Torin Collins continued to exceed all expectations in the Pro Supersport class on Friday, crushing his final lap of qualifying to take a second consecutive pole position in the Bridgestone Canadian Superbike Championship at Atlantic Motorsport Park.
Collins’ first ever trip to AMP already put him at a disadvantage to his more experienced rivals, and that situation only got worse on Thursday as a trailer issue left him on the sidelines for the pre-weekend test day, but none of that fazed the 19-year-old as he was immediately on the pace around arguably Canada’s toughest circuit.
The championship leader faced some resistance early in the 20-minute qualifying, with Alex Michel leading the session from 2024 pole-sitter John Laing with the halfway point approaching.
Collins would begin to gradually chip away at the leaders in the middle stint of qualifying, climbing from fifth up to third and then jumping to the top of the leaderboard right at the midway point, but not by a significant margin as only 0.387 seconds covered the top six riders.
Those razor-thin gaps would hold firm into the final two minutes until Collins promptly crushed the rest of the field, putting in a sensational lap to go 0.401 seconds clear of Michel and secure another pole position aboard his Novalda Suzuki.
It was a career-best qualifying performance for Michel, however, with the SpeedFactory67 Kawasaki rider looking like a legitimate challenger for his first career pro victory this weekend as he starts on the middle of row one next to Collins as the fastest “old-gen” machine.
A late effort would crucially move Sebastien Tremblay onto the end of that front row, with the reigning champion finding himself outside the top five for majority of the qualifying session before making a number of improvements in the final five minutes.
The S.T. Motosport Suzuki star will have a sizeable gap to close to Collins as he aims for his first victory of the season this weekend, though one that is very manageable for the two-time Supersport title winner across an 18-lap race distance.
That late time attack would push Andrew Van Winkle onto the second row in fourth, setting up a potential rematch for the Mountainview Motorsports Suzuki teenager after his epic duel with Tremblay in AMP a year ago.
The run of Suzuki’s would continue with Laing and Trevor Daley completing the second row in fifth and sixth, respectively, though by the finest of margins as only 0.189 seconds blanketed Michel in second to Daley in sixth.
Laing is still adapting to his new Vass Performance Suzuki but remains a contender for at least a podium at his honourary home round, while Daley can also easily convert his grid spot into a potential fight for the win just as he did in round one for OneSpeed Suzuki.
The unfamiliar venue did little to faze Cole Alexander in his first career trip to Shubenacadie, taking pole position in AIM Insurance Amateur Superbike and provisionally matching it in the EBC Brakes Amateur Supersport class.
Round one’s breakout star would have better fortune in Superbike, as his pole time held up after post-tech inspection to put him at the front of the grid for the weekend doubleheader, but he was less lucky in Supersport after a fuel infringement forced his provisional pole result to be disqualified.
Alexander was amongst a number of riders to be disqualified from the Amateur Supersport order for running improper fuel, which means that he will actually line up fourth on Saturday – a largely inconsequential penalty, but one that hands pole position to his rival Zaim Laflamme.
The barrage of penalties promoted Nicolas Audet from third to the middle of row one in second, while local rider Christopher McCrea jumped three spots to complete the front row.
Things were more straightforward in Superbike qualifying, where Alexander retained his pole after leading the session from start-to-finish. Laflamme would gradually trim the deficit down to just 0.104 seconds, but that was as close as he got as the duo prepare for another dramatic weekend in their developing rivalry.
J.P. Tache continued his dominant run atop the Importations Thibault Twins Cup class, crushing the field to take pole position by over 1.5 seconds from teenager Dante Bucek.
Bucek would shrink that gap down dramatically in the closing stages – trailing at one point by over two seconds – but that was close as anyone would get to Tache, with Louie Raffa completing the front row from local wildcard and former Lightweight frontrunner Baillie Ives.
Home favourite Gary McKinnon obliterated the Super Sonic Road Race School Lightweight Sportbike class to take pole position on Friday, besting Bucek by over a full second at his home venue.
Bucek didn’t make things easy on McKinnon early on, leading on a pair of occasions with just 0.070 seconds separating them at the halfway point. McKinnon’s vast track knowledge would pay off in the final moments, however, smashing the provisional pole time to go 1.235 seconds quicker than championship leader Bucek.
Norbert Joo would complete the front row, with local wildcard Mark Willson only 0.103 seconds short as he’ll lead off row two next to 15-year-old Mason Archer.
Jacob Black kept his championship hopes in good shape with pole position in the Kawasaki ZX-4RR Cup category, dominating Jean-Pascal Schroeder by over 2.5 seconds.
Both Black and Schroeder will be vying to inherit the championship lead from the absent Jared Walker, who swept round one but was unable to make the trip east.
The complete slate of national racing is set to get underway at roughly 1:10 pm AT on Saturday at Atlantic Motorsport Park, just 45 minutes north of Halifax, Nova Scotia.
Full results can be found here.
