Szoke maintains perfect record

Szoke (1) chases down Trombino (31) and Martin (16). Photo: Rob MacLennan

Perfect season?
Jordan Szoke has won every Superbike and Sport Bike (600) race in
this year’s abbreviated schedule, with only one event (a
double-header at Shubenacadie in Nova Scotia) left on the calendar.

He’s already in line for his seventh national Number One title, and
fifth in a row, so why not go for another record?

"I’ve
won five in a row three times now in my career and I want to win
those last two," said Szoke, who also picked up five victories in
2002 and 2006. "I’m going to do my best to do that. I want a
perfect season and put my name up there."

His basically
self-sponsored Honda CBR1000RR, with help from BMC Ciclo Werks and
DeWildt Honda, and built by Scott Miller’s Fast Company, is simply
annihilating the Superbike field, and his CBR600RR, while hounded to
the flag almost every race by teenager Jodi Christie, has also taken
every Sport Bike flag.

It
couldn’t have been closer in the second race at Mosport, however; the
two banged handlebars heading into the last corner of the last lap,
sending Christie to the pavement while Szoke hung on to win. Christie
remounted to finish fourth, later upgraded to third when Frank
Trombino and his Prostar Honda were penalized for a jump start.

By
the way, the series has a real problem with how they call these jumps
— when a third of the grid gets called for jumping, as happened in
one of the Amateur 600 races, or a quarter of the Pro Superbike grid,
you know there’s a problem with the procedure.

Trombino
lost another third the previous day in the Superbike race, when his
bike ran out of fuel before completing its mandatory post-race dyno
run. Not a great weekend for the popular Toronto rider.

Past
Canadian champ Francis Martin took his BMW Motorrad Canada S1000RR to
a pair of seconds on the weekend, but couldn’t stay with the flying
Szoke. He thought he’d found something on Sunday, but got caught up
in an early fight with the Competition Systems’ Kawasaki of Alex
Welsh and lost some time.  "I
tried very hard to pass Alex and we had a big fight, we passed back
and forth two or three times I think," said the two-time Canadian
Superbike champion from Sherbrooke, Que. "I tried very hard to
catch Jordan but I couldn’t quite do it."

Third place on
Sunday went to Trombino and his Prostar Honda, while his DQ on
Saturday let Andrew Nelson of Kars, Ontario onto the podium with his
Orion Motorsports BMW S1000RR.

The
growing BMW contingent was bolstered by another entry at Mosport, as
Matt McBride showed up with an S1000RR sponsored by Budd’s BMW in
Oakville. McBride collected an impressive fourth and ninth on his
first outing on the machine.

Action was marred
by a very nasty crash for popular Quebec racer Marie-Josée Boucher,
who apparently suffered a machine problem that put her into the wall at
the fastest part of the circuit, Turn 7 on the back straight. Reports
are that she broke both legs but should make a complete recovery.

After the
weekend’s action, Raphael Archambault of St-Colomban, Que. is only
three points shy of clinching the Amateur Sport Bike title after his
fifth straight win. Robert Busby of Brantford, Ont. completed a
weekend sweep of the K&N Filters Sport Twins class on his Buell
XB12, giving the Brantford, Ont. rider a 67-point series lead. And
Ryan Appenrodt of Quesnel, B.C. extended his lead in the Honda
CBR125R Challenge to 35 points with his sixth win in seven races.

Next event,
doubleheader at Atlantic Motorsport Park, Shubenacadie, NS, August 8.

Standings after
five of seven races

1. Jordan Szoke,
Branford, Ontario, Honda CBR1000, 268 points; 2. Francis Martin,
Sherbrooke, Quebec, BMW Motorrad Canada S1000RR; 3. Andrew Nelson,
Kars, Ontario, Orion Motorsports BMW S1000RR; 4. Jodi Christie,
Keene, Ontario, Jodi Christie Racing/Durham Honda Powerhouse Honda
CBR600RR, 135; 5. Cody Matechuk, Cochrane, Alberta, Suzuki GSX-R1000,
130;

6. Mike Ferreira,
Mississauga, Ontario, BMW Motorrad Canada S1000RR, 112; 7. Alex
Welsh, Uxbridge, Ontario, Competition Systems Kawasaki ZX10R, 106; 8.
Kevin Lacombe, St-Cesaire, Quebec, Suzuki GSX-R1000, 82; 9. Scott
Rupert, Gadshill, Ontario, Suzuki GSX-R1000, 71; 10. Franklyn
Dominquez, Montreal, Quebec, Kawasaki ZX-10R, 70.