Michael Leon

Photo by Bob Szoke

4th place is often considered a disappointing result. Winning is the obvious goal, finishing 2nd comes up just short of the win but at least you were close and when finishing 3rd , you are happy to grab that last spot on the podium. For 4th place, there is no trophy or champagne. Regardless, the Royal Distributing Racing Team left Autodrome St. Eustache, QC satisfied with Michael Leon’s 4th place finish in Pro 600 Sportbike, at the CSBK Rd2 this past weekend, because the team is continuing to show progress.

Saturday morning, Michael was interviewed for CSBK TV in both English and French. The clips can be seen at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QroYr_0GjkE&feature=plcp and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhegJDn_mZI&feature=plcp

Michael had qualified 4th, good enough for a front row start, with a lap time of 47.706 seconds around the short bumpy track, located north of Montreal. His time was roughly 1 sec short of the 2nd and 3rd place qualifiers and 1.6 seconds short of the pole time.

During the race, Michael hoped to be able to catch a tow from the lead group and challenge for the podium but it wasn’t to be. He ran in fourth place from start to finish. “I made a few errors on the first lap, not being aggressive enough, and the leaders gapped me right away. Once I lost touch, I just wasn’t able to match their pace. I’m a little disappointed because I am usually able to drop my times a little during the race, compared to qualifying, but in this case, I was only able to match my Q times. At least we seem to be moving forward and I’m feeling more comfortable on the bike.”

Michael sits 4th in the CSBK Pro Sportbike Championship point standings.

Once again, John Sharrard from Accelerated Technologies played a major role in dialing in the Elka suspension for the very harsh and particularly demanding track.
The team would like to extend big thanks to the family and friends that came out gave their support this weekend.

The next event on the calendar will be in two weeks. There is both Rd 3 of the CSBK National series and Rd 4 of the RACE Superseries. The team is carefully considering which event to attend.

Follow the team this season on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Leon-Racing/313192898765913

The Royal Distributing Racing Team would like to thank Royal Distributing, Triple 7 Racing, Pro 6 Cycle, Dunlop Tires, Accelerated Technologies, Elka Suspension, Nexo Sports, PBI Sprockets, Woodcraft, Martin Brickwood Performance, Performance Friction, Armour Bodies, CVR Motors, LG Restorations and Gianmajor Inc.

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