Shannonville- September 1-3 Vicki Schouten Takes Home the Championship!
Labour Day weekend marked the final round of the Parts Canada Superbike series and the 8th round of the Women’s Cup Challenge at Shannonville Motorsports Park. With two final rounds still remaining, Vicki Schouten put in a commanding performance to clinch the Novice Women’s Championship title for the 2006 season! A remarkable effort for a lady who has been at this game for just over one year!
Track conditions were expected to be less than ideal on the weekend, with remnants of Tropical Storm Ernesto making its way to Shannonville and expected to hit just in time for qualifying on Saturday afternoon! As a result, series organizers opted for the wise move of holding nearly all series qualifiers on Friday afternoon before the storm descended upon the racetrack. This meant that the Women’s Cup qualifier would be held Friday afternoon, while AM600 qualifying would continue to take place on Saturday given the large field of participants expected to compete.
Qualifying went reasonably well for the Women’s Cup Challenge on Friday afternoon. Starting from the pole position with the lead in overall series points, Schouten had a less than ideal start to the qualifier. Buell-mounted rider Randé Hilliard-Martin took the lead off the start. The Buell’s tend to have more torque than the 600s and Schouten knew starting against the Buell would be difficult. Vicki sat on Hilliard-Martin’s heals for the first few turns of the 4 lap heat race qualifier. Hard on the gas coming out of the hairpin before the backstraight, Schouten’s Wheelsport Honda CBR600RR proved to be the more solid machine. Schouten and Hilliard-Martin rode neck and neck on the backstraight, while Schouten eventually outpaced and outbraked the Buell competitor to take over the lead. It was smooth sailing from there on and Schouten completed the qualifier in first place to take the pole for Sunday’s race card.
Saturday morning the storm had not yet arrived and series officials decided to run AM600 timed qualifying first thing Saturday morning while track conditions were still dry.
Running at times of consistent 1:15’s and a few 1:14’s, Schouten was satisfied with her times having reached her goal of a 1:14 on Shannonville’s 1.5 mile Pro track. Just as she was about to pull in, a faster rider overtook Schouten. She opted to hang onto that rider for a few laps before calling it a qualifier. The strategy must have worked as Schouten pulled of a personal best time of 1:13:7 putting her into 24th out of 34 riders in the highly competitive AM600 field!
By Saturday afternoon the rain from Tropical Storm Ernesto had arrived as promised and track conditions became wet and sloppy for the rest of Saturday afternoon. Both girls quickly switched to Pirelli Turbine rain tires to take advantage of some practice in the slick conditions.
The rain had still not subsided by Sunday morning and it looked like a wet day in store for all of the series finals. The Women’s Cup Challenge was scheduled as the first race of the day taking place at 11am. Vicki took advantage of some practice time in the rain during the AM600 practice Sunday morning. The Pirelli Turbines were working well as both girls pulled off some respectable laptimes for such rainy conditions.
The Women’s Cup Challenge race was at 11am on Sunday. The stands were filled with thousands of fans that braved the wet conditions to catch the season finale of the Parts Canada Superbike series. As the ladies were about to head out onto the racetrack, the rain came down even stronger. The track was wet all around with standing water in a number of places.
Schouten had a good start to the Novice women’s race but an American rider aboard a GP bike quickly took the lead. Schouten worked hard to stay on the American rider’s tail for the first few laps of the 10 lap final. However, the wet conditions proved slick and a number of competitors were crashing throughout the course! Armed with the knowledge that all she needed to do was finish the race, Schouten opted to sit back and maintain her comfortable second place position for the balance of the race. Finishing second on the podium, Schouten was pleased with her overall finish and happy to accept the hard-earned Number One plate for the season!
