Under less than ideal skies, the VRRA gathered for its third event of the summer at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park near Bowmanville, ON on August 22-24. Friday morning’s fog lifted enough for practice rounds, but soon morphed into drenching rain, which delayed the start of the afternoon Endurance race. Opinions were offered and debated over tire choices, the possibility of a change in the weather, and who was going to venture back to the paddock to get the rain gear.
One determined team was the 484Fun team of Benoit Filion, Dany Jourdain, and Natalie Catherine Provost, who joined forces on a Yamaha RZ350. Benoit, a new VRRA member, was the former manager of the Women’s Cup national series. Natalie, a former Canadian champion racer, was invited by Benoit at the last minute and thought it would be fun to have yet another event to add to her CV. 484Fun completed the race in the rain and finished in fifth place, with the win going to the team of Daniel Rinfret, Vicki Fournier and Yannick Laflamme.
Saturday’s heat races were run under cloudy skies but a dry track. Aside from a few mechanical issues, the day ran smoothly and a total of twelve heat races were run. Saturday’s Vintage Challenge saw 33 riders take to the grid, with Paul Robbins’s Ducati taking the win. Inside Motorcycles’ very own Graeme Jones, riding Paul Morton’s Yamaha FZR600, finished 17th in the Vintage Challenge in his first ever VRRA race. Robbins also won the final race of Saturday, the P3/P4 Masters race, for riders over 50 years old. The P1/P2 Masters was won by Scott Mackenzie, who crossed the stripe just two seconds ahead of Brent Waller.
Sunday was another picture-perfect day for racing. After practice and the first few final races, the lunch break was reserved for the VRRA’s Try the Track program for non-racing spectators to take their own motorcycles on the track. Many riders on an impressive array of bikes paid $25 each in support of Big Brothers and Big Sisters, with a grand total of $1,350 being raised for this worthy charity. The Mercedes-Benz Durham pace car led the riders around the track so they could experience CMTP up close and personal.
Paul Robbins added to his Saturday tally with the win in P4F1, Eddy Brunet won the Grand Prix class and set a new VRRA Mosport record with a 1:31.546 on his 250 cc Honda GP bike, and Tim Ruhl won P3 Heavy on his fast Suzuki Katana. IM writer Dave Minnett made up for a bad crash on his Honda Hurricane earlier in the day to come back and win the Sidecar race with teammate (and cousin) Dale Minnett. No. 1 plate holder Chris Hurst debuted a new Ducati ‘nine years in the making’ in P4F1 and was rewarded with a second place finish.
The stage is set for an exciting final round as the VRRA rolls into L’Autodrome St-Eustache for the Grand Prix du Quebec this weekend, September 6-7. For more information visit www.vrra.ca
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