Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Toyota Canada Superbike Championship, Final Round (Left) Don Munroe (1) leads the way en route to winning the final round of the Toyota Canada Superb ike Spies. Benoit Pilon (2), Jordan Szoke (11), Neil Jenkins (3) . and the rest of the pack give chase. (Below) Canada 's three 1998 National Champions : (from left to right) Michael Taylor, Jordan Szoke and Don Munroe. By John Hopkins Photos by Co lin Fras er SHANNONVILLE, ONTARIO, CANADA,SEPT. 6 n one of the most d ramatic fini shes in series history, '19-year-old Jordan " .Szoke clinched his first career Toyota Canada Superbike National Champi o nship at the fi na l rou nd at Sha nnon ville Motorsp ort Park. Rid ing a Kawasa ki ZX-7R R, th e Bran tford, Ontario, native finished third in the 14-l ap ra ce b ehind d efend in g seri es c ha m pi o n Don Mu nroe a nd Michael Tay lor. The resu lt was enough to give Szo ke the tit le by eig h t p oint s over Tay lor, 290-282, wi th Munroe third in the fin al stand ings wit h 275 poi nts. "This is jus t awesome - it' s unbelievab le ," sai d Szoke, w ho r ecent ly impressed a boa rd a Fas t By Ferracci Ducati at the AMA rou nd in Brainerd , Min nesot a. "1 knew Don n ie (Munroe) wo uld be really pu shing for the win and 1 knew Mich ael (Tay lor) was p ushing har d for the cham pionship, so I just rode as har d as I could ." Tav lor came int o the fina l weekend of theseason trailing Szoke by 15 points in the standings with a maximum of 60 points 00 for a qualifying heat win and 50 for a feature triumph ) available a t Shannonville. Saturd ay' s red -fla g-shortened fourlap qualifying hea t race provided a preview of Su nd ay, as Tay lor and Munroe battled for the win before Mu nroe ulti mately took the victory. Szoke, meanwhile , worked hard to cla im a thirdp la ce fi n is h and sco r e four champions hip poin ts, thereby los in g two points to Tayl or , who had gaine d six for his ru nner- up result. Mu nroe got the holesh ot at the start of the feature while Taylor had to work his w ay u p from fourth into tu rn one. By the end of the second lap, however, Taylor had his Kawasaki ZX-9R rig ht I 24 behind Munroe's ZX-7RR and took the lead throu gh turn six on lap eight. Szoke, mean while, ran th ir d , ju st ahead of Francis M artin 's Honda CBR900RR but well behind the tw o leaders. H is position w a s only good eno ugh for the title, however, as long as Mu nroe cou ld win . A victory for Taylor would tie Taylor and Szoke on poi nts , and with mo re fea tu r e wins, Tay lor wo uld claim the champ ionship. Bu t as th e ra ce en tere d its second half, Taylor suffered a cracked exhaust brac ket an d his pipe began dragging in right-ha nd tu rn s. As the problem wo rsened , he wasn't able to lean properly in right-hand er s, and he be gan pus hi ng hard er aroun d the rest of the track trying to make u p for th e problem . Soo n his tires were shot. "O nce he go t by, I could tell he was struggling," said Munroe. "There were a couple of tim es I cou ldn't be lieve h e didn't go down . I th ou gh t he would make a mistake so mewhere and I'd be able to get back by." Munroe' s op portu nity ca me on lap 12. Tay lor bobbled th ro ugh tu rn seven and Munroe was able to get pa st in the turn -nine hairp in. From there he pull ed clear to a 2.75-second victory. Szo ke, mea n w hil e, was somew ha t relieved with the outcome. "I could see Mike was ge tting