One of the most important practice sessions of the year would go the way of the GP Bikes Pro Superbike championship leader on Friday, as Alex Dumas paced FP2 to restore a bit of momentum entering race one of the Bridgestone CSBK finale at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park.
Dumas will carry a slim five-point lead into the weekend with rival Ben Young all over his heels, as the pair are set to line up alongside each other in both races after Young claimed pole position from Dumas on Friday.
The Economy Lube/Fast Company BMW star responded emphatically on Saturday, however, taking over the top of the leaderboard at the seven-minute mark and leading for the entire middle stint of the session before Young dislodged him by just 0.006 seconds.
That lead would prove to be short-lived, as Dumas fired in his two fastest laps of the weekend so far to put a two-tenths cushion between himself and the three-time reigning champion.
Young would chip that deficit down to 0.165 seconds in the end, but that’s as close as the Van Dolder’s Home Team Honda rider would get as Dumas’ benchmark of 1:20.823 stood as the time to beat in FP2.
What will interest the pair more is their race pace, where they remained relatively matched across the 20-minute session.
Young put in five laps all in the 1:21.0 range, while Dumas had slightly more fluctuation in his times but was the only rider to record multiple 1:20’s, doing so on back-to-back occasions near the end of the session.
Sam Guerin would end the session third-fastest and by a narrow margin, finishing just 0.345 seconds behind Dumas and 0.180 off Young in second, though Guerin lapped more consistently in the mid 1:21’s aboard his EFC Group BMW.
Jordan Szoke would put his Canadian Kawasaki Motors machine fourth in FP2 and a half-second back of Guerin, though he put in the most laps of the lead quartet as he continues to inch closer to the front on Saturday.
A familiar fifth place overshadowed a good amount of progress for David MacKay, who cut his deficit by a solid amount to the leaders by placing his ODH Snow City Cycle Honda roughly 1.3 seconds off Dumas at the front.
Alex Michel’s strong weekend continued in sixth, as he ended the morning sixth-fastest aboard the B&T McFarlane Kawasaki. Michel continues to adapt to the Superbike as he fills in for the injured Connor Campbell, but found himself already roughly one second behind MacKay ahead of his feature class debut.
A run of four Supersport machines would complete the top ten, previewing what could be the race of the weekend this afternoon as Sebastien Tremblay paced a razor-thin group including pole-sitter Torin Collins, Tomas Casas, and Andrew Van Winkle.
Collins can clinch the Pro Supersport championship in race one but will have his work cut out for him to do so, having trailed Tremblay in FP2 and going just 0.074 seconds quicker than Casas and his title rival Van Winkle in tenth.
Full results can be found here.
