Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Nelson and Christie earn RACE titles
By Don Empey
SHANNONVILLE ON -- The RACE SuperSeries ended on a high note for a couple of riders Sept. 27 as the season wrapped up and a pair of new champions were crowned. Andrew Nelson took the Pro Superbike title and Jodi Christie was victorious in the Pro 600 class.
However, in his first race as a Pro rider, Longueuil, QC's Sebastian Tremblay ran off to a commanding win in the Pro 6 Cycle / Dunlop Tire Superbike final. Tremblay worked his way to the front of a four-rider battle to take the well-earned win.
In second, and winning the Superbike title, was Nelson aboard his Nelson Racing prepped Yamaha R1. Former champ Karl Daigle succumbed to the wet conditions and lost the front end in corner 2, ending his bid to reclaim his title.
Honda-mounted Christie took the final step of the podium and finished second overall for the season.
Christie capped off a very successful season,! winning the Parts Canada Pro 600 race and championship. After a poor start, Christie worked his way forward and by lap 4 took the lead away from the struggling Daigle. The young first year Pro rider then took the number one plate, leading the remaining laps in the rain soaked final.
In second was Tremblay who had a race long battle with Daigle, who struggled with handling problems on his Kawasaki ZX-6R and had to settle for a disappointing third, losing his title to Christie.
With the battle already won in the previous round, Amateur rider Efram Ellenbogen could have opted out of the final contest but chose to leave his mark on the series anyway. During Saturday's qualifying sessions Ellenbogen showed his prowess, breaking the Pro Track record in both the AM Superbike and AM 600 Sportbike classes.
For Sunday's final, the slate gray skies opened up, making conditions treacherous and visibility was at a premium. In the Acme Slate AM Superbike! contest, Ellenbogen's teammate Billy Shields got the early le! ad with a four-rider freight train in pursuit. With his face shield completely fogged up, series champion Ellenbogen wisely decided to drop back to second, as he watched Shields romped to the race win. In third was Marco Dias.
There was much of the same for the Rush Racing AM 600 contest. With Shields off into the early lead, Aaron Kennedy charged ahead of Ellenbogen to grab second.
With the Pro Honda Oils Women's Cup Challenge series already wrapped up, Kahuna Kawasaki mounted Vicki Schouten opted out of Sunday's wet final leaving Vanessa Gareau Dominguez and Natalie C. Provost to battle it out for runner up honours.
With a great start Provost took the early lead but Gareau-Dominguez was relentless in her pursuit. By mid-point of the race, the lead was exchanged several times until Gareau-Dominguez took control on the penultimate lap and took the race win. Provost, who was battling heroically through a season long back injuries, bravely soldiered on! to take second with Kana Matsumoto grabbing the final step of the podium.
Michael Leon led most of the Coventry Motorcorp Liquid Cooled Thunder class but ran afoul of his own mischief, tossing his MBP Ducati 1098 away on the final lap of the race, handing over the race and championship to a hard charging Derek Vammus aboard the Peninsula Import Ducati.
In Bike Pro Air Cooled Thunder action it was Buell mounted Franz Walker in first with Dan Thomson, also Buell mounted taking second. Open Road BMW rider, Steve "Doc" Walker already had the championship surgically sewed up for another year.
Brantford, ON's Rob Busby already earned the Orion Motorsports SV Suzuki Cup championship and also went on to a commanding race win.
The Excel Honda CBR125R Cup race was a slippery affair. Nicole Pilkington continues to improve, earning her first win of the season just ahead of series champion Loic Viscasillas.
Ben Young stopped at Sha! nnonville briefly on his way to Spain to compete in the Red Bu! ll Rooki es Cup and rode his Honda to a win in the Bickle Racing Pro 125 GP race.
