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Toyota Canada Superbike Championship, Rounds 1and 2 By John Hopkins Photos by Colin Fraser CALGARY, AB, CANADA, JUNE 12-13 o matter who Team Green puts on its bikes in the Toyota Canada Superbike Championship, they seem to turn into winners. Kawasaki got its bid for a ninth consecutive national Superbike title off to an impressive start at Calgary's Race City Motorsports Park, as two of its newest recruits broke through for their first career wins at the top level. Jeff Williams, on a ZX-7RR, edged veteran teammate Michael Taylor by just 0.52 seconds for Viclory in the first race of the doubleheader weekend. The following afternoon, in another thriller, Francis Martin held off the Honda CBR900RR of Martin Gaudreault and Taylor's ZX-9R for the win. The 24-yearold Williams fought tooth and nail with Taylor, a two-time ational Superbike Champion, in the 16-lap season opener. The two traded the lead four times before Williams grabbed it for good entering turn one on the final tour. N took him out of the qualifying heat race earlier in the day, eil Jenkins rose from the 31st starting spot to finish an impressive sixth on the much-improved fuel-injected Suzuki GSX-R750. His Fast Company team, led by Scott Miller, received the Schwinn Toyota Tundra Hard Luck Award for its quick engine change between the qualifier and the fea ture race. Round two on Sunday featured another frenetic lead ba ttle, this time between Martin, Taylor and Gaudreault. Jenkins started from pole after dominating the qualifying heat and bringing the lap record down to one minute, 19.38 seconds. He held the lead for three laps before Taylor moved to the front. Martin rose from sixth at the end of the opening lap to take the lead from Taylor on lap six of 16. Martin and Taylor traded the lead twice more before the ZX-7RR rider grabbed the top spot for good on lap 13. .Gaudreault, meanwhile, had charged from seventh on lap one to third by lap seven. He then erased a gap of just over (Above) New Kawasaki recruit Jeff Williams earned his first career Superbike win on Saturday at the season opener in Calgary. The next day, Williams finished seventh, but after two rounds he leads the points race by six. (Left) Riding in the support 600cc Sport Bike class, Jean-Francois Cyr (45) crashed out of the lead on Saturday, then rebounded to win Sunday, while Linnley Clarke (26) earned a pair of seconds. "1 measured him up a few times," said Williams, who established a new lap record of one minute, 19.84 seconds around the 2.0-mile track. "1 knew 1 could take care of business at the end of the straight. I was quite in control. 1felt I could dictate the pace of the race." For much of the race, Williams and Taylor were .part of a four-bike lead dice that included the Yamaha Rls of Benoit Pilon and local favorite Murray Clift. But on lap 13, Clift pulled to a stop at the end of the back straight with overheated coils, and Pilon lost touch with the lead pair when a large bug used his visor as a guard rail on the final lap, and he (Pilon) settled for third. Former Kawasaki rider Gaudreault, in his first race on the Brooklin Cycleprepared CBR900RR, held off Martin's ZX-7RR for fourth. After a broken crank a second to the two leaders and snatched second from Taylor two laps from home. He was unable to deal with Martin, however, and settled for second, 0:38 seconds back. '1 was a.little bit faster in the corners, but he (Taylor) had a good motor," said the 25-year-old Martin. Defending Toyota Canada Superbike Champion Jordan Szoke came away from a wild five-bike battle with fourth on his Honda CBR900RR. The former Kawasaki rider made an impressive comeback from a huge crash in Saturday's opener that all but wrote off his brand-new Erion-built bike. His crew, led by Sam Russell, did impressive work rebuilding the Honda, using spare sport-bike bits, and the team was the recipient of Sunday's Schwinn Toyota Tundra Hard Luck Award. Jenkins followed Szoke across the line in fifth, with Pilon sixth, just ahead of Williams. Williams came out of Calgary with the Toyota Canada Superbike points lead. He has 85 points to the 79 of Taylor and Martin. Pilon gave the Rl its first Canadian national race Victory with a win in the opening round of the International Motorcycle Supershow Open Sport Bike Championship at Race City. Pilon held off Gaudreault's CBR900RR by less than a second for the win, while defending series champion Taylor grabbed third on his Kawasaki ZX-9R. Calgary's Clint McBain delighted the home crowd with a win in Sunday's second round of the Open Sport Bike series. After transmission trouble had robbed McBain of almost certain Victory on Saturday, the ZX-9R rider took the lead from Taylor on lap two of 12 and edged clear to a 4.50-second win. Gaudreault was third, right behind Taylor at the finish, and he ended the weekend witl1 the early series points lead. Owen Weichel and Jean-Francois Cyr shared wins in the Yoshimura 600cc Sport Bike contest. Cyr opened up a commanding lead on his Yamaha YZFR6 in the opening l2-lap race but fell near the end qf the sixth lap. Weichel assumed the lead on his Hyd Mech Saws/Janna Systems/Transpro Freight Honda CBR600F4 and survived a stiff challenge from the R6 of unretired Linnley Clarke for the win. Weichel dominated Sunday's qualifying heat and led the first six laps of the feature before Clarke and then Cyr got past. Cyr took the lead from Clarke on lap nine and held on for his first career national series victory, beating Clarke by 1.98 seconds. Weichel fell in the last turn on lap eight, handing third place-to CBR600F4 rider Jeff Sneyd, who also completed the podium on Saturday. Thanks to his pair of runner-up finishes, Clarke ended the weekend with the 600cc Sport Bike points lead. eN Race City Motorsports Park Calgary, Alberta, Canada Resuhs: June 12-13, 1999 (Rounds 1 and 2) Saturday S/BK: 1. Jeff Williams (Kaw); 2. Michael Taylor (Kaw); 3. Benoit Pilon (Yam); 4. Martin Gaudreault (Hon); S. Francis Martin (}(aw); 6. Neil Jenkins (Suz); 7. Frank Wilson (Suz); 8. Frank Trombino (Knw); 9. Kevin Graham (Yam); 10. Csaba Werner (Kaw). Sunday S/8K: 1. Francis Martin (Kaw); 2. Martin Gaudreault (Hon); 3. Michael Taylor (Kaw); 4. Jordan Szoke (Hon); 5. Neil Jenkins (Suz); 6. Benoit Pilon (Yam); 7. Jeff Williams (\(aw); 8. Frank Trombino (\(awl; 9. Frank Wilson (Suz); 10. Csaba Werner (\(awl. I • iii! III ~ ~ :iii Q • §! ~ 51