Veteran motorcycle road racer, Canadian Motorcycle Hall of Fame inductee (class of 2011) and racer coach/series founder Toni Sharpless has been belatedly given the Canadian Motorcycle Association (CMA) Ambassador Award she actually earned in 2023, which would have been given to her last year if the 2024 CMA Annual General Meeting (AGM) had not been cancelled.
The CMA is the National sanctioning group for motorcycle activity in Canada, affiliated with international authority Federation Internationale de Motocyclisme (FIM). The CMA supports several National series, including the Bridgestone Canadian Superbike Championship (CSBK).
The CMA Ambassador Award “recognizes exceptional effort or achievement which reflects favourably on the CMA,” and was awarded by the CMA’s boss, Ross de St. Croix, during the recent CMA AGM.
Sharpless was a multi-discipline racer growing up, travelling with her two famous brothers, Todd and Blair, out of their parent’s Toronto-suburb bike shop, Scarborough’s Sonic Cycle. In the early 1980s Sharpless focused on road racing, starting with a then-ubiquitous two-stroke Yamaha RD350LC. Moving up to the fearsome RZ500, Sharpless soon turned Pro and competed aboard Suzuki and Yamaha Superbikes, including a strong effort in the Daytona 200.
That performance in Florida earned Sharpless an opportunity with Yamaha International, riding in the World Endurance Championship in Europe and Japan. She then took a long sabbatical from competition but continued to work in the Powersports industry.
Sharpless returned to the pavement at the start of most recent decade, after a chance encounter with a mini road racer Ohvale at a Toronto Motorcycle Show. Soon, Sharpless was running Schools at a variety of small venues but focused on the Lombardy Go-Kart track north of Kingston, Ontario.
At the same time, unretired racer Sharpless joined the new Pro Lightweight Sport Bike category in Bridgestone CSBK competition with Yamaha R3 twin equipment.
On the small-wheeled side of things, Sharpless used the family shop name to start the Super Sonic Roadrace School, working with both youth and adult riders. The next step was to launch a racing series for the smaller machines, so Sharpless and associates, including husband Jamie, started the MiniSBK tour.
Toni’s next target was to send top Canadian youngsters to the FIM World Championship MiniGP series in Spain, so Sharpless headed to Valencia on a fact-finding/hand-shaking mission in the fall of 2022. This initiative succeeded, and Canada joined the FIM’s World Series for 2023, sending Michael Galvis and Ben Hardwick as the CMA’s representatives for the televised final event.
