CAN-AM CHALLENGE SERIES OPENER MAY 20/21/22 2005 Round #1 On Friday May 20th, the Grand Prix bikes took to the Pro track at Shannonville Motorsports Park for practice sessions in anticipation for the Can-Am Challenge Series opener, sponsored by Infinity GP Racing. The weather was favorable, with the sun shining and cool temperatures. One rider of particular interest, Michele Danese, a 22 year old Italian brought in by Frank Pate of Infinity, was present in the paddock, generating a buzz among the Can-Am riders. Danese brings with him Moto GP experience, along with impressive finishes in both Spanish and Italian Championships. His appearance with the Can-Am was much anticipated, and many were anxious to see what the somewhat elusive Italian would bring to the table. John Dempsey, last year’s 2nd place finisher in the Can-Am championship, set to work immediately, turning a 1:12.300 in the first session. Danese had a rough introduction to the Pro track with an unfortunate get-off after corner 2; he returned later that day to turn laps in the low 1:12s, with the rest of the field following with 1:14s and up. Saturday morning’s weather provided near perfect conditions for these GP bikes; sunny with great temperatures cooled slightly by a mild wind. Practice times for the most part were similar to those from Friday’s practice sessions, with the exception of Danese who served up a time of 1:10.180; the current lap record for Pro GP125 is held by Corey Sherman, at 1:09.99. Dempsey pursued Danese’s time with a 1:11.620, the next best 125 time belonging to Tim Harrington with a 1:13.541. Angela Hiba, 3rd in last season’s championship, made an appearance this weekend after sitting on the retirement fence throughout the winter. Corner marshals soon alerted R.A.C.E. officials that there was smoke coming from her ’99 Honda RS, so the decision was made to show her the black flag. She unfortunately didn’t make it that far, as she suffered a fall just after the chicane, causing a red flag and the subsequent end of that session. Hiba was taken to the hospital where she was diagnosed with a broken collarbone and toe, and a mild concussion. An oil leak was found to be the cause of her fall. Simon Kirby also had the misfortune of crashing in corner two, his half-breed Suzuki RM125 damaged too much for hopes of making the final race on Sunday. After lunch, the last corner coming onto the front straightaway suffered an oil spill during the Group A Amateur 600 Qualifying session. As the clouds rolled in and started to drop rain, the spill turned the corner into an area too treacherous for officials to feel comfortable with continuing the rest of the day’s sessions, despite clean-up efforts of cement dust, soap and pressure washing; neither 125 or 250 got their qualifying sessions. Sunday, with no qualifying to make the final grids with, Can-Am officials used the previous day’s last practice session to grid the field. A decision by the young upstart Alex Welsh to sit out that session resulted in his position at the back of the grid. Morning practice sessions went without incident, with the exception of light drizzle, which would continue on and off throughout the rest of the day, no sun in sight. Danese started the race with the coveted pole position, with Dempsey beside him, and Tim Harrington and Rick Bulmann finishing off the front row. Danese jumped into the lead with a hole shot start, Dempsey quick to challenge going into corners 1 and 2. As the field stretched out, Danese used his European-bred racing talent to lengthen his lead over Dempsey with each passing lap, while Welsh rode unchallenged in third. Christian Rose retired from the race in the fourth lap with mechanical problems. It seemed the gremlins affecting his ride also got to Danese’s Honda; in a disappointing twist, the Italian was seen to be slowing down markedly on the front straight coming into the fifth lap, looking down at the bike. He was forced to pull over at corner two, transmission woes being suspected in the breakdown. Meanwhile, Dempsey took full advantage of his new found lead, and maintained a substantial distance over Welsh, now running in second. Matt Cooper consequently found himself moved up into an unchallenged third place position, Tim Harrington having Cooper in his sights, but not quite enough push to get out of fourth position, and Rick Bulmann rounded out the top five. The race within the race was furiously going on between Joe Melchionda, Frank Pate, John-Ross Mac Rae, and Mark White; this foursome barely had two bike lengths between each other battling for sixth place. An exciting race to watch, especially when Pate added to the drama by low siding in the essess on the last lap, leaving Melchionda, Mac Rae and White to finish the race without him. Dane Walther, Craig Johnston and Don MacPhail took the checkered flag in ninth, tenth and eleventh. Podium presentations took place after a victorious burnout by Dempsey on the front straight and Diablo Energy drinks. The Can-Am Challenge was happy to introduce a new addition to the series for 2005, the 250 GP class. With thirteen riders entered, it was the largest 250 group gathered at Shannonville for quite some time. 125 and 250 riders were able to take advantage of some extra track time, as they were permitted to practice in each other’s sessions. Alain Brault led Friday morning practice sessions with 1:12.326, followed by Nick Colley in the 1:13s, and John Crook in the 1:14s. Saturday’s practice sessions went without incident, with Brault once again coming out on top with his times, this time with a best of 1:11.827. Colley was again behind Brault with a 1:13.260, however Gord Mackay stepped it up a notch to take over Crook’s previous time with a 1:13.55. Frank Pate of Infinity had been entered in both the 125 and 250 classes, but after some deliberation, the decision was made to put some Italian spice into the mix; Michele Danese’s numbers were put on the bike, and he was entered to ride in Pate’s place. As with the 125 grid, the 250s were appointed their positions based on Saturday’s last practice session times. This meant that Danese would start from the back of the grid. Brault started the race from pole position, with Colley beside him. Rounding out the front row was MacKay and Crook. All eyes were on Danese, who sat on the last row with Mark Jaeckle; Jaeckle