Crevier in control at AMP

By John Hopkins

SHUBENACADIE, N.S. – After seeing longtime rival Michael Taylor end his pole position streak, Steve Crevier left no doubt as to who is the king of the road in round three of the Deeley Harley-Davidson Canada XR1200 Cup at Atlantic Motorsport Park on Sunday.

From second on the grid Crevier grabbed the holeshot and led all 12 laps to score his third straight win of the year on the MotoSport Plus-backed entry. Taylor settled for second, 5.016 secs. behind and Darren James completed the podium, almost 10 seconds back of the winner.

Taylor had claimed the Tactical Products Canada LUMINOX Pole Award with a dramatic last lap flier in qualifying on Saturday with a time of 1:12.963 around the 2.56km AMP road course. But Crevier got under that and even established a new class track record on his 10^th lap of 1:12.767, which beat the old mark of 1:12.804 set by Darren James last year.

Early star of the race was local hero Blaise Fougere of Dartmouth, N.S., who had qualified an impressive third and snatched second at the start on the Atlantic Harley-Davidson Dealers entry. But Fougere came under pressure from first John Ross MacRae and then Taylor on the Mackie Harley-Davidson-backed bike.

Taylor took over second spot at the end of the back straight on lap five, by which point Crevier had a lead of about three seconds. Taylor turned his fastest lap of the race, a 1:12.871 on the seventh lap and whittled the margin down to about 1.5 secs. before Crevier upped the pace near the end.

Taylor also appeared to have bad luck in traffic on the 10^th lap, when he caught a slower machine in turn two.

After only qualifying fifth James put in a strong ride to grab the final podium spot for the Ruthless Racing team, the Deep Cove, B.C. rider passing Fougere on lap eight. Fougere settled for fourth while James’ teammate MacRae, from Calgary, was fifth.

Elie Daccache of Newcastle, Ont. bounced back from a nasty highside on Friday and another crash on Saturday to finish sixth for the Harley-Davidson de L’Outaouais squad.

In only his third road race, seven-time national flat track champion Don Taylor admitted to feeling a little unnerved by the daunting AMP circuit. The Port Colborne, Ont. racer persevered to finish seventh on his Clare’s Harley-Davidson of Niagara entry.

Crevier now has a commanding lead in his bid to repeat as XR1200 Cup champion. With the season half over the Maple Ridge, B.C. racer has 167 points to Taylor’s 122 and the 121 of James.

Race Results

Point Standings