Pro SuPerbike Preview
Battle rejoined J
szOke and MccOrMick renew rivalry By John Hopkins
ordan szoke and brett mccormick are at it again – or at least, that’s how the experts view the fight for this year’s canadian superbike
championship by Parts canada. After a year pursuing separate goals, the
two men who fought tooth and nail for the 2009 national title have seen their careers in- tersect once more. The smart money is on a repeat of their war from two summers ago. Of course, much has changed in the in-
tervening period. Last year Szoke added a seventh national Superbike crown to his tro- phy case, and his fifth in a row. In the process he accomplished something no one has done before by sweeping the board in the feature class – that’s right, seven wins from seven starts. And he did all
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this running his own privateer Honda squad following an acrimonious break-up with the Canadian Kawasaki Motors factory team. McCormick’s year was no less interesting.
Focusing on opportunities south of the bor- der, he poured his resources into a one-off run in the Daytona 200 in March and made enough of an impression to secure a ride with Celtic Racing for the next AMA Pro na- tional in Fontana, CA. From there he latched on to the Jordan Suzuki squad, which was looking for a racer to replace the injured Aaron Yates, and that’s where he spent the rest of the season. Although the Saskatoon teenager showed well, picking up a top fin- ish of fourth running on tracks he had never seen before and on unfamiliar equipment, the sparse road racing landscape left him few options for 2011 and McCormick de-
cided to rekindle his Canadian career. As they square up for their 2011 show-
down there is a little bit familiar but much new for both Szoke and McCormick. The defending champ has returned to accus- tomed ground with Kawasaki and re-estab- lished his relationship with the Competition Systems team led by Mike Crompton. Szoke has won five of his seven Superbike titles under the green tent, and strung to- gether four in a row under Crompton’s guid- ance between 2006 and 2009, so in many respects it may seem as if he has never been away. However, the 31-year-old Brantford, ON
racer has a new weapon at his disposal in the latest evolution of the Ninja ZX-10R. The new Kawasaki is the first Japanese model to come out in response to BMW’s game-
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