Sylvestre and Audet win Ice Race openers

By John Hopkins

Maxime Sylvestre and Guillaume Audet were the Pro-Am 450 winners on the opening weekend of the CMRC National Ice Race Championships in Victoriaville, QC Jan. 17-18.

On the opening day of the weekend Audet led home fellow Kawasaki rider Yan Laflamme and KTM's Sylvestre in the overall results, while the next day Sylvestre finished on top with Franky Pare second on a Honda and Shawn Ford third aboard a Yamaha.

Thorn Lahache won both the Amateur Open and Amateur 450 classes overall on Jan. 18 while a day earlier Tommy Fortin had taken AM 450 on a Kawasaki and Francois Asselin rode his Yamaha to first place in AM Open.

Philippe Lacasse and Jeremy Deer were the Supermini winners on Saturday and Sunday, respectively, Pare took the lone Pro-Am GP overall on Sunday and the Veteran Open +35 overalls went to Brandon White (Honda) on Saturday and Chad McComber (Kawasaki) on Sunday.

In the ATV classes, Dany Fiset had a big day on Jan. 18, the Suzuki rider claiming both the Pro-Am Open and Pro-Am 450 overalls. Semi-Pro 450 went to Kevin McGurrin and Amateur was won by Maxime Poirier.

Hondas swept the board a day earlier, with wins going to Jean-Francois Theriault (Pro-Am Open), Karl Leblanc (Pro-Am 450), Pierre-Yves Deneault (Semi-Pro 450) and Pascal Mastromatteo (Amateur).

The season continues this weekend in St-Sulpice, QC.