Royal Distributing Racing Team News: Superbike Victory For Leon at Shannonville
Royal Distributing racer Michael Leon won his second RACE Superseries Pro Superbike race of the season, Sunday, July 2, on the Shannonville Nelson circuit. He rode the Royal Distributing / BMW Motorrad Canada / Pro 6 Cycle 2016 S1000RR Superbike on Dunlop Soft (2662) compound tires to a narrow victory of 0.166 seconds over Yamaha mounted Elie Daccache. Jim Proulx, also on a Yamaha, finished 3rd.
The historic 1.8 km long Nelson configuration was the original Shannonville track opened in 1979. Its tight corners with very short straights are a challenge for modern sport bikes. Rider’s typically only use 2nd and 3rd gear as they navigate around the circuit.
Leon started the race from pole and led all laps of the 14 lap feature final, with Daccache following closely behind for the entire race. At midpoint, Michael was able to open up a small gap of less than 2 seconds but Elie closed that gap in the final laps, motivated by the prospect of lapped riders that where likely to come into the mix at the end. It was a close finish, as the leaders lapped some riders in the final few corners.
Once again, 3 different tire brands were represented on the podium. Michael, and Dunlop are winning the tire war, so far, with an 8 point advantage in RACE Pro Superbike Championship points over Daccache. Proulx now sits in 3rd - 9 points behind.
“I’m pretty excited to win this one. The Nelson track doesn’t really favor superbikes and we were not necessarily focused on the win going into the weekend. I wanted to leave this round with some valuable points and try to really make a step forward in the remaining rounds. The setup strategy that we tried worked well for us, with a setup for the slow corners, 5, 6 and 7. We sacrificed a bit of feel and speed in the fast corners, 1 and 4. I had a feeling that we could make up what we gave away in those corner exits with the raw horsepower of the beemer. I love it when a plan comes together! I would like to give a big shout out to friend, Sean Huffman, from Pro 6 Cycle, for helping with some Saturday night geometry change decisions and for providing pit signals that helped me to manage the race.” commented Michael.
Michael also won the Open Sprint race by a narrow margin over rival Jim Proulx. During that race Michael was riding on the medium compound Dunlop 7455 rear race tire that he used for both Saturday’s heat races and also Sunday morning practice. The team wanted to test the life of the medium rear and also save their new tire for the feature Superbike race.
The next event for the Royal Distributing Superbike team will be rounds 4 and 5 of the Mopar Canadian Superbike Championship to be held at Shubenacadie, Nova Scotia, on July 15-17. The team hopes to see you there!
The Royal Distributing Racing Team would like to thank Royal Distributing, BMW Motorrad Canada, Pro 6 Cycle Dunlop, Shoei Helmets, Speed & Strength, Hindle Exhaust, Gianmajor Inc., Armour Bodies, MWR Airfilters, Vortex Racing Sprockets, Windmill Motorsports, Bickle Racing and Dave Smith.
From a press release
