Young riders get real taste of bike racing

Loic Viscasillas, from Laval, Que., is four-feet-nothing of size and 12-years-plus of pure aggression. He's so small he can barely see over his Honda CBR125 race bike when he's standing beside it, and he has to do a running start and dismount, jumping on and off the bike at low speed. But on track he looks like a natural in only his third time out.

He's one of four kids who enrolled for the first racing school of the year, put on by the RACE group at Shannonville Motorsports Park, a few minutes east of Belleville.

The kids were there to join up with the Honda CBR125 Challenge, a racing series intended to give youngsters a chance to get on the track and learn some racing skills with a small, nimble bike that wouldn't be too big or powerful for them to handle.

At about 113 kg and with horsepower of about 13, the intimidation factor is pretty low.

This is the second year for the series. It got off to a slow start in 2008, but it generated considerable interest. There are enough entries this year to operate regional series in Alberta and Shannonville, as well as the National rounds.

Loic's mother, Natalie-Catherine Provost, is an accomplished motorcycle racer herself, with excellent finishes in Women's Cup and Amateur 600 series, both in the regional RACE series at Shannonville and in the National series that criss-crosses the country. She's also a former equestrian champion in Quebec.

Nicole Pilkington, 15, from Blackstock, north of Oshawa, is another youngster who has racing in her genes. Her father, Stu, for years has been one of the fastest guys in the Vintage Road Racing Association. After motocrossing for the past few years, Nicole thought she'd try the road racing stuff her dad does.

She had a couple of dramatic moments in her first race the week after the school, when she ran off the track twice (once in the flat-out corner at the end of the straight, on the CBRs going maybe 120 km/h). But she avoided crashing both times. "I was so scared!" she said, her eyes wide. "Did you think about not going out again?" I asked. That earned a teenage "look," and a "No."

Leah Vignale from Kemptville is another young woman who's sampling road racing for the first time. Leah looks and acts more mature than you'd expect from somebody only 14.

She's among the tallest of the kids on the CBRs and consequently has a bit of a handicap because she can't tuck in as well as the smaller kids. Still, she's doing well; a couple of minor spills haven't deterred her and she's picking up speed.

Stavros Grekos from Toronto and his father, Tom, are also new to road racing. At 15, Stavros is the oldest and biggest of the new kids. While he's riding the CBR, his dad is entering the Novice 600 class. Stavros actually turned a faster lap than his dad at the second RACE round on Shannonville's Long Track.

Loic had things pretty much his own way at the first race of the season. Karl Robitaille, 14, of Ste-Julie, Que., won the second. He has ice-raced and motocrossed in recent years, and that experience showed.

Karl went on to card third at the National races held at the Calabogie track near Ottawa on Sunday.

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