The second round of the Ontario Regional roadrace series at Shannonville Motorsport Park’s 15 turn, 4.03 km long venue saw reigning Pro champ and number one plate Eli Daccache of Newcastle, ON, produce another solid effort. Daccache won three out of four wins in classes for 1000cc Superbikes with his Milwaukee backed Yamaha YZF-R1, similar results to the early May, cool weather opener.
Once again, his archrival was the Royal/Pro 6 BMW S1000RR of Michael Leon. In the opening day of action, Daccache took the lead from the start of the Sprint Cup race but had a near crash, and a close-by Leon moved into first. The pair then diced but Daccache couldn’t figure a pass, with Leon winning by less than (.15) a second.
Rain delayed the first Lou-Anne Printing Pro Superbike race to Sunday morning, and Daccache got a great start, holding off Leon and the Farnham Breweries Yamaha R1 of Ernest Bernhard. But Leon closed the gap, as threatening clouds started to spit rain at the far northwest hairpin of the venue. Unfortunately, this caught out leader Leon, who fell and forced a Red Flag stoppage.
Daccache was credited with the win, while Leon was transported to hospital with damaged ribs, and injured lung and concussion. Leon did have the concession of turning his best-ever lap at 1:45.49 prior to the incident.
BMW mounted Chris Fehr netted second after a good dice with third placed Suzuki rider Matthew Annable. Bernhard earned fourth after running off the end of the back straight.
“You never want to see anything like that,” explained Daccache during the enforced break in proceedings. “Things were good, it was close – we don’t often run together. We both checked up, we could see the rain. It wasn’t that big a crash.”
Photos by Colin Fraser
In the second Sprint Cup race, Daccache took off to win by half a minute from Bernhard, who was in turn eight seconds clear of Fehr.
The final Superbike race combined Pros and Amateurs in a successful effort to get in front of more pending bad weather. Daccache was gone from the start to beat Bernhard by 32 seconds, Fehr again holding off Annable for third.
Julien Montpetit (Kaw) got clear to win the Joe Rocket-backed Amateur division, while J.S. Lefebvre (Duc) earned second in AM after a good dice with Saturday victor Parker Sabine-Craig (Yam) and quick opener runner-up and fourth in the finale, fast youngster Deven Arseneau (Triumph triple).
In combined Supersport action, Kawasaki ZX-6R Ninja mounted Pro Drew Weber won twice, although on day two it took a while to catch fast starting Amateur Honda pilot Adam Pearsall. Third on the road in the first Supersport race was second placed Amateur Daniel Johnson, sixth on Sunday. Montpetit was second Amateur in the second Supersport race followed by Sabine-Craig.
The opening Middleweight counter was won by Pascal Bastien on a brand new MotoLimitee Aprilia from the Kawasaki 400-4 of fast photog Jean-Pascal Schroeder and Jeff Miller on his recently rebuilt Aprilia. The second Middleweight race was held on a drying track, and Miller sprinted to a solid victory from Kawasaki mounted veteran Alan Burns and J.P. Schroeder.
Hindle Lightweight offered an unusual competition at the front, where racers associated with Saturday’s MotoMINI National and the Super Sonic Road Race School took centre stage. Back from injury, Stefan Tanasic (age 15) got a great start in both races aboard his Snow City Kawasaki, and was chased by his Ohvale 190 archrival Jager Stockill, last year’s 13-year-old Canadian Ohvale 160 Champ and rep for Team Canada in Spain.
Stockill was riding a Super Sonic Yamaha R3 and chased by Team Canada Captain, Mini coach, and Super Sonic School owner Toni Sharpless. Tanasic won both races, Stockill staying closer in the opener, with Sharpless third both times.
Tom Ritchie won the first Novice race on a Kawasaki from Kyle Fenn’s Honda, and these two also dueled for the win in the second, drying surface race. Ritchie won again with Fenn second well ahead of Suzuki mounted Andrew Rhodes. Just after the rain, Deven Arseneau won the poorly attended Heavyweight final.
In Regional Mini action, Tammer Chehade won the Moto3 portion of the combine 3&4 class, Crosby Byberg second on the road for victory in the 4 class ahead of Natalia Tanasic and Cole Hodgson. The Moto1 Division’s separate race was won by Ben Hodsgson, while Mateen O’Brien earned Moto2 Honors in the same event.
