From a press release:

The Parts Canada Superbike Championship will face an invasion from south of the border in its 2002 season.

A round of the Formula USA National Road Race Series will be held in conjunction with the fifth stop on the Canadian national tour at Mosport International Raceway July 19-21. The Mosport event will be the fourth race in the eight-round Formula USA championship.

The remainder of the 2002 Parts Canada Superbike calendar remains virtually identical to last season’s seven-race series. The campaign will once again open and close at Shannonville Motorsport Park, near Belleville, ON. Races will also be held in Calgary, Edmonton, Montreal and Halifax.

“The Mosport event will undoubtedly be the biggest motorcycle road race held in Canada in over a decade,” said Colin Fraser of series organizer Professional Motorsport Productions. “We will have a field including some of the best motorcycle road racers from the United States as well as our top Canadian competitors.”

“We’ve said all along we were going to bring great motorcycle racing back to Mosport,” added Bar Hodgson of SUPERSHOW Events, promoter of the Mosport round. “We’re working our way back up there and we’re really excited. We’re billing it as the Canada/U.S. Match Races. That’s how we see it.”

The 2002 Formula USA schedule includes races at Daytona International Raceway, Summit Point Raceway in Virginia, New Hampshire International Speedway, Wisconsin’s Road America, Pocono Raceway in Pennsylvania and Portland International Raceway.

The series’ feature class, Unlimited Superbike, runs to rules similar to those used in the International Motorcycle SUPERSHOW Open Sport Bike national support class. Formula USA also includes a Sportbike division comparable to the Canadian Yoshimura 600 Sport Bike category.

“There will be some small adjustments made to the rules of our respective classes,” Fraser explained, “but all parties involved think it is worth it.”

Waterford, WI racer Shawn Higbee of KWS/Millennium Suzuki is the defending Formula USA Unlimited Superbike champion. Maple Ridge, BC’s Steve Crevier, riding for Honda Canada will bid for his third straight Parts Canada Superbike crown in 2002.

The Parts Canada Superbike Championship opens May 17-19 on the Shannonville Motorsport Park ‘Pro Track’ before shifting west for rounds at Calgary’s Race City Motorsport Park June 7-9 and Namao Airport in Edmonton June 14-16.

Montreal’s Autodrome St-Eustache hosts the national series July 5-7 before the big Mosport event two weeks later. From there, the competitors travel east to Atlantic Motorsport Park in Halifax for an Aug. 9-11 date before the traditional finale on Shannonville’s ‘Long Track’ over the Aug. 30-Sept. 1 Labour Day Weekend.

One addition to the 2002 schedule is an ‘invitation only’ Pro test day at the revamped Circuit Mont-Tremblant the day following the St-Eustache event. The trial is being run with a view to adding the famed road course to the 2003 series calendar.

PMP also unveiled a pair of changes to qualifying procedures in the 2002 Parts Canada Superbike Championship.

Bonus points will now be awarded to the four front row qualifiers at each series round, with four points going to the pole winner, three points to the second fastest qualifier, two points for third and one for fourth. Previously, only the top three qualifiers have earned points, with pole position worth 10 points, second good for six and third picking up four.

There will also be a two-point bonus for the racer who leads the most laps in each feature race.

Additionally, pole qualifying for the Superbike feature class will take place Saturday afternoon. Last season the four front row grid positions were locked in Friday, with Saturday’s qualifying session setting the remainder of the field.

Pole qualifying for the Open Sport Bike and Yoshimura 600 Sport Bike national support classes will continue to run Saturday afternoon.

Highlights of the Parts Canada Superbike Championship will once again be shown in a half-hour format on The Sports Network (TSN). Support class highlights will appear on Dave Hatch’s “Motorcycle Experience”, which is shown on TSN and the Outdoor Life Network (OLN).

Full coverage of each event will appear in a one-hour program on OLN and in Quebec on Reseau des Sports (RDS).

2002 Parts Canada Superbike Championship Schedule

May 17-19, Shannonville Motorsport Park, Shannonville, ON

June 7-9, Race City Motorsport Park, Calgary, AB

June 15-16, Namao Airport, Edmonton, AB

July 5-7, Autodrome St-Eustache, St-Eustache, QC

July 19-21, Mosport International Raceway, Mosport, ON

Aug. 9-11, Atlantic Motorsport Park, Shubenacadie, NS

Aug. 30-Sept. 1, Shannonville Motorsport Park, Shannonville, ON

For more series information, visit www.cdnsuperbike.com