Michael Leon capped off the 2017 CSBK season with a 5th place finish, just 1.069 seconds behind the race winner, at the final race of the MOPAR Canadian Superbike series held at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, last Sunday, August 20th. In the previous day’s Superbike race, the Royal Distributing rider finished 6th aboard his BMW S1000RR Superbike. The 2 finishes allowed him to move up to 6th place overall in the series points standings, despite crashing out of the Quebec round back in June.
Regular team crew chief Kyle Blakely of Windmill Motorsports and Machine and team mechanic, Joe Gervais, were joined by motorcycle suspension expert Dale Rathwell in preparing and tuning the Royal Distributing S1000RR Superbike for the final race of the National series. During the Thursday track day, they focused on getting a good setup to be able to turn fast laps on the medium compound rear tire.
Friday, the team switched gears and began to focus on a setup for a fast lap in timed qualifying. That afternoon, Leon qualified 6th fastest during the special Superpole session with a time of 1.21:837 seconds. During this special session, unique to the last race of the year, the top 11 riders from the first part of qualifying were invited to try an ultra sticky Q tire provided by Pro Cycle and Dunlop. These tires provide a dramatic increase in rear grip but last only for approximately 2 laps before their performance decreases. “This year, I started to get the hang of the Q tire. What an experience. There is so much side grip, each time you open the throttle you regret not getting on it sooner and harder.” Commented Michael. He bettered his time from the first part of qualifying on a standard soft tire by just over a full second. Read more…