a good ga p after he took the lead , and I was tr ying not to lose faith in Donni e," said the new champion . "I could almost kiss him right now ." Martin too k fourth o n hi s H ond a C BR900RR. Martin r an close behind Szoke for most of the race bu t su ffered a bi g w h ee li e co m ing o n to th e b a ck straight on lap 11 and lost gro und . His Brooklin Cycle teammate Frank . Wil son wa s a n impre s si v e fifth o n another CBR900RR. Despite nursin g a brok en elbow, the native of Rockw ood, On tario, clawed his way up from 12th on the ope n ing 'la p a nd ea rned th e Kool atr on KooJ Move of th e Race Aw ard for his gritty effort. St. Jerome, Que bec's Benoit Pilon was six th' on an overheating Yamaha YZF Rl, just ah ead of th e Ca nadian Ti re / Coca-Co la /Sta r C hoice Rl of Kevin Gr aham and Jeff Williams, who was making his debu t on an ex-Taylor Kawasaki ZX-7RR. Ne il Jenkins, struggling w it h an illhan d li ng Su zuki GSX-R750, and John Sharrard on a Yama ha FZR1000 co mple ted the top 10. Munroe clinched an astou nding fifth consecu tive Yoshim ura 600cc Spo rt Bike crown wi th his second consecu tive race w in on his Kawasaki ZX-6 R a t Sha nnonville. His championship rival, Owen Weic hel , fell on lap four of the 10-lap race w hile runni ng fourth on his Hyd Mech Sa ws /Tra nspo / Ja n na Sys te ms Suz u ki GSX-R600. Munroe had co me to Sh ann onvill e with a six-poin t lead on Wei chel , but th a t g rew to 10 w h en Weich el w a s pena lized fou r posit ions for jumping the start of the hea t race, losin g the wi n in the pr ocess, and Munroe finished th ird to the GSX-R600 of Jenkins and Wilson 's Hond a CBR600F3. Munroe took the lead from Williams' Hond a CBR600F3 on lap two of the feature and set a scorching pa ce from there , b reaking the cla s s lap record on la p three wit h a 1:48.46. Wilson pa ssed Jen ki ns on t he fina l lap to ta k e s ec o nd whil e W illia ms slipped to fifth behind Ma rtin on ano therHonda. Jenkin s' th ird -place ' finish gave him third in the final Yoshim ura 600 sta nd ings behin d Munroe and Weichel. Despite having already clinc hed the series title, Taylor ran ro ug hs hod over his com pe tition in Internationa l Mo torcycle Supershow Open Sport Bike. Taylor took his Kawasaki ZX-9R past the Rl of G raha m o n lap th ree of th e 10-lap race an d went on to score his fourt h victory in six races this season, setting a lap record of 1:47.99 in the proc ess . G ra ha m fin is he d secon d to secu re third p lace in the fina l po in t sta ndi ngs w hile Philippe Ca ntin earned his first career national p odium finish with third .aboa rd the NTN Bearings- backed Rl. W ils on was fou rt h wi t h h is CBR900RR, and Pilon comp leted the top five. ; Martin secu re d secon d in th e fin al se ries s ta nd in gs d espite a fall o n lap th ree while tryin g to tak e second frorri l~ Graham . Shannonville Molorsport Park Shannonville, Ontario, Canada Results: September 6, 1998 S/BK: 1. Don Munr oe (Kaw ): 2. Michael Tay lor (Kaw): 3. Jorda n Szoke (Kaw ); 4. Francis Ma rtin (Ho n): S, Fra nk Wilson (He n). ! 600 S/BK: 1. Don Munroe (Kaw ): 2. Fra nk Wilson (Hen): 3. Neil jenki ns (Suz): 4. Fra ncis Mar tin (Hen): 5~ Jeff William s (He n). _ .1 OrEN S/ BK : 1. Mich ael Tav lo r (Kaw): 2. Kevin Gra ha m (Y,,:Yt); 3. Ph ilippe Ca ~ ti n (Ya m) ; 4. Fra nk' Wilson (Ho n): 5. Benoit Pilon (Ya m). I

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