Beattie Repeats at London FT Nat

Returning to race action for the first time since injuring his hand on Father’s Day, veteran Steve Beattie put in a dominant performance aboard the KBR Honda single to take the Feature race win in the Open Expert class at the London Fairgrounds Flat Track Canada event, round nine of the Championship, Saturday, August 22.

Moving quickly through the pack, Beattie passed the Harley-Davidson XR750 of race and Championship leader Doug Lawrence about a quarter of the way into the final, the gradually pulled clear for the victory.  Meanwhile, Don Taylor, on the Parts Canada backed XR750, put on a spectacular charge following his bad start, working the cushion, to take second at the chequered.

Lawrence, fresh from an impressive road racing inaugural outing the previous weekend at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park in the debut of the Kawasaki Ninja 300 series, settled for third and extended his lead in the overall series points standings with two rounds left to run.

“I decided at the last minute to race tonight,” explained Beattie at the Podium post-race.  “We actually discussed it Friday night.  This is the same bike I won with here last year, and I haven’t ridden at all since Father’s Day.  Obviously, I haven’t forgotten too much!”

Looking a little gray and dealing with food poisoning, Taylor wasn’t sure he would be able to compete at the popular 5/8 mile London venue.  

“I didn’t get a good start, I couldn’t shift because I was up against another bike, and once we got straight I was eating roost like crazy,” began Taylor.  “My bike wasn’t really set-up to ride up high on the cushion, but we made it work.  It could have gone a lot worse, but it’s another year I didn’t get the win at London.”

Lawrence wasn’t thrilled with third, but overall, the Championship leader was glad to wind up with the final podium spot: “I really got a decent start, I was confident, happy to ride the bottom and let everything work out.  Then I lost my brakes, and I had to switch to survival mode.”

“I beat the guy I needed to beat (near-season long Expert Open points leader Tyler Seguin) so that was the most important goal,” continued “Fresh”.  “Steve (Beattie) was really riding great, but I thought his line would go away, and I was wrong about that.” 

A number of top Canadian road racers were on hand to compete at London, with their National season completed the weekend before with the Double Header at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park.

Newly crowned Mopar CSBK overall Champ Jordan Szoke considered making his career Flat Track debut at London, tested at the Paris Short Track on Tuesday night, but a busy schedule made the National a no-go.  Szoke next race is expected to compete aboard his regular Mopar Express BMW S1000RR Superbike at the final Moto America round in New Jersey, September 11-13. 

In London’s intermediate DTX Final, several road racers qualified, and Kenny Riedmann made up for a bad start to net eighth out of 16 starters, Bentley Thistlethwaite a close ninth.  After a rough qualifying Jodi Christie transferred through the last chance race with his borrowed Honda, and made his way through the field to claim 11th.    

Occasional Amateur National racer Thistlethwaite had the best result in the other race packed with pavement specialists, taking his Suzuki to 7th in Open Intermediate, with back row starter Christie right behind at the chequered flag.  Riedmann had a good start but fell early.  Trevor Daley and Kris Garvie showed well but had a number of issues and didn’t make the cut from the busy entry of Intermediate level competitors.

Next round in the Flat Track Canada Series is September 5th at the Paris Short Track, the season ending with the final showdown at Wheatley, hosted by the Erie Rambler’s Club, September 19.