The blistering times continued in the third round of the Bridgestone Canadian Superbike Championship on Friday, as Torin Collins crushed the old lap record to take his third consecutive pole position at RAD Torque Raceway.
The Pro Supersport championship leader was considered the runaway favourite for his home round after taking three convincing victories in four races, but faced a stiff challenge in qualifying in the form of fellow teenager Andrew Van Winkle.
Van Winkle would go quickest on his first attempt before Collins immediately set a new lap record just moments later, surpassing Elliot Vieira’s benchmark of a 1:19.320 from last season.
The 18-year-old Van Winkle would then respond with the first ever 1:18 lap in the Supersport class, finding a quarter-second on the 19-year-old Collins as the two young western talents traded blows early on.
Collins would deal the decisive blow just after the five-minute mark, however, blitzing the field to go fastest with a time of 1:18.361, nearly a full second quicker than the previous lap record aboard his Octagon Energy Services Suzuki.
The Calgary native would see that advantage shrink gradually over the next 15 minutes but would hold on to a third pole in three attempts since moving to the Supersport ranks, fending off Van Winkle by 0.360 seconds in the end.
Van Winkle kicked off what was a razor-thin battle for second on the grid aboard his Mountainview Motorsports Suzuki, putting his old-gen GSX-R600 only 0.117 seconds clear of Cochrane, Alberta native John Laing who provisionally finished third.
Laing had just moved into second in the opening minutes when he crashed in turn four, spoiling a shot at pole for the Vass Performance Suzuki rider but giving him enough of an advantage to crucially retain a front row spot at the time the chequered flag waved.
It appeared as though that would come at the expense of reigning champion Sebastien Tremblay, who posted his best time of the session on his last flying lap but fell just 0.084 seconds short of Laing in third for the S.T. Motosport Suzuki team.
However, Laing was hit with a one-place grid drop penalty after slightly exceeding the horsepower limit on the DynoJet dynamometer in parc fermé, promoting Tremblay to the end of the front row for this weekend’s tripleheader.
Lining up in the middle of row two will be Alex Michel, who also put in a late improvement to wind up just 0.234 seconds behind Tremblay on his SpeedFactory67 Kawasaki.
Notably, the entire top five finished below the lap record from 2024, demonstrating the pace of the Bridgestone tires at RAD Torque despite less-than-ideal weather.
Amateur rivals Cole Alexander and Zaim Laflamme traded pole positions on Friday, with Alexander claiming the top spot in the AIM Insurance Amateur Superbike class while Laflamme got his revenge in the EBC Brakes Amateur Supersport ranks.
Alexander entered the day with a 30-point advantage over Laflamme in Superbike and will try to build on that this weekend from pole position, putting his Suzuki just 0.194 seconds clear of Laflamme as both riders beat the previous lap record from 2015.
British Columbia native Jason Langeveldt will join them on the front row for Suzuki, complicating the fight for third in the championship between Nicolas Audet and Alexis Beaudoin, who will line up fourth and fifth respectively.
It looked as though Alexander would double up his day yet again in Supersport until Laflamme snatched pole position right at the finish, surpassing the 18-year-old by just 0.080 seconds as he took the chequered flag.
Laflamme would smash the previous lap record along with rival Alexander, while Beaudoin will join them on the front row ahead of Audet in fourth, a reversal of their fortunes in Superbike as well.
Dante Bucek brought an end to at least one perfect run for J.T. Tache on Friday, claiming pole position in the Importations Thibault Twins Cup class after Tache had paced almost every session of the season.
Bucek and Tache would each make gradual improvements over the final ten minutes, with the gap dipping as low as 0.070 seconds at one point, before Bucek found his crucial last advantage with a time of 1:24.360.
That would put the 16-year-old a more comfortable 0.384 seconds clear of Tache, with the championship leader unable to respond on his last flying lap as Bucek exited with the first pole position of his Twins career.
Bucek will now try to end another perfect streak for Tache this weekend as he eyes a first career victory in the Twins ranks, with the veteran having conquered every race thus far in dominant fashion.
The duo will line up alongside local fan favourite Bronti Verbeek on the front row, who claimed the best qualifying result of her CSBK career at her home track, just 0.887 seconds off the pace for Yamaha as she spoiled the front row lockout for Aprilia.
Bucek continued his strong day with another pole position in the Super Sonic Road Race School Lightweight Sportbike class, smashing the field as he looks to put one hand on the championship this weekend.
His title hopes will be boosted significantly by the absence of Gary McKinnon, though Bucek did what he needed to do regardless on Friday as he wound up a comfortable 1.230 seconds clear of Norbert Joo in second.
Joo would hold an equally comfortable gap to Scott Szollos in third, who will try to prevent Bucek from clinching the championship this weekend as he enters round three with a 43-point deficit to the amateur frontrunner.
Championship leader Jacob Black will start from pole in the Kawasaki Ninja ZX-4RR Cup class, beating Rob Cousineau by just under a second with title challenger Jean-Pascal Schroeder in third.
Black will try to build on his 18-point lead to Schroeder this weekend, having narrowly improved upon the lap record from a year ago in the spec category.
Full results can be found on the series’ official website.
