A return to Canada was celebrated in style for Torin Collins on Friday, as the teenager secured his first career pole position in the Pro Supersport class at the Bridgestone CSBK opener.
After a pair of impressive Superbike showings in 2024, including a stunning victory at his home round in Edmonton, Collins announced his commitment to the more familiar Supersport class for 2025 beginning with a first ever trip to Shannonville Motorsport Park.
It didn’t take long for the 19-year-old to adjust to the circuit, however, getting up to speed quickly during Thursday’s test and carrying the momentum into qualifying on Friday afternoon aboard his Novalda Suzuki.
The debut pole position didn’t come easy for Collins, however, as he battled throughout the session with Matt Simpson, who was also chasing his first career pole despite finishing as the championship runner-up in 2023.
Simpson would set the early marker aboard his old-gen Evans Racing Yamaha, before Collins initially displaced him at the halfway point. Simpson would then take the top spot back with five minutes to go, besting Collins by only 0.031 seconds, before the Calgary native reclaimed pole for the final time with under three minutes remaining.
The historic effort will make Collins the first rider ever to start from pole position in their Supersport debut, and the fifth-youngest pole sitter in class history.
Despite falling just 0.099 seconds short of a maiden pole himself, Simpson’s strong pace will put the Evans Racing Yamaha rider firmly in contention for a second career victory this weekend, nearly two years after Yamaha’s last win in the category.
Completing the front row will be reigning champion Sebastien Tremblay, who found himself outside the top five for much of the session but found a late improvement when he needed it.
The Turcotte Performance Suzuki rider would move into third just moments after Philip DeGama-Blanchet had taken the position, though a distant half-second behind Collins and Simpson at the front.
That late improvement will shunt DeGama-Blanchet to the head of the second row, an excellent performance for the 17-year-old in his first weekend aboard the Taylor Racing Ducati.
Home favourite Brad Macrae would find himself just 0.010 seconds behind DeGama-Blanchet in fifth aboard his Colron Excavating Yamaha, while Elliot Vieira rounds out the second row for GP Bikes Ducati.
Zaim Laflamme stole the show in the support classes to kick off 2025 on Friday, taking pole position in Amateur Supersport and falling just short of the same in Amateur Superbike.
Alexis Beaudoin would wind up as the rider to beat in AIM Insurance Amateur Superbike, dislodging Laflamme from the top spot in the final few minutes to take his first career CSBK pole position behind a time of 1:08.857.
That would only narrow outpace Laflamme, who will line up second on the grid and only 0.159 seconds off Beaudoin, with Martin Perreault completing the front row.
Laflamme would get the better of Beaudoin in EBC Brakes Amateur Supersport qualifying, however, blitzing the field to earn his first pole since graduating to the intermediate ranks with a lap of 1:08.769, better than Beaudoin’s Superbike benchmark and 0.716 seconds clear of the rest of the field.
Fellow Lightweight graduate Cole Alexander would take an impressive second on the grid for his Supersport debut, splitting Laflamme and Beaudoin as the 18-year-old looks to build upon his strong finale in 2024.
The first qualifying session of the revamped Importations Thibault Twins Cup class was decimated by J.P. Tache, who will lead off the combined grid from pole position after winding up over a second clear of Louie Raffa.
The gap was actually much larger for most of the session, with Tache leading by over 2.5 seconds at one point for Aprilia, before Raffa cut the deficit dramatically in the final moments in his first weekend aboard an Aprilia of his own.
Reigning Amateur Twins champion Sebastian Silva will line up third for his first weekend as a pro, moving up one spot after a late penalty demoted Justin Marshall to the back of the grid for a tire infraction.
Jacob Black kicked off his title quest by taking the top spot in the Kawasaki Ninja ZX-4RR Cup, putting in a number of strong laps late in the session to earn pole position after returnee Jared Walker was issued a penalty after tech inspection.
Rob Cousineau would inherit second after the penalty, with reigning champion Jean-Pascal Schroeder moving up to the final spot on row one in third.
Local star Scott Szollos earned pole in the Super Sonic Road Race School Lightweight Sportbike class, beating out reigning Pro Lightweight champion Gary McKinnon in second.
Dante Bucek will complete the front row as he chases the amateur crown in the combined Pro-Am category, while MiniGP graduate Mason Archer turned in an impressive fifth in his CSBK debut behind Ryan Vanderputten.
The full slate of CSBK classes will begin their round one doubleheader on Saturday as racing gets underway at 1 pm ET, with race one of the feature Pro Superbike class kicking off at roughly 3 pm ET.
The full schedule and results can be found on the series’ official website.
