It was an exciting weekend of racing at Mosport with two races for the Thunder Class of the Parts Canada Superbike Championship. For NCR-Ducati riders Valter Bartolini and Andrew Nelson it was a critical weekend in their quest for the championship. Bartolini was just coming back from a disappointing weekend in Calgary where a mechanical failure caused him to crash while teammate Andrew Nelson took the win and a lead in the championship.



 

Early testing showed Nelson with a comfortable one second lead in all practices and Bartolini in second or third position. When the flag dropped in the first race, it was both Bartolini and Nelson that got a good start and quickly set a fast pace in the high 1:25’s and quickly broke away from the group of riders behind. Nelson grabbed the lead and got into a rhythm while checking that Bartolini was out of his slip stream at all times. Andrew Nelson first broke the class track record with a 1:25.141 and then on the last lap, Valter Bartolini made a surprising pass in turn 8 to take the lead. The surprised Nelson kept his composure and made a inside pass in the last turn to win the race by 0.003 seconds - a photo finish!! Valter broke the lap record with a 1:24.897 in his last lap. Exciting stuff!!



 

The second race was run in wet conditions and saw all teams running strong in the changing conditions. It was a sign of things to come as pole sitter Andrew Nelson pointed at his bike after the warmup lap. When the flag dropped, Valter Bartolini and Dave Estok on his Buell that took an early lead with Darren James (Buell), Michael Ferrera (BMW) and Andrew Nelson in close pursuit. By lap 3, Bartolini took the lead and started his Supermotard wet riding style sliding it into turns as needed. By the fourth lap, Andrew’s bike stopped running with what ended up being water in the computer and putting him out of the race. Valter kept up the pace and took the win and a lead in the championship.



 

That leaves Valter Bartolini - NCR-Ducati with 157 points, Andrew Nelson- NCR-Ducati with 155, Dave Estok - Buell with 140, Darren James - Buell with 137 and Michael Ferreira - BMW with 126 and Micheal Leon and Erik Beausejour - both with KTM with 112 and 110 points respectively.

 



The NCR-Ducati team looks forward to the next round in Schuberacadie, Nova Scotia on August 8-10th. Join us then!!

 



Thanks to Steve Hicks and Elvio Valente for their help.

 



For more information, contact Joe Ippoliti at www.ncrfactory.com <http://www.ncrfactory.com>  or Jim McKenna at www.ducatiusa.com <http://www.ducatiusa.com> 

This sounds like some of the most exciting racing a fan could ever hope to see.