The weekend battle is over and all the big guns were there! Bodies were bruised, egos were deflated and there were most assuredly champions racing in every class. Courtesy of the volunteers of the EMRA, the motorcycle fraternity met up just north of Edmonton at Stratotech Park for two days of racing in 17 different classes of motorcycles, featuring round 3 of the WCC or Western Canadian Championship.
It's middle of the season and hump race all in one wild weekend. We're now in to the home stretch for each of the class championships. Just like in MotoGP, the top guns took a real physical pounding this weekend while fortunately, none was severely injured. Hospitalisation was required in several circumstances. Our wishes go out to the racers for a speedy recovery...which doesn't mean a race to come back!
Team 51racing came out of what should have been a glorious weekend, with mediocre results. The team was forced to miss the "Big Race", the Intermediate Open Superbike due to time constraints imposed by sponsors. We simply had to absolutely, positively be there on time...
The team's nemesis and best racing companion Joe Peskunowicz of DucatiDaddiracing was in excellent form clocking some personal best laps in the Sportsmans class before bad luck...uhm...bit him in the %$$, when he was rammed from behind after the checkered flag dropped,. Fortunately team associates assured us Joe was OK...although looking for blood...Ducati RED blood.
Formula Thunder was the highlight of the day for the fans and the team as they managed to be competitive in this big event for bikes of various engine displacement and style. The team pulled down a 7th place finish and collected a mitt full of points in the championship! Racer 51 said after the race that he was inadvertently letting the others pass, by "not keeping the door closed using my usual blocking style". Racer 51 went on to say "...even when Pete De Graf was coasting and casually revving the mighty CBR1000RR on the clutch while I raced him trying to lap me in T7, racer51 said he never lost his composure and "I let him pass me" into T8. Little did Pete know racer51 probably has a lot more experience being lapped, than he does! "Pete could learn this skill from me" said racer51.
Other highlights included blocking Trina as much as possible and following #21 on the new purple RC51. I somehow suspected it was me limiting the bike...now I know as I watched him roar away from me.
We caught up with the team in the pits. "I figured that changing from worn out old tires with three weekends of racing on them would do the trick but the mid-event tactics proved fruitless", said "Crank", Racing51's head mechanic. Crank went on to say that the new fast tent performed very well going up and coming down very fast.
Looking at the race in retrospect, we asked team manager "Manny the brains" Barlock for his comments. He said among other things he was, "glad to get away from the awesome double header without damage to the motorcycle", and later added "We learned a lot from pitting with the DucatiDaddiracing team so we'd like to make sure everyone recognises what superstars they are over there."
The whole team here at 51racing sends "get well soon" wishes to all the injured riders and especially thanks all the volunteers who helped with this spectacular event.
Full results are linked off the team's main website at 51racing.ca
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