Christie Takes a Gamble at Mont Tremblant

The Jodi Christie Racing Accelerated Technologies team had a thrilling weekend at their first appearance at Le Circuit Mont Tremblant. A weekend full of mixed conditions presented the opportunity for an exciting last minute change prior to the superbike race on Sunday. The sport bike race was an action packed dry race.

The crew headed to the track to ride Thursday’s track day to learn the track and begin to set up the CBR 600 for the beautiful circuit. The day brought rain conditions and Jodi used the track time to learn the new track and nailed the rain set up early in the weekend. The Jodi Christie Racing team then used Friday to set up the Superbike for its first outing of the year. Crew Chief John Sharrard and Jodi worked together to put the CBR 1000 on top of the leader board in the first outing of the bike in 2012. Jodi was happy with both set ups and decided to sit out the afternoon sessions and hope for better weather on Saturday.

Saturday morning was another wet morning and the team sat out the morning sport bike session and waited for the superbike session. The morning superbike session was very damp, many of the riders waiting until the end of the session to go complete some laps. Jodi ended the session in 4^th position. The afternoon qualifying sessions were on a dry track and Pro Sport bike was up first. This was the first dry session for Jodi on his 600, Jodi went out and completed 3 laps getting used to the dry track, he quickly pitted to go over the bike with John Sharrard. Jodi went out and did a sequence of laps once again, posting his fastest time on the second last lap. Jodi achieved his 4^th consecutive Pole position with a 143.810 and a margin of 1.897 over second place. Up next for the Jodi Christie Racing Accelerated Technologies team was the Pro Superbike Feature qualifying. Jodi set out on his CBR1000RR to lock into the top ten and get comfortable on the track. He then set out in the top ten shoot out on new Pirelli slicks and did a run of 4 laps, Jodi set his fastest time on lap 4 with a 142.347 in his first dry session on the CBR1000. This time set Jodi 6^th on the grid for Sunday’s race. “I had a great time riding the track in dry conditions today, we had a perfect bike set up and it made our few dry laps really useful”

Sunday brought another day of cloudy skies and uncertain conditions for the afternoon’s finals. The team opted to sit out the damp sport bike session and wait for better conditions in the superbike warm up. Jodi went on track and completed multiple laps to get comfortable on track before the finals coming up in the afternoon. The pro sport bike feature was up first for the JCR crew, Jodi got a good launch on his Honda CBR600RR filing into corner 1 in 3rd place, and he quickly made the pass into 2^nd into corner 4 and the same pass into 1^st a lap later. Jodi then pulled a gap until having a miscue that forced Jodi to coast through corner 1. This allowed 2^nd place to draft by on the back straight. Jodi quickly capitalized on a mistake of Raphael Archambault into corner 1. He then put his head down to stretch a gap so he could slow his pace and bring the win home safely with the margin of victory being 2.605. This was Jodi’s 3^rd consecutive win of the season!

The rain rolled in prior to the superbike feature race and the team went out in the 5 minute warm up on full wets. Jodi noticed the track had a few areas that were drying and bounced the idea of putting a slick on the rear with his Crew Chief John. The team made the decision to go forward and put a slick on the back for the race.  Jodi lined up 6^th on the grid and launched into the first corner in the thick of the battle. He settled in the field in 10^th position and rode the first few laps making sure he kept the bike on two wheels and working his way up to the 6 rider battle for 4^th position. Jodi sliced through the pack taking advantage of the drying sections to execute his passes. Jodi then closed a gap of 11.5 seconds to the third place rider in just 4 laps! With the last lap flag being flown Jodi caught Kevin Lacombe as they drove onto the back straight. Jodi tried to out drive Lacombe into corner 13 and could not complete the pass. Entering the Namerow hairpin Jodi was planning his next pass within the last 2 corners. As they crested Namerow and dropped into the right hand corner Jodi held a tight line into the bottom half of the corner and stuck a phenomenal pass between the last two corners.  Jodi drove to a podium finish with a gap of .347! Jodi was awarded the Kicker Kick Ass Pass of the race for his move on Kevin. “Wow! Our tire choice was defiantly a huge gamble going out on a wet track. I am so happy with how the race ended I had so much fun tracking down the lead pack and setting up that exciting pass on Kevin”  “If we ran full race distance we defiantly had the bike to win, If I could have cut through the pack faster I may have had a better chance to catch the leaders” “I am so happy with our finish today, I can’t express how much fun it was out there. I enjoyed the challenge of having a slick on the rear.”

The Jodi Christie Racing Accelerated Technologies team had a wonderful experience at their first trip to Le Circuit Mont-Tremblant as a team.  Jodi is now leading the Pro Sport Bike Championship with a 74 point cushion. After another great showing in the Pro Superbike Feature Jodi is sitting in 2^nd place in the point standings heading into the final two rounds.

The Jodi Christie racing crew had an exhilarating weekend at Le Circuit Mont-Tremblant and wants to thank all of our valued supporters for all of their help this season. The next stop for the team is the final two rounds of the Canadian Superbike Championship at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park formerly known as Mosport International Raceway on August 24^th – 26^th.