First, Some Very Special Thanks For These 2 Wins!
- All of you guys for supporting me out there on socials media, all your great comments are always appreciated! it gives me the edge to be 100% ready and focus.
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Blysk Racing Official Sponsors
- Julien Derome at Karting St-Zotique, for his free karting sessions allowing me to work my racing lines, and his great financial support.
- Mario Ménard at M.M Carrosserie & Mécanique, for painting the bodyworks all night and his great financial support.
- Soraya Dickenson at Elle Skin Perfection, for her fantastic support helping developing new sponsors as well as her amazing financial support.
- Pascal Anctil at Euro Moto for preparing the bike before and during races allowing me to focus on important racing details.
- Ginette Labonté at LettrageFlexi, for her amazing work doing all my stickers with ultra short notice.
- Rick at Hotbodies Racing, for the perfect bodyworks.
- Chris Duff at BMW Motorrad Canada for allowing me to be part of the amazing BMW Racer program.
- Beata Marszalik, my daily second hand, coach, nutritionist, photographer, mechanic, motivator and planner.
- Hervé Remetter, the best mechanic out there.
- Jason Williams, a great dedicated mechanic who helped me during the weekend.
- Frank Parent at Moto International, for his talent and fantastic knowledge on BMW bikes.
- Éric Moffette and Pascale Bastien at ASM Motosport for their support as well as their race and technical advises.
- Vincent Francis at The Project for managing my business schedule through this beautiful adventure.
- Jean-Sébastien Poirier at Remorque Richelieu, for his amazing trailer at an awesome price
Media coverage
- Worldwide BMW Newsletter
Constantly working my racing lines is a key for me when I need to pass other riders safely, here goes a special thanks to Karting St-Zotique for their support 🙂 !
An enormous ride was awaiting us, 86 hours back and forth to be precise! Euro Moto is supporting Alexandre Cleary and I by preparing our motorcycle sharply before and during each races. Hervé Remetter (left) is the man in action who will do all this work ahead, during, and after racing!
Our first experience for the three of us, crossing Canada was such an adventure itself! A running moose fell in front of us directly on the high way, two baby bears came across the road and we almost lost a wheel on the trailer! All this as we were driving non-stop 24/24 during 38 hours!
For me, the best part was the Prairies. Such a great piece of land, flat, clean and pure! We stopped on the highway to capture this beautiful picture 🙂 !
Howdy y’all! The original plan was to hit Edmonton as soon as possible, but in fact, as we were driving non-stop, relaying on each other every 6 hours, we had a day off to be filled with fun. A very good friend of Alex, Claude Rivest, was living in Calgary, he kindly invited us to come at his place and then attend the world famous Calgary Stampede ! Here in the picture, I was getting Hervé ready with some fake facial hair to hit the event with class 😉
Claude’s wife gave us some exceptional VIP ticket, allowing us to see everything close up. We had an amazing day, putting us in the Saouswess (South-West) mood!
That test day at the Castrol Raceway finally came up. A little stressed for sure, my goal was to come all the way to the West Coast to win both rounds of the weekend (Saturday and Sunday races).
That Thursday, we did the best lap time in every single session, leaving everyone behind by 1 or 2 seconds on every lap. For sure it gave me a great boost of confidence, but nothing was won until the checker flag showed up !
Here you can see Jason Williams taking the tire pressure and temperature. Being fast on a track, especially in road racing, is not only a question of a riders capacity. It simply goes from tire pressure to motorcycle chassis as well as suspension settings. Knowing this, I’m taking care of every single detail at my best, as a race engineer would do. Everything is taken in consideration, each angles of the bike is known, because a single millimeter can make a significant change on the motorcycle handling and grip during acceleration, breaking zones and curves.
The crucial moment finally came Friday during the qualifying session. Nervous but confident at the same time, I jumped on track. I was really pushing the speed but making sure I did not fall off the bike. Keeping in mind that if you fall, you probably won’t be able to do anything else further on the weekend… That being said, I put down 9 laps and I exit in the hot pit lane to see my mechanics. I had the pole position by 0.2 of a second :-/ ! And Stephane Chimot, who was second, jumped back on track trying to beat my time! A little five minutes was remaining on the qualifying session, so I took a guess and I let him try to beat me… As we were all very tired from the hot weather, it didn’t take him long that he was back in the hot pit lane; fortunately still in second position 🙂 !
Here’s Stephane Chimot on his Honda, out in qualifying making 0.2 second just behind me…!
Friday night, I took care of changing the original clip on my BMW S1000RR for some after market one who allows installing a hand-guard on the brake handle bar. That little piece protects the brake lever from being pressed by another rider while bumping during a race.
The Saturday morning practice went very well! I had made a small change in the suspension, and I gained a full second per lap, putting my best lap time at 1:21,4 😀 !
