Szoke tops Mirabel morning

From Professional Motorsports Productions

Canadian Kawasaki factory rider Jordan Szoke topped Tuesday morning’s first try around the new ICAR circuit at the Mirabel airport outside Montreal during the official Parts Canada Superbike Championship test day at the permanent facility.

Szoke, who just wrapped up his third consecutive Yoshimura Pro 600 Sport Bike championship last weekend at Atlantic Motorsport Park, set the fastest time around the 2.2km “Short” configuration of 1:10.043 late in the morning test sessions on a Kawasaki ZX-10R.

“It will be nicer to have the longer track that flows a little more,” commented Szoke about running the shorter layout. “Riding on the short track is fun, but in a racing situation it might be a little different. But, everybody’s here and we’re all open minded about a new facility and overall the track seems to be pretty good.”

Heavy rain started to fall during the lunch break, leaving the concrete track surface wet for the start of the second half of the day.

The ICAR circuit is located on a section of the tarmac at the Mirabel International Airport, near the now defunct passenger terminal buildings. Tuesday’s test was to evaluate the circuit for a possible Canadian National event on the 2009 calendar.

Tuesday Morning - Overall Practice Times
1 Jordan Szoke PRO Kawasaki ZX-10R 1:10.043
2 Chris Peris PRO Suzuki GSX-R600 1:11.487
3. Brett McCormick PRO Kawasaki ZX-10R 1:12.038
4. Erick Beausejour Thunder KTM Super Duke R 990 1:13.691
5. Chris Peris PRO Suzuki GSX-R1000 1:13.945
6. Martin Grande AM Suzuki GSX-R600 1:14.288
7. Louie Raffa PRO Yamaha YZF-R6 1:15.515
8. Alex Welsh PRO Triumph 675 1:15.789
9. Franklyn Dominguez PRO Kawasaki ZX-10R 1:15.800
10. Martin Ricard PRO Kawasaki ZX-6R 1:15.903
11. Karl Daigle PRO Kawasaki ZX-6R 1:19.762
12. Eric Moffette PRO Suzuki GSX-R600 1:22.720