Pro Rookie of the Year won the race into turn one and immediately started to pull clear of the field. He turned the race’s fastest lap, a
1:22.855 on lap three and after five laps was already five seconds clear of Szoke. By half distance the gap was 10.6 seconds. Szoke, meanwhile, was finding the going
rough. He had dropped back to fourth off the start but managed to work his way back into second quickly and set off after Mc- Cormick. By lap eight however it was clear the Kawasaki rider was struggling. Soon a four-bike group consisting of Nelson, Fer- reira, Martin and Welsh had reeled him in and Szoke was fighting to hang onto sec- ond place. On lap 16 Nelson finally got around the
defending champion heading into turn one and later that lap Martin was also ahead. It looked like Szoke wasn’t even going to make the podium, and BMW was going to sweep the box, but toward the end of the final lap Martin lowsided in the long right hander opposite the front straight. A re- lieved Szoke snuck by to salvage third, while Welsh got around Ferreira to sneak an excellent fourth on his GSX-R600. Martin re- mounted to take sixth. McCormick was all class on the podium,
dedicating his win to Quebec privateer Louie Raffa, who had broken his leg in a practice fall earlier in the weekend. “He’s one of those guys doing it all out of
his own pocket and that’s never easy,” Mc- Cormick said, perhaps remembering his own roots when he was an Amateur on the national tour in 2006. Nelson was delighted to open his season
with a second place finish and finally get the better of Szoke. “I finally got ahead of Jordan, and no one could do that all last year,” said a beaming
Nelson. “The tires were amazing and the bike was super, easy to handle.” Szoke was philosophical despite losing
the early advantage to McCormick. “Championships are won over the course
of the year,” he pointed out. “We’re on the podium and that’s a good start.” Behind Welsh, Ferreira and Martin, Jean
Francois Cyr placed seventh on his Suzuki GSX-R1000 after a lonely ride and Jodi Christie was eighth with his Honda CBR600RR, losing his sparring partner Frank Trombino when the Suzuki rider crashed out on lap 18. Sylvain Dery was an impressive ninth on
his Yamaha YZF-R6 and Sebastien Trem- blay, winner of the Amateur Sport Bike race
at ICAR in 2009 rounded out the top 10 on a Honda CBR1000RR. Trombino may have fallen in the Super-
bike race, but the Woodbridge, ON veteran picked up a memorable win in the Pirelli Pro Sport Bike opener earlier in the day. Trom- bino led all 10 laps of the rain-shortened race on his Suzuki Canada / Hindle / Sturgess Cycle-backed GSX-R600, finding himself alone with a comfortable lead after Welsh crashed out of second place on lap five. In his national Pro debut Jeremie Hade Precourt rode a superb race on the JHP Racing / Picotte Motorsport Suzuki GSX- R600 to place second, albeit 36.676 secs. behind Trombino, while Sean Huffman com- pleted the podium and got on the box for
McCormick (opposite, middle of podium) had things his own way; Trombino (top) mastered tough conditions; cheeky
Matechuk (#111, above) held off veteran Crevier (#14). Photos by Don EmPEy (oPPositE, toP) & nEil CamEron (abovE)
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