Morrison wins FIM MiniGP Canada race one in west coast debut at Greg Moore Raceway

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Category: Other Racing News

Published on Sunday, June 25, 2023 06:37 EDT

Written by Cam Bickle

The long wait for the first official action of the FIM MiniGP Canada series finally ended on Saturday, as Treston Morrison took the inaugural points-paying victory in the series at the Greg Moore Raceway in Chilliwack, British Columbia.

The west-coast tripleheader round was hosted by the Pacific Coast Mini Road Racing Club, who helped make the event possible for the feature MiniGP Canada class, presented by Motul and Pirelli.

The series unofficially debuted with a warm-up invitational weekend one month ago at the Lombardy Raceway in Ontario, where Morrison finished third in race one and crashed out ahead of race two in the feature Ohvale-backed class.

He waited until it really counted to make his way to the front, however, instantly topping Q1 on Friday behind a time of 1:04.375, over a half-second clear of his next competitor.

Morrison then smashed that time in Q2, going a full second faster to post a benchmark of 1:03.370 and again 0.557 seconds ahead of second place, which would be reigning runner-up Benjamin Hardwick. 

As if that early pace wasn’t dominant enough, the 13-year-old star out of Calgary, Alberta would leave little to the imagination when the lights went out, storming to a seven-second victory and the first ever FIM sanctioned road race win in the province of B.C.

The triumph is also the inaugural win of the MiniGP Canada series after its adoption to the FIM global tour, with Morrison making his presence felt early as he climbs the ladder of Canadian racing.

“The race was amazing! It was really fun, but a super tiring 12 laps,” Morrison said. “I want to thank my mom and dad, they have done this all for me. It’s all them.”

The bigger story was instead what went on behind Morrison, as Hardwick got tangled up early on with Bridgestone CSBK Scholarship Award rider Rhys McNutt, though both were thankfully okay and would remount.

That allowed ten-year-old star Michael Galvis through to match his best result from the invitational weekend, applying pressure to Morrison mid-race for the lead before eventually settling in to bring it home an astounding 26 seconds clear of the final podium finisher, Lincoln Scott.

Scott – the winner of both races in Lombardy – was riding injured after breaking his wrist two weeks ago, seemingly allowing his rivals to make up an early advantage on the pre-season favourite while he recovered.

Instead, Scott capitalized on his opportunities to salvage a race one podium, posting his best lap of the race on the final go-around to narrowly fend off Ashton Parker in fourth, who sat third for most of the race and tried to move back past Scott in the final section but came up just short.

McNutt would recover from his lap two collision with Hardwick and begin to carve his way through the field, though he could only recover to fifth by the end of the 12-lap event, flashing podium pace in the process as he hopes for a better outcome Sunday.

Hardwick wasn’t as fortunate, seeing his day come to an early end after his crash forced him to retire with minor damage, a broken footpeg the culprit as he put himself on the backfoot in the championship entering races two and three.

Completing the field was Grayson Vondras-Elder in sixth and Ryder Lock seventh, both shaving significant time off their early pace on Friday as they come to grips with their Ohvale machines.

The FIM MiniGP Canada series will continue with two more feature races on Sunday at the Greg Moore Raceway, as each rider gets another pair of opportunities to add to their early season point totals before heading to round three of six in Strathmore, Alberta on July 1-2.