found himself unfortunately at the back of the grid as a result of having no times for the last practice session the day before. As the light went from red to green, Danese, perhaps looking to avenge his DNF in the 125 final, sliced through the field, passing nearly everyone on the outside of corner one. Crook managed to keep in front of the Italian for the first lap, but was overtaken by him in the second; Rosario Tomaino suffered a mishap in the hairpin on the first lap, but was unhurt. Danese, as he did in the 125 final, began to stretch his lead substantially. Colley was next in line to knock Crook back a position, then Brault took his turn. Gord MacKay found himself unchallenged in fifth, maintaining this position for the remainder of the race. Oliver Brama and Brian Waterman provided some entertainment with their dogfight for sixth position, with Waterman pressuring Brama the entire race. Brault moved up to second on lap 6, and stayed put until he crossed the finish line, with Colley in hot pursuit. Crook finished fourth, MacKay in fifth. Waterman edged Brama out for sixth at the line, followed by Joe Melchionda, with Al Cane, Jaeckle, Jerry Sadler and Laird Shingleton rounding out the finishers. Danese dominated with his first place finish, fifteen seconds ahead of second place, his best lap a 1:09.642. More info and pictures www.canamchallengeseries.com Race results www.mylaps.com More, from a press release issued by Canadian Kawasaki: Nothing but positive results come out of the opening round at Shannonville Motorsport Park Shannonville Motorsport Park May 20-22nd, 2005 This past weekend at Shannonville Motorsport Park launched the 2005 Parts Canada Superbike series. The long weekend was plagued with threatening black skies and scattered showers which left very chilly and partially wet conditions for factory riders Tom Kipp and Matt McBride. Despite the ever changing weather conditions each rider was able to use this opening round to their advantage, showcasing the evolution of the 2005 Ninja ZX-10R and all new ZX-6RR. Following this weekend’s races, Canadian Kawasaki teammates Kipp and McBride were both satisfied with the overall results and are looking forward to round two at Calgary’s Race City Speedway. Both riders commented on the drastic refinements in both the chassis and engine performance of the ZX-10R and ZX-6RR. Leading the Canadian Kawasaki attack this past weekend was Tom Kipp who, after a hard tumble at Barber Motorsports Park, felt extremely confident about his health and entered into the opening round injury free. Kipp qualified 6th in the 600 sport bike and finished a strong 4th place in the sportbike final. Tom left Shannonville pleased with his results in the 600 race and found, “the ZX-6RR to be everything I could have hoped for and more.” Young gun McBride qualified right behind Kipp in the 600 sport bike class in 7th position and after a competitive race finished in 8th position. “The 600 worked really well this weekend but there are still some things we need to work on to get to the front of pack, but this bike is definitely capable of winning races”, commented McBride. Kipp and McBride endured a more difficult experience aboard their ZX-10R superbikes where Kipp qualified in 8th and McBride in 6th position. In the 16 lap superbike finale Kawasaki’s Kipp finished 7th and with McBride in 9th position. The opening round has historically presented challenges of unstable weather and the uncertainty of the progress of the competition, but the team gained valuable information over the course of the event and look favorably towards the future. Crew Chief Karl Steyrer commented that “we learned a lot from this weekend and now we will head to the shop to integrate what we have learned which should translate into improved results.” Next up the Canadian Kawasaki Road Race Team will head to Calgary’s Race City on July 1-3 for the 2nd round of the Parts Canada Superbike Championship, where both Kipp and McBride look forward to taking the ZX-10R and ZX-6RR to Race City’s long straight-away. Stay tuned for future news and photos regarding the upcoming rounds More, from a press release issued by Team TT Racing: Robert Trottier Recovering From Surgery After Lowside at Shannonville Canadian Thunder Race 1 Toronto, ON — Robert Trottier, seasoned frontrunner of the Canadian Thunder Series, is recovering after surgery to his right hand. Robert suffered a front-end slide causing a lowside in corner 1 during Friday morning practice for the Thunder Series at Shannonville Motorsports Park. During the lowside, Robert’s hand became trapped under the bike sliding on the track. Though the glove offered protection it did disintegrate allowing his hand to come in contact with the track. The back of Robert’s hand suffered skin loss and some nerve and knuckle damage. The red flag stopped the session and Robert was rushed to Belleville Hospital. He was then released to Kingston General Hospital for the surgery. Dr. Watkins of Kingston General Hospital performed the full layer skin graft and some bone repair over the last two knuckles of his hand during the 1½ hour operation. The successful operation puts Robert on the road to recovery over the next 4 weeks. Rest for a short span, followed by therapy, will have Robert competing on TTRacing’s Ducati shortly. Though Robert Trottier did not compete for the remainder of Race 1 for the Canadian Thunder Series he magnanimously offered Team TTRacing’s Ducati 1000 SS DS to fellow competitor Trevor MacDonald of Scorpion Racing. Trevor was able to pilot the TTRacing Ducati to a 5th place finish in the highly contested race. Congratulations Trevor! Robert wishes to thank everyone for their concern, emails, thoughts and prayers. Thanks to the TTRacing Crew; Bill Martin, Joanne Graham and Bob Trottier for all their support. Special thanks to Ducati North America; Mike Taylor and Steve Hicks. Robert also wishes to congratulate fellow Brampton Cycle Sponsored Ducati rider Derek Vammus for his 1st place finish in the race, allowing Ducati to lead the Thunder Series. Fans and well wishers are invited to message Robert at the Team TTRacing website by visiting www.ttracing.ca . Fans are also encouraged to participate in the RacePicks Contest. Robert looks forward to seeing everyone at Mosport for Race 2 of the Thunder Championship on July 15th.