Mosport- July 14-16 Schouten Takes Second Place
This past weekend marked Round#7 of the Women’s Cup Challenge and Rounds#5 & #6 of the Parts Canada Superbike Series at Mosport International Raceway. With steamy hot summer conditions fans were out in full force to see some of Canada’s finest motorcycle roadracing heroes and Vicki Schouten was there to participate in the action! Vicki ended her 5 race long winning streak to finish the Women’s Cup Challenge race in a solid second place; allowing her to secure the lead for the Women’s Cup Novice Championship.
Vicki had been at Mosport for most of the week, taking advantage of practice sessions put on by Pro6 Cycle before the Parts Canada Superbike crew moved in on Thursday. Conditions at the beginning of the week were not favourable for practice—with strong winds and rain and almost tornado-like conditions on Monday, not much practice time was had.
Tuesday’s practice was a little better. The weather was more accommodating and Vicki was able to put in some solid practice sessions. With much help from Wheelsport, Brad Clarke of Compulsion Racing, and John Sharrard of Accelerated Technologies, the team was able to spend the better part of Monday and Tuesday getting the Honda CBR600RR dialled in after experiencing a low-side crash the weekend before during a practice session at Shannonville Motorsports Park.
With the bikes dialled in and ready to go, Vicki took to the track for practice all day Tuesday. With special thanks to Grant Hughes she learned some fast lines on the track and quickly became familiar with Mosport’s challenging terrain.
Saturday afternoon brought the Women’s Cup final as well as the AM600 timed qualifier. As there was no qualifier for the Women’s Cup event, the start was based on series points, which meant Vicki had the pole for the Novice Women’s race. Although she had a strong start to the race, unfortunately for Vicki, one of her Novice competitors managed to pull out in front of her quite quickly as she had the better line going into turn one. Vicki was able to hang on and battle it out for a number of laps, but with her suspension still not 100% from the crash she did not want to take any risks. Eventually the leader got away from her and Vicki was happy to settle for second place after a race well fought.
Following the Women’s Cup race, there was little time to relax, as next up was the AM600 qualifier with the men. Still tired from the heat and the Women’s race, Vicki put in some good lap times for the AM600 qualifier and while not her fastest lap times, was happy to qualify on the second last row of the grid.
Sunday- Amateur600 Race Day. The weather was steaming hot but the conditions were perfect for the fans—of which there were thousands who had travelled to Mosport to camp for the weekend and take in the festivities.
With a strong start and with 35 riders on the grid, the field went charging into turn one at Mosport. After having fun dicing it up with some mid-to-rear pack competitors, Vicki completed the race in a respectable 27th position, happy to have completed some new personal best lap times.
A very special thanks goes out to our sponsors Honda Canada, Wheelsport, Bell Helmets, Performance UnderGear and Compulsion Racing. A very special thanks also goes to Dave Shirley, Brad Clarke, Simon Blue and Steve and Jeff of Wheelsport, for all of your technical advice and support in the pits. Many thanks as well to Jeepy and Flair Photo for some fantastic pictures this weekend. And to all of our friends and family who continue to come and support us!
