A slightly sore Mopar CSBK Canadian National Champ Jordan Szoke is heading home from the final 2015 MotoAmerica at New Jersey Motorsport Park September 13, following a frustrating return to the American National tour. Both Szoke and his 2015 BMW S1000RR, sponsored by Express Lane, Joe Rocket and BMW Motorrad, are a little the worse for wear.
Szoke earned 15th overall in the opening, shortened, combined Superbike/Superstock Feature race, twice interrupted by rain and incidents. In the second, 26 lap Feature on Sunday afternoon, Szoke was eliminated in a first turn crash when he was collected by the Suzuki GSX-R1000 of Elena Myers.
“Race one didn’t go very well,” explained Szoke. “We didn’t really have the speed I thought we should have had, all weekend. With the rain in Q, and various issues, we just never seemed to get things going.”
“The first race was going OK, but I still had some issues with the front end. Then they stopped things because of the rain, and then I didn’t get a good start on the restart. I got around Elena, then I started after all the Superstock guys, they were mainly in a group, not far in front of me.” Szoke’s Canadian spec BMW was competing in the Superstock class.
“Then it started to rain a bit, and I rolled out of it, I was there to have fun, and didn’t want to take to many chances when it was slippery,” continued the ten time Canadian Superbike Champ. “But this time they waited a while to Red Flag it, and Elena got past again.”
Between the two Feature races, Ohlins suspension guru Jon Cornwell discovered that Szoke’s BMW had a problem with his front suspension.
“Jon found a blown O-ring in our fork, so I had no compression damping in my fork, probably since the start of the weekend,” confirmed Szoke. “So we were really excited for race two, looking forward to seeing what difference a good fork could make!”
“We ended up going about half a second faster than Jodi (outgoing CSBK Champ Christie, a front runner at NJ 2014) did when he got that good sixth here last year, and it shows how deep the field is now – the fork fix could have made a real difference.”
“So I got a good start in race two, I was on the outside of Chris Fillmore’s KTM Superbike into turn one, my knees on the ground, and I got hit so hard from behind – I was in the air and there was no bike under me!”
“Elena hit me from behind, I don’t know what she was thinking, there was no room between Chris and me. She got the tail section and exhaust, since I was already leaned over, and I was lucky not to get run over. Now I’m bruised up, hurt my elbow, wrecked my leathers and made a mess of my beautiful motorcycle.”
“This was one of my worst AMA Nationals ever, my first crash on the 2015, in fact it was my first crash since I fell in a Q session in Canada back in 2012! That crash was my fault, but this one wasn’t. But that’s racing – that’s the way it goes sometimes.”
Overall, Szoke still views the tip south on a constructive note: “I enjoyed the track, I loved the competition, the MotoAmerica people were awesome. Wayne Rainey and all of his people were so friendly, it was almost like a family reunion.”
Discussion about this post