Szoke clinches Superbike title

Larry Tate

SPECIAL TO THE STAR

A great season for the Parts Canada Superbike championship ended in fine style at Shannonville Motorsport Park last Sunday, as all five classes went down to the wire.

Kawasaki and defending series champion Jordan Szoke were the big winners, Szoke repeating his 2006 record of taking both the premier Superbike and Pro 600 titles.

In both cases the Brantford native had to fend off Steve Crevier of Maple Ridge, B.C., on his Fast Company Yamahas.

Crevier, Canada's most successful racer with a record 26 career national Superbike wins, did what he had to do by leading every lap of the Superbike feature, but Szoke needed only a seventh place finish to clinch the title and played a tactical game.

He ran fifth for much of the race, finally finishing fourth when Matt McBride on the Rider's Choice Suzuki crashed out of that position near the end of the race.

Second place on the day went to Szoke's Kawasaki teammate, the amazing rookie pro rider Brett McCormick of Saskatoon. McCormick turned 16 just a few weeks ago and is already riding at a pace and with a calm professionalism that usually take years to develop.

He just edged out Quebec rider Kevin Lacombe on the Brooklin Cycle Yamaha with a brave last-lap pass.

In the Pro 600 race, Crevier and Szoke again ran up front. Crevier led until the final two laps, when Szoke put on a decisive pass and held on for a 0.119 of a second win:

"I was relaxed in second," Szoke said, "but he left the door open near the end there and I thought I should go for it in case things got crazy behind me."

Third went to Szoke's Kawasaki teammate McCormick.

The Amateur 600 Sport Bike race was perhaps the most exciting of the day, with Paul Glenn of Keene, Ont. and Israel Johnas of Oak Lake, Man. in contention for the championship.

Glenn started from the front row and led 12 of the 14 laps; then Pedro Sousa of Mississauga got by and held on for his first career national victory.

On the second-last lap, Catherine Nadeau of Lachine, Que. also slipped past Glenn to take a crowd-pleasing second.

Glenn knew that third was enough for his title and held station, while Johnas had a bad day and had to settle for ninth and second in the final standings.

Two other front-running challengers, pole-sitter Raoul Dua and second-qualifier Marie-Josée Boucher, were out of the running early on; while neither crashed, Dua and "Mary Jo" out-braked each other at the end of the back straight, both having to run off the track and return mid-pack.

Boucher redeemed herself later in the day in the Women's Challenge Cup feature, where she and Nadeau dueled for 12 laps, finishing in that order.

They are the two fastest graduates to date of the very successful five-year-old Women's Challenge series, which has developed a number of excellent female competitors.

The Canadian Thunder final – the class for twin-cylinder air-cooled machines – saw Toronto's twice-national Superbike champ Michael Taylor on his factory BMW and Michael Leon of Beaconsfield, Que. on the Laval Harley-Davidson Buell in contention for the title.

Leon had not qualified well and had a hard slog to finish sixth, while pole-sitter Taylor moved to the front at two-thirds distance and held on to win the race and the title.

Second place went to Dave Estok of New Smyrna, Fla. on a Deeley-sponsored Ruthless Racing Buell, while third went to Chad Pasowisty of Calgary on his Ducati Canada Ducati PS1000LE – it was certainly the most geographically diverse podium of the weekend!

Defending Thunder champion Darren James of Vancouver had a rough day, riding as he was while still recovering from a broken elbow.

James ran off the track once and saved it, then crashed his Buell on the next lap with brake problems.

The final National class, the Suzuki SV650 Cup, went to Martin Grande of Montreal thanks to his runner-up race finish behind Brantford's Rob Busby.

Derek Vammus of Orangeville, the only racer who could have beaten Grande for the championship (and that only if Grande had finished 12th or worse), ran up front early but faded toward the end to finish third.

While the Parts Canada National series is done for the year, there is still some racing action to see in Ontario this month, with the Vintage Road Racing Association holding its final event on a temporary airport circuit in North Bay this weekend, and the RACE finals at Shannonville set for September 29-30.

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

On the Moto GP front, Casey Stoner looks to be unstoppable in his quest for his first Moto GP world title after the Sept. 2 race at Misano in Italy.

Once again he and his Bridgestone-shod Ducati simply motored off into the distance away from the rest of the field.

Suzuki teammates Chris Vermeulen and John Hopkins completed the podium.

Admittedly, the top finishers were helped considerably early on. First, Kawasaki's Randy de Puniet crashed in the second corner on the first lap, taking out both Repsol Hondas – Dani Pedrosa was knocked down and out, while Nicky Hayden was forced off the track and only rejoined in last place with a damaged rear tire, effectively ending his race.

Then on the fifth lap, defending world champ Valentino Rossi's Yamaha suffered an engine problem and Rossi had to retire.

Stoner now has an 85-point lead from Rossi in the championship, with only a maximum of 125 points left to be gathered for winning all five remaining races.

Next race is at Estoril in Portugal Sept. 16.

Going in the other direction in the U.S., the series battle is heating up rather than cooling down as Mat Mladin has chased down his Yoshimura Suzuki teammate and defending champion Ben Spies with only one race left on the calendar at Laguna Seca in California on Sept. 16.

Mladin has won the last six in a row, so it would be hard to bet against him.

More videos from Wheels.ca and our partners