Things are looking up for Caledon, Ontario’s Kenny Riedmann, who put in a solid effort and promising performance at the AMA Pro GoPro Sportbike races at the Mid Ohio Sports Car Course in Lexington, Ohio this past weekend. Riedmann piloted his Sturgess Cycle Triumph 675 to a fourteenth place finish in Saturday’s race and then backed that up with a thirteenth place in Sunday’s twenty-one lap affair.
This was Riedmann’s third appearance in the high-speed, high-stakes U.S. series and his results graph showed a steady incline and the 2.4-mile, fifteen-turn circuit at Mid Ohio.
In his first race of the weekend Riedmann set a personal pace clocking in at 1:32.520, bettering his qualifying time of 1.32:076. Ironically, the team took a step back in the second qualifier and Riedmann had to work hard for a 1.34:609 and a disappointing slip of two positions on the leaderboard. “The track was damp and cold and really slippery and this place can be dangerous. I was ok with our first time so I decided to stick with that,” he explained. “In the race itself I probably could have done better but we went with a soft compound and my tires were shredded at the end. For the next race we really stiffened the suspension and went with a harder compound tire. Reidmann also wanted to give a shout out to John Bickle of Bickle Racing. According to Kenny, “John rebuilt my suit with new body armour and supplied our tire warmers, so thanks to him.”
For the second race in the double-header weekend, improvements in bike set-up and rider skill showed early as Riedmann set his fastest lap of the weekend notching a 1:32.005 in pre-race practice. He then backed that up in competition with a sizzling 1:31.102, his personal best laptime and enough to see him cross the line in an AMA career best 13th position. “I was running at a top ten pace,” he confirmed enthusiastically. “We ran four laps from the start and then a crash brought out the red flag and I wasn’t very good off the restart, I’ve really got to work on my starts. Our clear goal now is top ten.”
The Sturgess Cycle Triumph road race team will next see action at the Mopar Canadian Superbike Championships in Mont Tremblant, Quebec from August 10th-12th, followed by the Mopar CSBK double-header and season finale at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park August 24th-26th.
Riedmann’s last AMA Pro Racing ride this year will be at New Jersey Motorsport Park September 7th-9th.
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