Acceleration Race Team Brings Home Title For more VISIT: ACCELERATIONRACING.COM This Labour Day long weekend promised race fans an action packed finale with at least 4 National titles to be decided. For the Acceleration Race Team, Pro rider Clint McBain returns with the expectation of putting his Alberta Cycle Suzuki Dealer’s Group GSX-R1000 on the podium. From the other side of the Acceleration tent, McBain’s step-son Cody Matechuk would attempt to take his second National title in two years coming in to this race with a commanding lead in the Amateur 600 Sportbike class. Friday practice wasn’t expected to hold many surprises. For both Matechuk & McBain, their pace was topping the boards with McBain the first rider to hit the 1:04 mark in superbike and Matechuk nearly a half second ahead of his field. All looked to favor the young privateer team until the final session of the day. Half way through an out lap on a new set of tires, McBain’s powerful Suzuki was maneuvering the hairpin on the back straight when the bike stepped out and launched its rider into the air. Coming down hard on his back, McBain didn’t move and the session was red flagged as Medics attended to the podium hopeful. Shortly after, McBain cleared the medical center but was later forced to visit the local emergency for further medical treatment. It was uncertain if he would be back for the final race of the year. Matechuk entered the Saturday qualifying session with 2 specific goals. #1 – to set a new track record, #2 – take pole position. The young Cochrane teen put his head down and by lap three in his 20 minute session, accomplished both. With a time of 1:07.0 Matechuk earned his 5th lap record of 2009 (in only 6 events). McBain’s efforts though heartfelt, were slightly more uncertain as he physically struggled to mount his Acceleration GSX-R1000 after Friday’s crash. His bruised torso had quickly become the talk of the paddock and a painful distraction for the seasoned rider. Following a 10 minute grid-wide warm-up McBain anxiously awaited his turn in Superpole. 5 riders into the times event, McBain was the 5th rider to leave the grid and brought his Alberta Cycle machine around at 1:05.3, nearly 0.5 seconds off his pre-injury warm-up pace but quick enough to put him near the front of the grid for Sunday’s Superbike finale. As Sunday evolved, McBain surrendered a crowd pleasing wave and cinched up his Zox helmet to take to the track. The Alberta Cycle Acceleration Racing Suzuki Dealer’s Group machine lined up on the outside of row#2. From the flash of green McBain was squeezed out and shuffled back through turn one. The injured rider fought hard to work through the field and catch the leaders. By lap 16 he clawed his way back into podium contention. Dog fighting with the Factory Yamaha machine, the red and black Suzuki of McBain’s worked tirelessly to find an opening. Lacombe’s pace was slower, but the opportunities to pass were few. As the final lap flag waved, McBain lined up a perfect drive exiting the front straight and carried the momentum through turn 2. McBain squeezed inside of Lacombe to set up the pass in corner 3. A yellow flag suddenly came into view indicating a fallen rider and a “no passing” rule in effect. McBain pulled in the reigns and begrudgingly followed Lacombe through the corner. Rounding the final turn on the shortened Pro track in near unison, McBain ran out of tarmac to make the pass before the finish flag. “The pace really slowed when I caught up to Lacombe” shared McBain. “I had determined the cleanest point for me to make the pass but didn’t know it was under a yellow flag. We fought back hard today and I planned to be on the podium for my team (in spite of the injury); they worked so hard to keep me in the running.” McBain’s performance secured him a 3rd place finish n the Series and the top privateer position in the 2009 Race Season. Following Superbike, the highly anticipated Championship conclusion for the 600 Amateur Sportbike title was under way. Matechuk merely had to complete the 14-lap event in 17th position or better to bring home the title. The crowd gathered quickly as more than 30 riders took to the track to line up for the start. As provisional Polesitter, Matechuk took the outside position in row one and waited. The light turned green and the front row slingshot through the 1st corner. Matechuk exited in 2nd position and held there through the first two laps. The pace was quick; bouncing around the low 1:07 mark when Matechuk made a move to take the lead running deep into the corner exiting the back straightaway. For the next three laps, the Alberta Cycle Acceleration Suzuki Dealer Group GSX-R600 worked to pull away from the front runners but could not cut loose. Choosing to protect his title shot, Matechuk backed off the pace and prepared himself to settle in for a 2nd or 3rd if needed. He dropped back one position and held his pace. With the 3rd place runner crashing out of contention, Matechuk gained nearly 14 seconds of breathing room and settled in to finish 2nd and seal his bid for the 2009 600-Amateur National Championship Title. “It was hard to hold back and settle for a position. That’s not what racer’s do”, explained Matechuk. “But my job this weekend was all about the title, not the race. I knew that going in.” The title becomes Matechuk’s second in 2 years and pushes the 15 year old into the Pro ranks for 2010. The Acceleration Race Team would like to extend a heartfelt “Thank You” to all their Sponsors who came on board through 2009 to make this tremendous outcome possible! More, from a press release issued by Tim Reeves’ publicist: Disappointing end to World Championship campaign for Reeves Tim Reeves’ 2009 World Sidecar Championship campaign came to a disappointing end on Sunday when he was forced to retire from the final round at Le Mans, France. Although the title was out of reach when he arrived at the legendary French circuit, the triple World Champion was intent on finishing the year with a win but all hopes disappeared of a victory when Tim and brother Tristan were forced out due to a broken ignition switch. The weekend got off to a solid start for the pairing when they placed 3rd in qualifying, well within reach of title contenders Ben Birchall/Tom Birchall and Pekka Paivarinta/Adolf Hanni and confidence was high going into the single 18-lap race. Third at the end of the first lap, Tim overtook the Birchall brothers on the 2nd lap and sat right in the slipstream of Paivarinta. By lap six, the Finnish driver had opened up a gap and Tim had his hands full keeping the Birchalls at bay, positions exchanging hands on a number of occasions on lap 7. However, on lap 9, Tim was pushed back to third and from here, his race gradually got worse as the engine began cutting out. With the problem increasing all the time, Tim was forced to slacken the pace and it eventually saw him pull in to the pits, his 2009 F1 season coming to an end with his second successive DNF. The result meant that he finished the year in 3rd overall in the Championship with a total of 102 points after taking two wins, a second and two thirds from the five races he finished. Speaking later Tim said; “It’s a real disappointment to have ended the World Championship season with a DNF and it’s been a real up and down year to be fair. I felt strong sitting behind Pekka and was comfortable with the pace we were running so the plan was just to sit with him and make a move towards the end of the race but just after half race distance the engine began to cut out and that was the beginning of the end. I soldiered on as best I could for the next few laps but it was no good and eventually pulled in with inspection showing that the ignition switch had broken. What with the mechanical problems and passenger changes this season it’s been hard to maintain the high level of consistency I would normally have but I was still in contention for the race wins at each round so I’m determined to come back stronger next year. I’ll get my head down now and start making preparations for 2010 and the sooner I can have everything in the place, the sooner I can start my bid for getting my name back on that World title.” Tim’s next outing will be at next weekend’s International Gold Cup races at Oliver’s Mount, Scarborough where he will be making his debut around the 2.43-mile public road course.