Eleven-year-old Ethan Reardon of Sabadell in the Province of Barcelona, (formerly from Alberta), became the first Canadian to fly the maple leaf flag at the World level in a very long time, racing in three Ohvale 160 events over the course of the final day of action for the Motul MotoMINI World Championships at Circuit Ricardo Tormo in Valencia, Spain, Thursday, November 13.
The first race started just after 9am in cool but dry conditions over 14 laps, with Witold Kupczynski of Poland (riding for the Spanish squad) earning the win by just 0.1 of a second from Jan Babiarz from Poland competing for the Czech Republic. After a good fight, Reardon made up for a poor start to place 17th, with a best lap at 44.82 seconds, compared to the 43.65 of third finisher Daniel Putorti of Italy.
In his second race, Reardon fought through to net another 17th out of 23 finishers, in a race won by Jan Babiarz, a Polish National competing on behalf of the Czech Republic. Reardon was 15 seconds behind the winner at the finish, turning a best lap at 44.43, the victor earning the best lap of the 14-lap race with a tour of 43.39.
In the afternoon’s main, double points 19 lap Feature Ohvale 160 race, Kupczynski won in a photo finish with Putorti, Javier Vigueras of Spain third overall, turning the best lap in a six-way fight for the lead at 43.49.
Reardon was again in the wars in race three, netting 16th, 1.4 seconds behind the lead pack and setting a best time of 44.44 in a lengthy dispute for position. Olaf Kozlowski of Poland, competing for the Czechs, was 17th, 1.6 seconds behind star Canadian, with Team Canada’s single Ohvale 160 class racer in the main events at Valencia finishing 22nd overall in the final standings, based on points awarded in three races on Nov 13.
Most of the Canadian racers and supporters on hand are sticking around in Valencia for the MotoGP event this weekend and the last official test of the Euro race season on Tuesday at the main venue.