And here comes the race! Even if qualified 1st, I came up 3rd after the first corner. I have to say I messed up with the start sequence as I should have got the hole shot with that beast of BMW S1000rr… However, when everyone wants the 1st position, a fraction of a second makes a big difference!
Knowing exactly why I came all the way to the West coast, I put my head down and I analyzed my rival’s lines for a few laps, then I smoothly passed them one after the other in some curves area where they were a bit slower. Unfortunately, Stephane Chimot have had quite a moment in a different race just before this one while he lost the front brake after a serious front head shake leading him into the field crashing… The good news is that he was able to attempt this race and finished in 7th position even with some serious muscle pain.
Although, just after I passed Derrick (#991 in the picture before), I made a mistake and he came back beside me just before the right end corner that you can see below here. Although I didn’t notice him at this moment and I was squeezing him more and more to that concrete wall where Hervé is cheering at me. At this exact moment, we were racing at over 200 km/h when Derrick hit my shoulder right before that most dangerous corner! Guess what ? it scared me a lot as I had no idea he was there trying to pass me…! I kept myself relaxed and made the breaking zone as normal, but thank God we didn’t ended into the air fence covering the concrete wall. Anyway… It took me three laps out of 12 to pass both riders and make my way up 6 seconds ahead.
Beating my personal record at that track as well as the old pro racer EMRA record really made my day 😀 ! Putting down a lap of 1:21,088 !
– Saturday pm, Still one race to go –
I call this « flirting », that moment after a session when all your sensations are fresh, it’s the best time to remember how good or bad the bike was riding.
The BMW S1000RR 2015 is similar to an airplane 😛 ! I’m the only one racing with the electronic suspensions this year on the CSBK, but it seems to work quite well for me at this point. Even if I need to wire the bike to a computer for every single suspension adjustment, I’m fine with this 🙂
The Sunday morning practice hadn’t went perfectly as I scrub my leather on the pavement just a tiny bit. The good news is that I was able to kick back the bike on its wheels so it just continued its way into the grass and slowly go sideways. What happened? I have to say that I got surprised as the grip wasn’t quite the same because of the cold pavement. So the bike slept a little and instead of kicking it back up with my knee, I let myself go off the bike to avoid it falling completely (knowing I was leaning over 61° at that moment). Anyway, the only problem in this situation was that it affected my confidence for the race, as the bike had barely anything. On top of this, my teammate Alexandre Cleary had just fell in the 600cc class, hitting another rider’s bike and left for hospital… That increased the stress level even more!
But go big or go home! Gentleman, start your engine! This time I didn’t fail the start 😉 ! I was very concentrated, and I followed my gut feelings as all other engines were revving up to hit the first corner before anyone else!
I’m almost already gone, but still there behind the tires! I made the holeshot by far this time 🙂 You can see Chimot by himself in “fourth” position hanging off his bike to fly through this curve!
No chances this time, the very first lap I put my head down to separate myself from the group. Here you can see Derrick Whyte in 4th, Stephnane Chimot in 3rd and Alex Coelho in 2nd.
Such a great feeling of leading a race 😀 ! Although, I was really tired! Every single lap I was looking back to make sure I wasn’t pushing too much, but just enough to keep the distance. You just need an edge to win a race, and I didn’t want to take any risk at that time after that long journey to Edmonton; I had the first position and I wanted to keep it safely. Back on the picture you can see Derrick Whyte as he’s making a clean pass on Stephane Chimot, taking the 3rd position. I have to congratulate Chimot for being on his bike after crashing the day before… He was in lots of pain, but he made it well!
Jason was giving me crucial info during the race, looking at the remaining laps helped me to gage my energy.
Finally made it 😀 ! I was looking forward to this moment for many days! Pole position with a double header win 😀 ! Wahoo! I couldn’t have been happier than completing a perfect weekend. Third race ever and already a second win, that is just awesome 🙂 !
Haha! So much fun throwing champagne 😛
Blysk #1’s goal is to have happy fans! Whenever you attend the next race and you see me on podium or my team, come to say hello to us, we offer t-shirts to throw in the crowd 😀 !
The last words of the weekend were: “Well done, let’s do it again next race!” Nothing is over until the end of the championship. These two wins leads me to 3rd position in the CSBK championship, at only 6 points to the leader! Plus I now have the privilege to have my name alongside Jordan Szoke, have a look here in the worldwide BMW newsletter 😀
I’m very proud to present you my official sponsors alongside with these 2 trophies 🙂 ! Please take a moment to learn more about them!
Last time I’ve wrote: “Next goal, pole position at Edmondton Castrol Raceway! We all gonna make it together!” and I wasn’t joking 😉
Thanks again to all of you for believing in me!
Sam