a bit of animosity between the former teammates this season, ever since the Calgary round when McCormick took a last-lap, last-corner win from Szoke with a pass that most onlookers considered extremely hard (onlookers 30 metres away said they heard the bikes collide) but fair.

Szoke's opinion was rather different on the "fair" part, leading to a distinct coolness in the paddock ever since.

In the other classes, the most noteworthy point is the youth of the leading competitors.

Teenager Cody Matechuk from Cochrane, Ata. is in charge of the Armour Bodies Amateur 600 series and 14-year-old Raphael Archambault is leading the Suzuki SV650 Cup series, while another 14-year-old, Royce McLean from Coaldale, Alta., is ahead of 17-year-old Jodi Christie of Keene, Ont. in chasing the Pro Rookie of the Year award.

There are two rounds left in the series. The first in Shubenacadie, N.S. this weekend (Aug. 8-9) and the final at Shannonville, just east of Belleville, Ont., Sept. 5-6.

Moto GP

In the premier class, with 10 out of 17 races in the books, the amazing Valentino Rossi of Italy is slowly but steadily inching away from his competition.

Rossi's Yamaha certainly seems the best-balanced machine in the paddock, and the fact that his factory Fiat-Yamaha teammate Jorge Lorenzo has been his main competition this year confirms that observation.

While there have been five Moto GP winners this year – Rossi, Lorenzo, Ducati's Casey Stoner, and Repsol Honda's Dani Pedrosa and Andrea Dovizioso – Rossi is still the only rider to have proven a threat at every single race.

The man's ability to deal with shifting conditions and various competitors is uncanny, and as he continues to break records for numbers of GP wins and championships, he is also still the master at psychological warfare with his opponents.

After finishing fifth in a sloppy wet race in the U.K. after a crash and recovery, he said, "It was a great race anyway, because I was the quickest man today," and then asked victor Andrea Dovizioso for 10 Euros for showing him the fast away around the track. You've got to admire the hutzpah.

While Rossi and Lorenzo are still the best bets for the 2009 title, tough little Aussie Casey Stoner isn't far back on his Marlboro Ducati in spite of struggling with anemia and gastritis for the past couple of months, so given that they've still got seven races left, it's fair to say that the series is wide open.

Next clash is set for Indianapolis, Ind. Aug. 30.

World Superbike

On vacation until Sept. 6 when the WSB series reconvenes at the Nurburgring in Germany, this one has proved to be a serious nail-biter.

Three times a series bridesmaid, never a bride, Japan's Noriyuki Haga on the factory Xerox Ducati has had an early-season lead steadily whittled away by Texan Ben Spies.

It's Spies's first year on the circuit, with the brand-new Yamaha R-1 model, and while the three-time American champion has been impressively fast, taking almost every pole position this season and usually winning when he finishes, he's had some mechanical and crashing issues.

Meantime Haga, who has a reputation as a wild rider but this year has been superbly consistent, kept racking up top-three finishes and points. That is, until the June race at San Marino, where he crashed after hitting a bird at high speed, and at Misano, where he had a horrifying high-side crash and was lucky to escape with a broken arm.

He came back for the next race in the Czech Republic at Brno, but was certainly not in top form.

With a few weeks until the next race, Haga is bound to be back to full strength, but with a mere seven-point lead over Spies, it's basically a new season for the last four events.

Haga's teammate Michel Fabrizio is the only other rider with a realistic chance of overhauling either of the top two, but it's a long shot at best.

U.S.A.

While Mat Mladin and his Yoshimura Suzuki lead the series with two events (out of four races) left, it's sad to report that the most interesting stories from the American Motorcyclist Association are political.

Riders and teams seem to hate the new owners of the Superbike series, and the latest this past weekend in Topeka, Kan. saw three top riders from three different teams refuse to race due to safety concerns at a new track on the AMA series venue.

That included Mladin, who could have easily clinched another championship this weekend but chose to fly home instead of race.

It's an unfortunate situation; a lot of fences need mending before the 2010 series gets underway.

Larry Tate covers motorcycle racing for Wheels. He can be reached at larryt@primus.ca

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