The points battles are heating up and at the penultimate round of the RACE SuperSeries, riders fought to attain the best possible position for the final round slated for Sept. 21-23. Some of the classes will see a changing of the old guard as several riders set their sights toward the season ending battles.
In Pro Superbike action, it was Newcastle’s Eli Daccache, aboard his Yamaha R1, who, once again, jumped into a commandig lead and earned a runaway victory. Daccache looks to have his second consecutive #1 plate wrapped up and the only question is, who will take runner up status. Behind Daccache there was a lengthy 3-way battle between Vivian Matthews, Belleville rider Eros Mukja and Chris Fehr. While Daccache was enjoying his checkered flag, Matthews took his Yamaha R1 to the second step of the podium, while Mukja finally dispatched Kingston’s Fehr to take third.
Belleville rider Mike Raniowski jumped into the early lead in Pro 600 Sportbike action but just as quickly lost position to series leader Tomas Casas before the race was even one corner old. Casas put his head down with Raniowski hot on his tail, and the two riders started to distance themselves form the rest of the field. Cameron Walker managed to hold off Chris Fehr for third, while Marco Alessandrini finished in fifth. Casas enjoys a bit of a points lead on Mike Raniowski for the championship but this one may go down to the wire.
A couple of new racers mixed things up in Superbike Depot Amateur Superbike racing. In his first race of the season, Jordan Royds chased, then caught and passed early race leader, Champion Cycle sponsored Ivan Babic. Babic had another good outing to finish in a strong second, ahead of another newcomer Jeremy Sharrard. Todd Ferguson took a well earned fourth and maybe the hard charger of the race went to Nik Koleros, who had to start the race from pit lane after missing his call-up, but still fought his way up to fifth.
Things went off the rails in Amateur 600 Sportbike action, when the top two class leaders simultaneously crashed out of contention. Leader Craig Archer went down heavily in corner three while runner up Jared Walker took a heavy spill, while overtaking another rider, coming out of Allen’s corner. With both riders out of contention, the race re-start became a 4-lap sprint. On the restart, it was Michael van Ek for the lead and the win. In second was Matthew Annable while Robert Waddell took third. Jose Azevedo finished just shy of a podium spot in fourth and Chris Dopke rounded out the top five. Credit to Todd Ferguson whose start line foibles saw him start dead last but rode hard to finish in seventh to salvage some valuable points.
Things are heating up in Mopar Expresslane Lightweight Production action, with Alan Burns and Matt Simpson locked in a battle for the overall point lead. In the race however, John Taverner continued his winning ways with another victory after a race long battle with young Connor Campbell. Early on however, it was Auto Trader backed Jacob Black who looked to be in contention for a podium finish, but a mechanical failure relegated Black to spectator status. With Black now out of the way, Taverner and Campbell were locked in a battle and just as it looked like Campbell would take the lead, he ran off-track, handing the win to Taverner. A three way battle then ensued with Alan Burns, Matt Simpson and Connor Campbell, who managed to rejoin the race. Burns and Simpson who are also battling for the series points lead looked to displace Campbell but a big wobble by Simpson saw Campbell squirt back ahead of him to take third. Burns held on for a well-earned second while Simpson had to settle for fourth. J.F. Cloutier had the best seat in the house for the battle to finish in fifth. Throughout the race, the Pro track record was assaulted and then rewritten, first by Campbell, then by Taverner and then again by Connor Campbell who set the new mark with a 1:15.925.
Taverner also had a good run in Lightweight Sportsman action passing Connor Campbell to take away the lead. Jacob Black again looked towards a podium finish and ran a strong race until a missed shift, which resulted in a pack of riders sliding ahead of him and dropping him out of contention. Taverner managed to hold off Campbell who had to settle for second while Patrick Barnes took his two stroke Yamaha into third. Alan Burns and Matt Simpson finished fourth and fifth as their series points battle continues.
Eli Daccache took the win in Sprint Cup racing while Vivian Matthews finished a distant second. Cameron Walker had a good outing to take third while “Take Mike For Granite” rider Mike Raniowski finished in fourth. Ivan Babic had a good ride to take fifth.
Joshua Thomas had a breakout weekend winning both Lightweight Twins and Lightweight Superbike races. Thomas had some epic battles with nemesis Hans van Sluewen all weekend long and managed to best the veteran racer on both occasions. Van Sluewen crashed out in Lightweight Twins action on the final corner while trying to take the lead away from Thomas, remounted and still managed a second. Series points in Lightweight Twins is knotted up with Thomas and van Sluewen in a tight race while Thomas enjoys a healthy series lead in Lightweight Superbike action.
Other race winners include Mike Raniowski who won the Middleweight Masters. David Walker took the Middleweight Sportsmen while newcomer Jeremy Sharrard won the Heavyweight Sportsman. Linda Pilat had a great outing winning the Novice 600 while the team of Ian Boddeart and Greg Carrol won the SRA Sidecar event.
Racing resumes again September 21st. to 23rd. at Shannonville Motorsport Park for the final round 5 of the 2018 R.A.C.E SuperSeries.
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