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Parts Canada Superbike Championship
Non -Points Invitational: Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve
PHOTO BV ROB O'BRIEN
S
Picotte's Home Run
By JOHN
HOPKINS
MONTREAL, QC, CANADA, AUG. 29
A week after clinching his second straight
/""\part s Ca nada Superbike Championship .
Pascal Picott e ce lebra te d in style by winning
the nonchampionship invitatio nal at the Molson
Indy Montreal event.
In a rare oppo rtunity that saw Canada 's top
Superbi ke racers shar e the bill wit h the C hamp
Ca r World Series o n th e famed C ircuit GillesVilleneuve. Picotte put on a masterful display.
After an o pen ing-lap re d nag forced a restart,
the ride r fro m nearby Granby led all 10 laps of
the restart ed race on his Team Yamaha/Picotte
Performance Y
amaha YZF-R I.
Steve Cr evier finished second aboard the
DXS Diab lo Racing Team Suzuk i GSX-R I000 .
A fter runn ing almost seve n second s behind
Picotte halfway th ro ugh the race, the six-time
Canadian champion close d up to 2. 17S sec onds
behind at the finish.
Fran k Trombino co mp leted the pod ium in
third , aboard his Brooklin Cycle Y
amaha YZF-RI.
"Th is is home for me , and it' s a great feeling
to win here ," Picone said after his fifth victory
in eight Supe rbike eve nts th is season. "To see
the way the fans reacted was amaz ing."
The race d id not count for po ints toward
the Canadian Superbike title, but series spo nsor
Parts Canada put up a $12 ,000 (C anad ia n)
purse, and the MontreaJ fans were immensely
appredauve of th e two-wheeled support class.
Curre nt Parts Canada Superbike series
points standings we re used to form the grid for
the race, putting Picotte on the pole, wi th
Jordan Szoke and Kevin Lacombe alongside.
Lacombe got a great jump when the gree n flag
dropped and he led the field into turn one, but
just a few corne rs later he was down. sending
the following pack scattering. Although no nags
were displayed , Picotte quickly backed off and
Wit h Picotte pulling out to an early ra ce lead, Jo rd a n Szo ke (101 ), Crevie r
(14) a nd Tromb ino (3 1) were left to ru n thei r ow n races. However, Szoke
w as gone fram the pictu re by lap fou r, ou t w ith clutch trou ble.
was re ady for whate ve r the winds and clouds
could muste r, and they had the track read y to
near-per fection for Sunday's racing. On Sunday,
the we ather turned wonde rful, and the racers
came ready to charge for se ries points.
Vet racer Paul Stap ula came into the race as
the Vet C points leader of t he season, and he
co ntinued his winning ways with a I- I showing
to take the overall and maintain his series points
le ad . A plum ber by t ra de , St a pula was not
unch all enge d , how eve r, as bo t h De it e r
Koech ling and John Reichow served up a d ish of
bette r starts to lead Stapula by a good margin in
moto on e. Stapula st ayed to ugh. t ho ugh. and
worked his way into th e lead by th e en d o f bo th
mo te s. wit h Koechling retaining second and
Reichow recovering from a mota-o ne fifth place finish for thi rd overall. Rick Bur ick of
Massilon , O hio, broke up the Ho nda sweep by
putt ing his Y
amaha into fourth ove rall.
In Mini ac tion , Unio nt own. Ohio 's C hr is
Carr was the man o n the sce ne in the younger
SScc division, taking four moto wins e n route to
ove ra lls in both the escc (7- 1I) and escc Ext ra
clas ses. Jo se f Bor nhos t spe nt h is rac e da y
chasing Ca rr to take hom e two seconds . The
e lder e scc ( 12- 1S) class was taken by the
Y aha-mo unte d Matt Stork afte r ba ttling in
am
both motos with Jared Lautzenheiser. Andrew
Sachs put a KT M on th e po dium wit h his 3-3
mot o tally.
The Supermini class hosted some of the best
racing of the day, as loca l Uh richsville native
Kyle Ditcher pushed hard to ta ke the first-mota
vic to ry over But le r. Pe nnsylva nia's Dar ryn
D ur ha m. Ho w e ve r, Du rh a m s nagged t he
ove rall, as Dit cher su ffere d a secon d-mota
mechanical pro blem that dropped him to 11th
ove rall. Stork too k advantage as we ll, lead ing
Robert Bara k home for secon d ove rall.
In big-bike racing, Kraig Brindley introd uced
himself to the B classes by taking the overall in
I2Scc B in his debu t race. The ride r from nearby
De nniso n, O hio , chased Bro w nsville ,
Pen nsylvania's C] . Coffield acro ss the line in mo to
one but was able to take the point in mota two
after an early fall re legated Co ffield to the back of
the pack. Geo rge Baker III also too k advantage of
Co ffield's misfo rtunes and wrapped up seco nd
overa ll wit h a 5·2 tany. Coffield rebound ed to
swee p the 2SOcc B-class motos, followed by Andy
Sczypta and Scott Hickenbottom .
(Left to right) Mario Duhamel, second-place finisher Steve Crevier, Yvon
Duhamel, race winner Pascal Picotte, third-place finisher Frank Trombino
and Miguel Duhamel celebrate on the Circuit Gilles -Villeneuve podium .
the rest of the field foilow ed suit. The red the n
came out and the race was halted .
" I said to myse lf, ' W e shou ld stop t he
race ,'.. Picotte explained. "I didn't know where
his [Lacombe's] bike was, and I d idn't want us
to have a big crash, so I slowed down , and I
appre ciate everybody else do ing the same. "
Lacombe managed to retu rn to the pits and
got his bike re paired to rejoin at the back of
the Ie-rider fie ld .
On the restart, Picotte led away from Szoke,
Tro mbino . Andrew Nelson and Crevie r. The
Yamaha rider was ted little time opening a gap on
his pursuers. setting the fastest lap of the race
(and the week end) at 1:40 .7S6 on lap three.
"Right away, I put in two really good laps
and got a gap ," Picott e explained. "From t here,
I decided to put it on cru ise co ntrol . and my
plan wo rked out re ally w e lL"
Crevier passed Nelson and Trombino on the
opening lap and then assume d second whe n the
clutch gave out on Szoke 's Ho nda Canada/Fast
Company Ho nd a CB R IOOORR on lap three ,
probably due to the strain of two starts .
Crevier was t oo far bac k t o threaten
Picotte, but he was well clear of Trombino.
who battled some hand ling problems on his
way to a lonely th ird place.
Nelson ra n off the track at the start of lap
tw o and dropped back to 12th on his Honda
CBR IOOORR. He cam e bac k to finish seve nth.
Fra nc is Mart in too k fourth on the
Canadian Kawasaki Motors Kawasaki ZX lOR,
w hile his teammate Matthew McBr ide w as
fift h aft er a ra celong battle w ith th e DXS
Diablo Suzuki GS X-R I000 of Jeff W illiams .
Lacombe salvaged 12th .
eN
CIRCUIT G IW S"VILLfN EUVE
MONTREAL, QUEB EC, CANADA
RESULTS: AUGUST 29, 2004
PRO S/BK : I. Pascal Picotte (Yam); 2. Steve Cr evier
(Suz); 3. fr.lnk Trombino (Y
am); 4. Francis Martin (Kaw) ; S.
Matthew McBride (Kaw): 6. Jeff Williams (Suz); 7. Andrew
Nelson (He n); 8. Brian Nielsen (Y
am); 9. [ean -Franccts Cyr
(Ho n); 10. Hugo Brisson (Kaw) .