I’m right now at the final race weekend at Mosport Canadian Tire Park! It was important for me to post my race report from Shubenacadie tonight as it’s going to be busy for the next 2 days 🙂 Being actually at the pole position of the championship, I wish to win both races on Saturday (tomorrow) and Sunday! Then celebrating the race win as well as the championship win! Wish me good luck 😀 !
It was time to hit Nova Scotia with a Blysk!
And that’s exactly what we did! Its the 4th race and 4th podium 😀 ! The BMW S1000RR 2015 freshly painted by M.M Mécanique & Carrosserie!
It was my first experience traveling this far East, and no doubt I really enjoyed it. Forget the mountains! it’s not the place , but if you’re looking for pure nature as for beautiful lakes, waterfront and forest, then here is place to go!
Every single rider was describing this track as the most dangerous one in the championship… Let’s say that they were not mistaken! Although, the Atlantic Motorsport Park track has an amazing layout and it is really fun to ride on 🙂
I invite you now to have a look at the following video, you will have a good idea of how bumpy and narrow the track is, but keep an eye on how technical it is when there’s only few stretch left when the bike is not curving. Merging all these curves together is absolutely fun!
It didn’t take me long before I got used to the track, but strangely it was hard for me to be consistent between each laps. A very little change of racing line was having a major effect on lap time. But all together the test day on Thursday was sealed with a great 1:12,6.
The Friday afternoon practice was stopped after the second lap due to a sudden rain shower. It was very unfortunate, we would have liked to continue testing some more suspensions settings.
Nobody was expecting rain for the weekend, but just in case I went out on track just to figured out the smoothest lines in case of wet condition!
We were now Saturday morning during the practice just before the official race qualification. I was in a very good mood, putting my best lap so far with 1:11,5. This was a great feeling before the real qualification session!
More great news was that the rear tired was looking very good, no tearing at all. This “tearing” problem can appear when the suspension is not set properly and can result in a loss of rear traction.
Time for qualification!
I was expecting to put down some laps in the 1:11 range as in the morning practice! My rivals was three local guys, very fast I have to say, so I needed to be fast!
A lot of traffic was always slowing me down on the circuit… And when I finally had a clear field, I was then very tired and I couldn’t push as I wanted.
It’s only on my last laps that I finally had my best time, a bit unsatisfied with a 3rd position and a worst time than the practice one with 1:12.2. Although I decided that I was too tired to be faster and safe, so I exit in the hot pit.
As I removed my helmet, Jacob O’Leary #210 jumped back on track where he was in 4th position at this moment. He wanted to beat my time, and he did! That meant he put me on the second row on the starting grid, narrowing down almost all my chance to take the lead at the start.
I have to say that I wasn’t quite happy about my qualification… How can you be slower in qualification then practice…? But anyway, the 3 riders in front of me were locals and that means out of the championship point standing, so keeping this in mind helped me to be satisfied a bit more 🙂
Here’s Herve, my mechanics from Euro Moto! He’s bringing the beast at the technical inspection (here on the scale) to make sure the bike is technically under rules.
Together with some bike’s fans! I’m describing how BMW changed the 2015 model in such a better bike compare to its predecessors. Here goes a special thank to Elle Skin Perfection, official Blysk Racing sponsor!
And here comes the race! All this work ahead to compete during 14 laps and see who’s the fastest out here! That particular moment before putting on my gloves is always very stressful… No one knows what’s going to happen, it’s somehow stressful but also exciting!
A very special grid sequence here, having rows of 3-2-3 riders. At this exact moment, it’s crucial to be focused as it’s very important to get a good start, especially here at this track because it’s very hard to pass.
My start wasn’t perfect, but good enough! We all went down the hill and just before a tight corner I did a pass on Rob Forsyth #19, putting myself on second position 😀 ! Here you can see Herve having a moment 😛
O’Leary has the lead a bit ahead of us! Here’s in position order behind me: #19 Rob Forsyth and #69 Lee Hammond.
O’Leary is on top of the hill, I’m in second spot and have no idea what’s going on behind me. Anyway what matters is what’s in front!
Many thanks to Beata Marszalik for all these amazing photos! Looking back at this one I can understand why Lee #69 separate himself as he definitely had a moment right there as he ran on the grass! You can see his rear wheel of the ground :-/ !
The race goal was first of all to bring points to get myself on pole position of the championship. That being said, it meant I needed to cross the checker flag! So I decided not to push too much and stay at a safe pace.
After a few attempts, Rob passed me and when he did, I just said to myself “Let them work together at the front and let see what’s happening”. As Rob had the best lap time, I knew he was faster than O’Leary and that he would pass him soon or later. Although, the race was almost over, but that also means more stress in rider’s head…
And what I expected happen…! O’Leary did high sided, and Rob was so close that he couldn’t do anything, so he ran right into O’Leary’s bike flying above his handle bar :-/ ! Although as you can see on the last picture, I wasn’t far back, but luckily me just enough to manage to not ran over O’Leary who was sliding across the circuit! While he slid, he gave me that frighten look as he thought I was going right into him! Thank god I manage not to…!
So I continued my way until I saw a red flag showing up unfortunately.
I came back in the hot pit lane, knowing both of them were not hurt, I was happy not to get involved in the crash and finishing the race up in first position! But I was wrong!
Here’s Rob a few seconds after the crash, probably very frustrated as he didn’t knew he was officially now in first place because of the championship rule as he was involved in a crash but didn’t cause it!
Herve and I, he’s definitely unhappy about this rules… 😛 I have to admit that it’s quite strange to win a race as you had a crash, but if I would have crash into them, I would have been second anyway. So I guess sometimes your lost can turn into your gain!
The weekend goal was for sure fulfilled as Blysk Racing finished at second place for this 5th round of the CSBK!
Yep! Rob got me this time!
With those points, we are now at the pole position in the championship point standing 😀 ! The last two rounds at Mosport (Ontario) will be very exiting!
Special thanks goes to for this 2nd position standing
- 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.
-
Blysk Racing Official Sponsors
- 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.
- Julien Deromeat Karting St-Zotique, for his free karting sessions allowing me to work my racing lines, and his great 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.
- Rickat 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, motivator and planner.
- Hervé Remetter, the best mechanic out there, he’s doing an amazing job.
- 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