Michael Leon

The Royal Distributing Superbike Team was able to get some great results in the books at the season opening RACE SuperSeries Rd1 event held at Shannonville Motorsports Park over the May 12-13th weekend. Rider Michael Leon rode his BMW S1000RR to victory in the Pro Superbike and Sprint Cup races. The positive results and a weekend without drama were a relief to the team after some difficult outings in the Moto America series that were filled with crashes and difficulties.

The focus for the weekend was to test the S1000RR setup in preparation for the ucoming Mopar CSBK round one.  Over the years of racing BMWs at Shannonville, the team has tried many different combinations of shock valving, suspension linkages, fork offsets and swingarm pivot locations.  The idea was to determine the best combination for not only an outright fast lap, but also to make the bike less demanding to ride 20+ race laps while preserving the tire.

During the heat races on Saturday, Michael was able to race with fellow CSBK BMW racer Samuel Trepanier.  Michael won the Sprint Cup heat and finished second behind Sam in the Pro Superbike qualifier.  “It was good to get some laps in with Sam, fun for sure, but unfortunately we were not able to get close to the kind of lap times that will be required at the first National.  The track was still a little green from winter so that didn’t help us.   It was great to get some laps in on a track that I know after trying to figure out a new place!”  said Michael

Saturday evening, team mechanic Joe Gervais and Michael converted the BMW Superbike to a previous chassis setup, one very similar to what was used by the team at the RACE Rd 3 in 2017, in order to do a back to back test.

Unfortunately, Trepanier was not able to race on Sunday due to a work commitment. In the opening laps of both the SBK and Sprint races, Michael battled with Yamaha R1 mounted Eli Daccache. By the halfway mark in both races, Leon was able to take the lead and make a break for the win.

“On the out lap Sunday morning, I could tell right away that the rear grip on corner exits worked better with that setup. We were able to match our best time from Saturday, set on new soft compound Dunlops while riding on an extremely used front and medium rear. I was happy about that, but we are going to have to go a lot faster at CSBK Rd 1 in 2 weeks. I can’t wait!” commented Michael.

The Royal Distributing Superbike Team hopes to see you at Shannonville for the Mopar Canadian Superbike Championship season opener May 25-27th.

The Royal Distributing Racing Team would like to thank Royal Distributing, Pro 6 Cycle, Dunlop USA, BMW Motorrad Canada, Windmill Motorsports, Bell Helmets, Joe Rocket Canada, Five Gloves, TCX Boots, Hindle Exhaust, Liqui Moly Canada, Motovan, Performance Friction, Perry Performance, Forsaken Motorsports, Apex Brakelines, GianMajor Inc., Armour Bodies, Woodcraft, MWR Air Filters, Bickle Racing, Dave Smith and Vortex Racing Sprockets.