Legault defends Canadian championship.

Kyle Legault successfully defended his Canadian National Championship title before a packed house at Welland on Saturday night. It was a hugely popular win by the young local rider who led the scorers throughout the meeting and always seemed the likeliest winner.

However the result was still in doubt as the riders came onto the track for the final heat. At that point he had only a single point advantage over American Craig Estelle and with any tie in points broken by the result of the last race the title was on the line.

Legault grabbed the lead at the first turn and with Estelle back in third place the title was never in much doubt although the race itself was a cracker. American Jeremy Parsons supplied the fireworks by applying all kinds of pressure on Legault throughout the race and eventually finding enough drive around the final two turns to catch and pass him on the run to the line.

He got a well deserved checkered flag ride to receive the applause of the crowd for his efforts before Legault then took his as the meeting winner.

In the final standings Estelle just edged out Parsons for second place overall while veteran John Kehoe took fourth and promising young American Brian Hollenbeck had an excellent night and exceeded expectations with a fifth place finish.

The night before the Dean Bencsics Memorial meeting was staged at Paris. With Estelle and Parsons joining the locals for this race there was plenty of competition for a place in the final. Legault went through his heats unbeaten while Estelle, Parsons and Aaron Hesmer each dropped two points to join him.

Legault then completed an unbeaten night with another win from Parsons and Estelle with the race being called after three laps when Aaron Hesmer came down hard while trying a full throttle blast around the outside of turns three and four and required assistance.

In D2 Aaron De Veau went through the heats unbeaten but it was Phil Mosquera who led the final from start to finish, twice in fact as it had to be rerun after a Shawn Morrison took a heavy fall first time around.

In D3 13-year-old Michael Small, who has quickly become a fan favourite, won his first main event when he came from behind to overtake Tim Murray and get the win despite being mounted on a little 250cc bike while his opponents were all on 500cc machines.