The Bridgestone Canadian Superbike Championship has already reached its penultimate round in 2025, and with it means a pair of decisive races in each support class next weekend at RAD Torque Raceway, July 4-6.
The third event of the season is expected to be the most unpredictable one yet and that is especially true in the support classes, where a significant number of championship contenders will be making debut trips to an unfamiliar Edmonton circuit, one where local wildcards turned plenty of heads in 2024.
That will put a bit of worry into 2025’s biggest breakout star, as Cole Alexander heads west for the first time in his career with leads in both the AIM Insurance Amateur Superbike class and EBC Brakes Amateur Supersport category.
Alexander has destroyed all doubts so far this season, his first since graduating from Lightweight to the much bigger GSX-R750, finishing no lower than second in every single amateur race across both classes, winning six times.
It’s difficult to expect that trend to suddenly stop for the 18-year-old, having overcome plenty of adversity already this season to open up a ten-point lead in Supersport and 30-point cushion in Superbike.
However, it is also the last big opportunity for title rival Zaim Laflamme to swing the momentum back in his favour, and it may be the perfect spot for him to do so after making his own “big-bike” debut at RAD Torque one year ago.
At an event Alexander didn’t attend in 2024, Laflamme hopped aboard his Triumph for the first time and looked like a seasoned vet, finishing second, fourth, and fourth in his three races across Superbike and Supersport.
Now having put a full year under his belt aboard the 675R, Laflamme will feel like the favourite at RAD Torque and for good reason, having matched Alexander in round one despite some bad luck and being near enough the pace in round two.
The question will be who specifically can join their fight at the front, and what role they could play in deciding the two biggest support class crowns for 2025.
Laflamme is the only podium finisher from Edmonton 2024 returning in the Supersport ranks this season, leaving a sizeable opening that could be filled by Alexander and/or local riders Ryan Podgurney and Scott Huber, who each took a pair of top-six finishes last season.
Things are much more open in Superbike, where Shawn Lee and Ryan Sunderman each took podiums at their home round last year, with Sunderman snatching pole position and turning plenty of heads despite a race one crash.
While Alexander and Laflamme battle it out in their nail-biting rivalry, it’s a much different scenario in the Importations Thibault Twins Cup class, where the undefeated J.P. Tache can become the first national champion of 2025 this weekend.
Tache has already stretched out a commanding 34-point lead over amateur teenager Dante Bucek, taking dominant victories in every single race thus far and showing no signs of slowing down.
The experience factor actually will go the way of Bucek after the 16-year-old went west last season, something the veteran Tache did not do, but it will likely take much more than that to dethrone the rider who has won ten of his last 12 races.
Exiting Alberta with a 50-point lead would be enough for Tache to clinch a first career pro CSBK championship, though Bucek can prevent that from happening with at least a pair of second-place finishes, making the entire podium fight a crucial one.
The absence of Louie Raffa (one point behind Bucek) will make that an easier scenario to work out, though there is no shortage of riders ready to fill the void at the front, including Justin Marshall, local star Bronti Verbeek, and reigning amateur Twins champion Sebastian Silva, amongst others.
And while Bucek’s focus in the Twins class will be on an overall title, he will inch one step closer to securing top amateur honours next weekend in the combined standings, holding a comfortable 42-point lead over Baillie Ives in sixth overall.
Bucek will find himself in a much different spot in the Super Sonic Road Race School Lightweight Sportbike class, where he enters the third round as the overall title leader with a slim 14-point advantage over veteran pro Gary McKinnon.
McKinnon’s title quest was dealt a mechanical blow at round one while Bucek swept the opener, though their fortunes shifted at McKinnon’s home round in AMP, as the Nova Scotia native won both races with Bucek limiting the damage in second.
Both riders were in attendance last season, erasing any unfamiliarity between the two championship rivals, though their past results would suggest the momentum may continue to shift in McKinnon’s favour.
The reigning pro champion finished first and second in his split last season, while Bucek earned a pair of third-place results in the amateur split, but that didn’t tell the full story as McKinnon was at least two-seconds quicker throughout the weekend.
Despite that gap, Bucek has looked like a much quicker and more poised rider in 2025, and he will have a slight cushion to work with before heading to the final round at CTMP, a venue McKinnon struggled at in 2024.
It remains to be seen if Treston Morrison will make a return appearance after his dazzling debut last season, when the MiniGP graduate ended Ryan Beattie’s perfect run with a sensational race one victory at his home track, his first of four podiums in five races.
Jacob Black will also look to extend his lead in the Kawasaki Ninja ZX-4RR Cup, having taken his first two career CSBK victories last time out in AMP.
Black will command an 18-point lead over reigning amateur champion Jean-Pascal Schroeder, and could clinch his first ever national championship next weekend if Schroeder is absent again as he was in 2024.
