mAgNETi mArELLi AmATEur SupErBikE / iNSidE mOTOrCyCLES-BAzAzz AmATEur SpOrT BikE NATiONAL ChAmpiONShip prEViEW
beasT froM The easT SHaW-o’learY StartS SeaSon aS Clear faVoUrite
previous year have moved up to Pro and a new crop of hungry young lions is fighting to take their place. But circumstances have played out dif-
i
ferently for this season, and it all has to do with an event on the morning of Sunday, July 22 of last year. That was when Austin Shaw-O’Leary suffered a nasty fall during the pre-race warm-up at Atlantic Motorsport Park, injured his knee and saw his season come to an untimely end. Remarkably, the 16-year-old Falmouth,
N.S. resident borrowed a bike and man- aged to win both the Amateur Superbike and Amateur Sport Bike features later that afternoon, but his knee injury proved too severe for him to finish the season. At the time of his enforced withdrawal
Shaw-O’Leary was second in the Amateur Sport Bike standings and there were those in the paddock that thought he could snatch that title from Philippe Masse, and maybe even take the Amateur Superbike crown to boot, despite the fact he was rid- ing a 600cc Honda. He had quietly been gathering momentum through the opening races of the season and his dominance at
18 By John Hopkins
t isn’t often that a rider enters the start of an amateur national season as the odds-on favourite for a title. usually all the top names from the
AMP, notwithstanding the warm-up crash, represented something of a coming-out party. So there is a sense that the east coast ace has some unfinished business to take care of this summer. Shaw-O’Leary is back with the Dua Mo-
torsports / GoLo Racing setup from last year, run by now-retired Toronto area racer Rahul Dua, and the likeable teen is slated to compete aboard a Yamaha YZF-R6. His focus will likely by on the Sport Bike title,
but Shaw-O’Leary proved last year a 600cc bike can be competitive in the Superbike class, particularly at tracks like Autodrome St-Eustache and AMP. Who will be his key challengers? One of
the impressive performances from the opening round of the RACE Super Series at Shannonville Motorsport Park in May was turned in by Toronto rider Riley Dawe, who swept both the Amateur Superbike and Amateur Sport Bike features. Last year
Shaw-O’Leary (top) was the favourite in 2012 until an injury ended his season early. Riley Dawe (#212) will be a contender in both Amateur Superbike and Sport Bike.
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