Flat Track Canada Nationals Round #4

There's just something about the track at Flamboro. It's big. It's fast. It's loud. And the sun sets just perfectly over all the action. There's something about how the roar of a pack of motorcycles echos forever into the vast, open air of the surrounding farmland. There's something in the way the towering track lights cast a glow over the dusty oval as the sky darkens into an inky blue abyss. There's something about the life in the pits. And the chute where riders wait like caged animals, gearing up and revving their engines till warm.

We rode out from Steeltown with some buds and caught our racers Hunter Bauer (Expert #24) and Justin Guinard (Novice #24) compete with some of the best racers in the country.

Winner of the event in 2018, Dave Pouliot looked fast in practice until something went south on his bike. Hopping onto a backup machine for the heat race, Pouliot had the unbelievable bad luck of another machine expiring meaning the 2018 winner would be starting from the back of the pack on his third machine of the night. Off the green in the Open Expert race points leader jumped out front and led the pack out of turn two on lap one with teammate Hunter Bauer and former champ Brodie Buchan in close pursuit. Cagey veteran Chris Evans was close behind Buchan and as they finished the first lap he chopped across the front wheel of Buchan's machine to take over third.

A couple of corners later Evans made the move on Bauer for second and set off in hopes of running down the leader. In the meantime Tyler Seguin found himself engaged in a battle with Buchan for third and finally made the decisive move just past the halfway point. As the race wound down an exhausted Evans was unable to catch Brown and the results at the line were Brown, Evans, and Bauer holding off a charging Seguin. Pouliot meanwhile had to settle for an 8th place finish after a valiant charge from the back.

Evans looked fast all night long and proved that once again in the Dash for Cash. With Buchan grabbing the holeshot and never looking back, it was up to the other five riders to decide the remaining positions in the top three. Brown held second place briefly but Seguin had other ideas and quickly shuffled Brown back to third courtesy of a pass on the back straight. The running order stayed the same until Evans slid past Brown going into turn one on the third lap and locked eyes on the top two bikes. As the field exited turn two on the final lap there was a brief moment where both Seguin and Evans pulled slightly ahead of Buchan, but Buchan got the drive off the corner to take command of the race once again. Evans did manage to get by Seguin so the finishing order was Buchan, Evans and then Seguin with Brown out of the top three which is rare.

Trent Pickle had looked fast in Expert DTX practice and was hoping to keep his momentum going when the green flashed for the start of the race. Out of corner two on the first lap the top three were Brown, Cody Marentette, and then Pickle close behind. One lap later Pickle made his way past Marentette and the unfortunate Marentette was passed by Pouliot on the next lap and found himself shuffled back to 4th after a terrific start. Pouliot made his way up to Pickle and for the next several laps the two engaged in a fist fight for second place. With Pouliot on the top of the track and Pickle dive bombing on the bottom, the two engaged in a war that saw them swap the position several times before Pouliot was finally able to secure the position with just one lap to go. This left Pouliot no time to run down Brown however so the final results were Brown, Pouliot and Pickle.

Check out the TSN coverage on Monday August 12th 12pm on TSN 5.