The fourth round (of seven) in the RACE series at Shannonville confounded the weather gods. When most of Southern Ontario was being drenched (even the final of the Canadian Open at Glen Abbey was postponed), the "Shannonville Triangle" worked in reverse for a change, providing absolutely perfect mid-summer racing weather.
Teenage wunderkinds provided spectacular racing in many classes, the latest to join the ranks of the likes of Karl Daigle, Jodi Christie, and Royce McLean being Kenny Riedmann. The 15-year-old Riedmann, who’s in his first year racing in Amateur 600, has been steadily moving up the finishing ladder each weekend, and this time around blitzed the field twice with his Triumph 675 Daytona to take a second and then his first win (flag to flag, yet) in the series (the extra race was a make-up from the rain-cancelled event in June). Proud father Rollie (a top 250GP racer in the 1980s) was too excited to hop the wall and give his son the chequered flag: "No way, I’ll just drop it!"
Riedmann was followed home in his win by Joey McRae and Vicki Schouten after series leader Efram Ellenbogen crashed while chasing the black Triumph; earlier he’d taken his Team BnE R6 to a convincing win in the make-up race ahead of Riedmann and BnE team-mate Bill Shields with Schouten and McRae just behind. All of these riders are going to shake up the Pro ranks when they’re promoted for 2010.
Youngsters provided the bulk of the action in the feature Pro Superbike and Pro 600 classes as well. While Andrew Nelson took a solid win in Superbike on his new R1 ("the bike is coming, I like it, but it still needs some work to be really there") there was a vicious scrap behind him among the underage crowd of Jodi Christie and Karl Daigle, with Royce McLean (at only 14 the youngest of the top Pros) just out of touch after losing time with a brief run-off and long-time Shannonville expert Frank Trombino in the mix on a bike borrowed from Joey McRae after he crashed his own earlier in the day.
The slam-bang action went right to the end, with Christie, Trombino, and Daigle trading paint and positions to the flag, finishing in that order with McLean just out of touch after his excursion.
Farther back, sixth through 12th was a scrap to the finish; all in all, it was the most entertaining Superbike race Shannonville has hosted for some time.
The Pro 600 race was all kids up front, with Christie leading Daigle and McLean to the flag, those three being in a class of their own. Another of the closest races of the day was Heavyweight Sportsman, where Michael Leon took his 1098 Ducati to a narrow win over new father Derek Vammus ("I’m hoping I can get home before she realizes I was up here!") and Jim Proulx on his R1. Leon repeated in the Thunder class, giving him a double win in his first two race outings of the year.
RACE action resumes August 14-16 on Shannonville’s Nelson circuit.
