Shannonville, ON – The Bridgestone Canadian Superbike Championship kicked off the 2026 season with a pair of significant wins on Saturday, with Ben Young and Tomas Casas each taking race one victories at Shannonville Motorsport Park.
The feature GP Bikes Pro Superbike class was pure chaos from even before the race, as Connor Campbell had a mechanical failure in morning practice and had to grab Alex Michel’s supersport bike, a machine Campbell had not ridden for three years. David Mackay also had to take some time to adjust to the brand-new Bridgestone V03 tires, citing “More grip than expected from the newly developed V03.”
Once the race began, Ben Young had another one of his slow starts, allowing Jordan Szoke to blast past into the lead along with Tomas Casas, Andrew Van Winkle, and Mackay, relegating the Van Dolder’s Home Team Honda to fifth. However, Young would make quick work of Van Winkle in turn two and was quickly back into third place after the first lap.
Van Winkle would follow Young through, taking third as both cleared MacKay early on, but a mistake from the Mountainview Motorsports Honda on the back straight would demote him back to fifth and promote MacKay back onto the podium.
Szoke was flying, setting a best lap of 1:04:980 with only Young able to get close, but a daring move from Young on the back straight caught the Canadian Kawasaki Motors rider flatfooted.
The reigning champion recovered to first, but Szoke would keep him honest until the 14-time Superbike champ had a problem, saying, “I had quite a bit of brake fade near the end. I was hoping to stick with Young for a little longer, but I had to take it easy and hopefully I can stick with him longer tomorrow.”
The three-way battle for third ended with MacKay snatching the position, scoring his first career Superbike podium, but Van Winkle did not make it easy. The Chilliwack, BC teen was consistently gaining bit by bit on MacKay until the end of the race, while Casas was unfortunately repassed after a couple of laps after Van Winkle’s off-track excursion, though Casas put in an impressive showing on his Supersport bike.
The OPP Pro Supersport race was an exciting one, as Cole Alexander got the start of his life and shot all the way to third from the second row, before the rookie had issues at the penultimate corner and dropped to fourth.
The battle for the lead was turning into a battle of wit, with Tomas Casas able to stick with Sebastian Tremblay for the majority of the race and pass him decisively at turn eight on lap fourteen.
Tremblay was able to fight back at Casas the rest of the race but could not pass the former champion, who finished the race in first for the first time since 2019. Tremblay mentioned on the podium that he “could not sustain the quick pace during the race, and when I was slow, Casas passed me before I could pick the pace back up.”
Mavrick Cyr was in close contention for third, but could not cement a move. Matthew Simpson would profit from the incident that occurred with the Alexander Racing Suzuki and would go on to take third place. Simpson was happy with his podium, but stated that he “needed a better start tomorrow,” as the Suzuki rider also finished second in the first race here last year at Shannonville Motorsports Park.
Rounding out the top five was Alexander and Cyr, making it an all-Suzuki top-five, cementing a strong constructor’s lead in the Supersport class after race one of round one.
More action was due for the Support class races, as the AIM Insurance Amateur Superbike class had Alexis Beaudoin breeze past to the lead in a short time. The #146 that got disqualified from qualifying was able to produce consistent lap times close to the Pro Supersport riders.
JS Lefebvre was also able to claw his way back to second with Baillie Ives rounding out the podium. Daniel Johnson was not able to ride in the amateur superbike due to his crash in the amateur supersport race earlier.
The EBC Amateur Supersport class provided loads of action, as St Maurice, QC rider Beaudoin was able to slingshot around the outside into turn one, passing four bikes to put the previously disqualified rider into third. But he was not done as two more moves were on the board for the #146, who pulled away to finish first by more than five seconds, with Jeff Barnard and Jeremy Lazure rounding out the podium.
Johnson was not so lucky. A brave move into turn six was enough to send him sliding into the grass, ending the #35’s race. Another crash in the closing stage was Yannick Rouleau, the QC rider, who sent it too hard at turn eleven, sending his bike into early servicing and subsequently ending his race.
In the Importations Thibault Twins Cup, an explosive start from Justin Marshall made him jump up to second as reigning champion J.P. Tache cleared off quickly. Marshall would not keep the place for long, as Louie Raffa breezed past him a couple of laps later, but the #498 Suzuki was able to keep Bronti Verbeek behind and take third place, with Tache winning comfortably.
Verbeek also had a strong start, jumping up to third, but could not get past Marshall as Verbeek had the door shut for the entirety of the race. The #93 Suzuki would not finish the race, as a hail mary at the final corner proved too much for the bike to handle, as it slid out from under Verbeek and crashed into the pits.
Raffa had a monstrous recovery, as a poor start put him into the midfield, but the Aprilia engine in the #76 proved too much for both Marshall and Verbeek, pulling ahead at the back straight and coasting to a clean second-place finish.
In the Scorpion EXO Ninja ZX-4R Cup, Jared Walker had a terrific start with Jacob Black fighting for the lead right off the bat, but the reigning champ went straight on at the back straight, giving Walker a comfortable win at the end. But the happiest man in the class was JP Schroder, grabbing third place and an ecstatic celebration on the podium.
In the Super Sonic Road Race School Lightweight Sportbike class, it was a dominant start from Lachlan Alexander, who pulled away by four seconds after only the second lap. Mason Archer had a bad start, dropping him to 5th, but the #819 was able to pull his wits about and push into second. Archer set a faster time than Alexander in lap five, but dropped back allowing the #32 bike to coast to a win with a seven-second gap.
