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Formula USA/Pro Honda Oils SportbikeIYoshimura BOOcc Sport Bike Rounds 4-5: Mosport International Raceway STORY AND PHOTOS BY HENNY RAY ABRAMS BOWMANVlllE, aNT, CANADA, JULY 21 y the time Sunday's combined Pro Honda Oils Sportbike/ Yoshimura 600 Sport Bike final rolled around at Mosport International Raceway, Arclight Suzuki's Craig Connell was already having a pretty good weekend. The Australian had won both of Saturday's Formula USA Unlimited Superbike races, the second after race winner Francis Martin was disqualified for failing the horsepower test, and had taken the pole for the 600cc race with a new lap record nearly a second under the old mark. The next four fastest riders were all Canadians, meaning he had a chance to make his mark in the points standings. Connell didn't lead every lap; three weren't under his control. But once he took command, on the fifth of 12 laps, he was peerless and raced to his third win of the weekend, the first clean sweep of his FUSA career. Despite having never ridden at Mosport, Connell learned quickly and found a line through the downhill turn two that proved advantageous. "For me, I didn't have the fastest motorcycle, and without a doubt that was the easiest place for me to pass," Connell said. "It allowed me to be for some reason full throttle a lot earlier. It partly comes down to Pirelli tire as well. It had so much grip and that played to my laps and through this fast section here [prior to start-finish], I seemed to be able to close on 13 26 JULv31, 2002' cue I e everyone, through the sweeper off the back straight and through here." It added up to an easy win, 4.585 seconds in hand at the end of the 12lap, 29.88-rnile race. The win moved Connell into the Pro Honda Oils Sportbike Championship points lead at the halfway mark in the eight-race season. Connell leads teammate Lee Acree, second today, by eight points, 53-45. Hooters/Mountain Dew Suzuki's Michael Barnes, 10th today after a crash, is third at 43. Acree moved through the pack to take over second at the halfway mark and was able to stay with Connell for a few laps before eventually losing touch. Still, he had two seconds on the fight for third. Like Connell, Acree saw turn two as the place to pass. "He was quick through two and that's where both of us made most of our passes," Acree said. "If you have the inside line, it's kind of noman's land to be on the outside when you drop off the hill there. So it pretty much forces the guy, even if he's matching your speed down in there, kind of forces him to drop off because you just don't want to be out there. "Craig [Connell] was really strong through there. There were a couple of places that it seemed like I could gain on Craig, but for the most part he was Race winner Connell (6) leads runnerup Lee Acree (84). Connell was unstoppable at the Canadian stop 01 the Fonnula USA tour. neVIl's The Pro Honda Oils final gets underway with Craig Connell (6) leading Michael Barnes (34), Owen Weichel (8) and Jean-Francois Cyr (4). just too much for me today. He rode really well." There was a three-way battle for third waged among a trio of Canadians, Blackfoot Suzuki's Clint McBain, Honda Canada's Kevin Lacombe, and Brooklin Cycle Yamaha's Jean-Fran- cois Cyr. McBain took the lead from Lacombe on the ninth lap, Cyr taking it from McBain on the 11 th, only to crash early on the final lap. As much as he would have liked to have won, McBain was more worried about leading the Canadian 600cc championship. "For me, I'm leading the championship here and I've got to protect that lead," he said. "We had a little bit of hard luck in the open one, so this is the one we have to concentrate on. I had to ride a little bit with my head. I had to beat the other Canadians and that was what I was out to do. But if I was in a position to go for the win, being a racer, of course I would've gone for it." McBain finished just under .16 of a second in front of Lacombe. Then came Penguin Road Racing School's Jeff Wood, staying ahead of Jeff Williams for the duration. Wood's brother, Eric, didn't finish the race on the Buell Lightning. Neither did Kawasaki Canada's Owen Weichel. Weichel was involved in an incident with Hooters/Mountain Dew Suzuki's Michael Barnes on the seventh lap. "This is my story, the way I saw it," Weichel began, "we came out of [turn] four together. I kind of did a run up on Mike [Barnes] and then I just went straight too and he kind of went out wide to swing in, which is a good line if you want to square it off, but I just came up the face of the hill