WOMEN ATTACK TARMAC AT MOSPORT RACE VENUE

Saturday 20 July 2008: Yesterday I enjoyed the historic Mosport track race day where the Canadian National Race series staged the first races of the "double header" weekend, race 3 & 4 in the series of 7. Unfortunately I had to pick between Saturday or Sunday due to work commitments so I attended Saturday’s venue namely due to a rainy and wet Sunday prediction, which held true. Always exciting thrills in Canadian racing—some real talent and the organizers PMP put on a terrific event. Along side the action, I always enjoy meeting up with many familiar faces-- Deeley Harley-Davidson, BMW, Kawasaki (enjoyed the day with a good and long time friend of Canadian Kawasaki Motors Canada) Pirelli, my colleagues at Inside Motorcycles, Suzuki and even Ducati Owners Club. At the same event BMW held their 2nd "SummerFest" hosting test rides/demos, rider training, live music and just plan 'ole Bavarian socializing.

It was terrific to be entertained with some exciting race battles and to see the BMW HP Sport racebikes in action along with the Buell 1125R--magnificent!


There were also the NCR Ducati’s—exciting stuff in a Canadian racing arena and observing Ducati's Italian rider import, Valter Bartolini (arranged through Ducati North America). At first sighting him, on track, his small build and blondish long hair in pony tail could have been mistaken for a woman, if one didn’t know any better—yes, one day eventually it will be a woman on an NCR Ducati!

The Women's Cup Challenge race had a total of 9 contenders (2 DNS) of the combined expert and novice class where Genevieve Lesieur placed first in the expert division, yet I can’t determine who won for the Novice class yet. The picture below shows the first row start with Kahuna Kawasaki's Vicki Schouten in pole position. See our MOTORESS news article for the rest of the Women's Cup challenge results.


Mosport main track is exciting—we watched mostly from the back fast straight that comes into corner 8 —exciting maneuvers happening just before the corner especially in the Superbike and 600 class. The tracks' lap record was made in 2005 at 1:21.160 and is still held by Pascal Picotte which he achieved on his 2005 Yamaha YZF-R6. Mosport Road Racing track is 3.9 kms in length, with 10 turns running, as most circuits do, clockwise.