If you want to know where Canadian road racing futures are built, don't look at the big sweeping corners of a grand prix track. Look at a parking lot in Brechin.
That’s where it started for Jäger and so many other kids in the Canadian minimoto scene—dodging cones on the pavement with the Super Sonic Road Race School (SSRS).
When you first show up as a parent, you don't really know what to expect. You’ve got a kid, a helmet, and a lot of nerves. But then you meet Toni Sharpless. Toni is a Canadian Motorcycle Hall of Famer, but out there on the asphalt, she’s just the coach who can look at a 10-year-old and instantly know how to make them faster, safer, and more confident.
Those parking lot drills at Brechin aren't just about learning where the throttle is. They are about vision, body position, and learning how to trust the tires. You spend hours watching them weave through tight, technical cone layouts, listening to the tiny engines rev and the occasional scrape of a knee puck.
As a dad, I'm the cheerleader and the guy carrying the snacks—Jamie is the real technician. We're constantly checking tire pressures and making sure they're hydrated. But the real magic is watching the progression.
One weekend, they're tentatively navigating a figure-eight. The next, they're dragging a knee and asking when they can ride the Ohvale GP-2.
Without SSRS and Toni's "Arrive & Race" program, getting into this sport would be a massive wall to climb. She built the bridge.
Those days in Brechin set the absolute foundation. When Jäger finally rolled out onto the real grid at Shannonville for MiniSBK, the speed was different, but the mechanics were the same. The lessons learned between the cones in a parking lot are exactly what you rely on when the green flag drops at a national round.
It all starts in the parking lot.
Huge thanks to Toni Sharpless and the whole SSRS crew for building the foundation for these kids.