Crevier wins third straight

By John Hopkins
Photo by Neil Cameron / courtesy CSBK

ST-EUSTACHE, QC – Steve Crevier put more distance between himself and Cody Matechuk in the Harley-Davidson XR1200 Cup standings with his third victory in a row on Sunday at Autodrome St-Eustache.

Riding for the Kingston, ON-based MotoSport Plus team the Maple Ridge, BC rider finished 2.422 secs. ahead of the Privateers Harley-Davidson machine of Matechuk and now leads the Cochrane, AB rider by 21 points in the standings, 208-187, with three races remaining.

Despite injuring his leg in a practice fall Darren James of North Vancouver placed third on the Deeley Harley-Davidson Canada / Ruthless Racing entry and earned the Performance Under Gear Performer of the Race Award for his effort.

Crevier qualified on pole but was only third into the first turn as Matechuk got into the lead and James forged into second. The six-time national Superbike champion grabbed second spot on lap three of the 18-lap race and then took the lead two laps later. He soon opened a bit of breathing room between himself and Matechuk, turning the race's fastest lap of 50.180 seconds on the eighth tour.

"My bike seemed to have a little bit more poke than the other guys' today," Crevier said. "I wanted to check out and make my job as easy as possible."

Matechuk had James pushing him the whole race but the 17-year-old was able to keep the two-time national Thunder class champion at bay.

"We've struggled all weekend," Matechuk admitted. "I had a crash on Thursday and I didn't get as much track time as I had hoped. I hoped to stay with Steve if he passed me but he put his head down and got away.

"Hopefully I'll be up with Steve the next time. I won't let him get away with the championship that easy."

That James was even in the race was a minor miracle, never mind on the podium. He had suffered a concussion and tore ligaments in his thumb in a fall last weekend at Shannonville Motorsport Park, and he could barely stand after Sunday's race at St-Eustache after hurting his leg in a big morning crash.

"I felt I let my guys down with the crashes last weekend and this morning," he said after the race. "They've worked so hard for me that I think I owed them a good effort this afternoon.

"I've hurt my leg bad, I don't want to speculate how bad. The pain went away for the first eight laps but then it came back."

After being moved back to ninth on the grid when his bike's exhaust was found not to be in compliance with the rules, Magog, QC's Samuel Proulx made a good charge up to fourth at the finish on the Sherbrooke Harley-Davidson entry and stays third in the XR1200 Cup point standings. He finished just ahead of Ottawa's Elie Daccache on the Harley-Davidson de l'Outaouais entry, who had started an impressive fourth on the grid.

In a virtual repeat of Saturday's sensational race, Shay Gauthier won Sunday's sixth round of the Honda CBR125R Challenge, once again leading Stacey Nesbitt and Austin Shaw-O'Leary over the line. While on Saturday the top three were covered by 0.712 secs. on Sunday the margin was only 0.459 secs.

Nesbitt once again led at the start of the final lap but entering the dogleg that precedes the final bowl turn, Gauthier made his patented move down the inside to snatch the lead and hung on for his third straight series victory.

"I noticed Stacey was going a little wide there and I managed to get inside her on the last lap," said the 16-year-old Ottawa racer.

On Saturday Nesbitt had managed to get superior drives onto the backstraight to draft past Gauthier and on Sunday morning he and his father had worked on a sprocket change to try and remedy the situation. But Shay said that had hurt his overall lap times so they reverted to their Saturday race set-up.

Nesbitt did get the two-point bonus for leading the most laps -- she was ahead of six of the 12 -- and made up a little ground on points leader Shaw-O'Leary, who took his fifth podium of the year.

"Being consistent is key," said Shaw-O'Leary, who takes the points lead to his home track of Atlantic Motorsport Park for the next rounds of the series. "You can't have falls or DNFs. It's crucial to have consistent finishes."

Shaw-O'Leary left St-Eustache with 226 points to the 211 of Nesbitt, while Gauthier moved up to fourth in the standings with 162.

Nesbitt's busy weekend didn't end with Sunday morning's CBR125R Challenge race. She also sang the national anthem to open the afternoon's race action.

XR1200 Cup Race Results
1.Steve Crevier, Maple Ridge, BC 18 Laps in 15:11.466
2.Cody Matechuk, Cochrane, AB +2.422 secs.
3.Darren James, North Vancouver, BC +2.699
4.Samuel Proulx, Magog, QC +10.295
5.Elie Daccache, Ottawa, ON +10.683
6.John Ross MacRae, Calgary, AB +20.466
7.Chris Harmon, Bracebridge, ON +28.060
8.Bertrand Gahel, Longueuil, QC +30.062**
9.Lee Kuhn Jr., Hamilton, ON +31.886
10.Steve Hoffarth, Orangeville, ON +1 Lap
11.Dan Thomson, Carleton Place, ON +1 Lap
12.Gump Harrison, Ailsa Craig, ON +2 Laps
Did Not Finish
Olivier Spilborghs, White Rock, BC 9 Laps
Fastest Lap: 50.180 by Steve Crevier on Lap 8
* -- All riders aboard Harley-Davidson XR1200 motorcycles
** -- Media entry; ineligible for series points

XR1200 Cup Point Standings
1.Steve Crevier 208
2.Cody Matechuk 187
3.Samuel Proulx 141
4.Darren James 113
5.Chris Harmon 110
6.Elie Daccache 108
7.John Ross MacRae 100
8.Lee Kuhn Jr. 88
9.Olivier Spilborghs 83
10.Steve Hoffarth 80
11.Dan Thomson 74
12.Gump Harrison 47
13.Tim Clarkson 17

Honda CBR125R Race Results
1.Shay Gauthier, Ottawa, ON 12 Laps in 12:51.773
2.Stacey Nesbitt, St-Lazare, QC +0.244 secs.
3.Austin Shaw-O'Leary, Falmouth, NS +0.459
4.Eric Green, Richmond, ON +3.005
5.Scott Lingelbach, Wellesley, ON +21.442
6.Pascal Bastien, Laval, QC +22.028*
7.Costa Mouzouris, Montreal, QC +23.767*
8.David MacKay, Stoney Creek, ON +29.550
9.Cedric Martineau, Ste-Catherine, QC +30.958
10.Lauren Hill, Halifax, NS +1 Lap
Did Not Finish
Matt Chandler, Richmond Hill, ON 5 Laps
Karolina Pelc, Guelph, ON 0 Laps
Did Not Start
Leah Vignale, Kemptville, ON
Fastest Lap: 1:03.313 by Stacey Nesbitt on lap 10
* -- Media Entries; ineligible for points
** -- All riders aboard Honda CBR125R motorcycles

Honda CBR125R Challenge Point Standings
1.Austin Shaw-O'Leary 226
2.Stacey Nesbitt 211
3.Scott Lingelbach 191
4.Shay Gauthier 162
5.Eric Green 162
6.David MacKay 144
7.Lauren Hill 122
8.Cedric Martineau 114
9.Leah Vignale 110
10.Seth Van Dongen 94
11.Karolina Pelc 94
12.Matt Chandler 92
13.Timothy Kennedy 68
14.Brian Alexander 59
15.Sean Smith 36
16.Kyle Mistibachner 29
17.Sam McManus 27