The drama at the Bridgestone Canadian Superbike Championship opener wasn’t just limited to the two feature pro classes on Saturday, as plenty of other categories delivered thrilling action to begin round one at Shannonville Motorsport Park.
Headlining the results was 18-year-old rising star Cole Alexander, who made the most of his first day in the intermediate ranks with wins in both the Amateur Superbike and Amateur Supersport races.
Alexander first mounted a great comeback effort in the EBC Brakes Amateur Supersport class, overcoming a poor start to eventually hunt down pole-sitter and preseason favourite Zaim Laflamme.
The two young talents and former Lightweight stars would battle it out briefly before Alexander made the final move with four laps to go, holding off a brief comeback attempt before bringing home a dramatic victory in his Supersport debut.
Laflamme would have to settle for second behind Alexander despite looking like the clear rider to beat entering the day, with Alexis Beaudoin joining the duo on the podium in third.
That trio would return later in the day for the AIM Insurance Amateur Superbike race, this time with Beaudoin on pole from Laflamme and Alexander, but the great track position was quickly negated as Beaudoin crashed on the opening lap.
That meant an epic race-long battle between Laflamme and Alexander would be for the win yet again, this time with Alexander leading for majority of the duel before a mistake promoted Laflamme into the lead with four laps to go.
It seemed as though Laflamme would exact some revenge from their previous scrap until the Triumph rider heartbreakingly ran out of fuel just prior to the final lap, forcing him out of the race and handing a surprisingly distant win to Alexander.
The day one sweep will put Alexander firmly in the driver’s seat for both championships this season, albeit after just one race out of nine, with Martin Perreault claiming second while Mark Stecho was promoted onto the podium by Laflamme’s late disaster to finish in third.
J.P. Tache opened his title quest in the Importations Thibault Twins Cup with a dominant victory, leading almost the entirety of race one en route to a dominant 23-second victory for Aprilia.
The runner-up from a year ago only had to overcome a brief lap one challenge from class newcomer and former top Pro Supersport rider Louie Raffa, though it didn’t matter much in the end as Raffa was handed a five-second penalty for a jump start, relegating him to fourth in the final order.
That meant a dramatic late battle between Justin Marshall and Bronti Verbeek would determine the last two podium places, with Marshall getting the better of Verbeek by only 0.142 seconds as she makes the switch from Pro Superbike to the Twins Cup.
Jared Walker overcame his Friday disqualification to win the Kawasaki Ninja ZX-4RR Cup opener, climbing from the back of the grid to defeat pole-sitter Jacob Black after a great early battle between the two.
Reigning amateur ZX-4RR champion Jean-Pascal Schroeder would join them in third, completing the podium.
Dante Bucek stole the show in the Super Sonic Road Race School Lightweight Sportbike class, putting in a late charge to win his first career national race over pro rider Ryan Vanderputten.
Local rider Scott Szollos was firmly in the fight at the front before running off at the end of the back straightaway late in the race, though he still salvaged a podium in third.
The support classes will return for their second leg of the round one doubleheader on Sunday at Shannonville, scheduled to get underway at roughly 2 pm ET.
Full results can be found on the series’ official website.
