The brisk conditions didn’t slow the pace at all on Friday morning at RAD Torque Raceway, as Ben Young kicked off the third round of the Bridgestone Canadian Superbike Championship with a new lap record in the P1 session.
It wasn’t clear what the lap times would look like for the GP Bikes Pro Superbike class, with temperatures only hovering around 13°C (55°F) in a cloudy and windy morning near Edmonton, but instead the feature class immediately dipped into qualifying pace with five automatic entries into Q2 on the line.
Sam Guerin would be the early leader through most of the first ten minutes, continuing the momentum from his round two sweep in AMP, while home star Torin Collins slotted into second ahead of championship leader Young in third.
Alex Dumas would then disrupt the order by moving narrowly into the top spot, just 0.032 seconds clear of Guerin, only moments before a red flag was brought out for an early crash.
The remainder of the session would be restarted for 20 minutes, with Dumas leading Guerin, Collins, Young, and Szoke in a top-five covered by less than a second.
Whatever changes the Van Dolder’s Home Team Honda crew made during the stoppage proved to work, as Young immediately jumped to P3 before smashing the top time on his next flying lap, posting a benchmark of 1:17.632.
Dumas would retaliate moments later, finding a massive improvement of his own with a time of 1:17.384 to put his Economy Lube/Fast Company BMW at the front, only 0.010 seconds off Young’s lap record from a year ago.
The reigning Canada Cup winner would get the last laugh, however, as Young snatched back the top spot for the final time with a best lap of 1:17.318, already 0.056 seconds quicker than his previous lap record despite the tricky morning conditions.
Dumas would settle for second and only 0.066 seconds behind his rival, while Guerin retained third in the final moments with only a 0.227 second deficit to Young for his EFC Group BMW team.
Szoke would put in a late time attack to bump Collins out of fourth, though a more distant 0.929 seconds off the pace aboard his CKM Kawasaki, putting the pressure on Collins to hold onto the fifth and final birth into Q2.
The 19-year-old got a brief scare from his close friend Phil DeGama-Blanchet, who made a handful of late improvements to move into sixth, but it wasn’t enough as Collins stayed fifth to advance to Q2 aboard his Octagon Energy Services Suzuki.
DeGama-Blanchet will now lead the charge in Q1 this afternoon for the local Mots Machining Honda squad, besting MacKay by only 0.102 seconds as he continues the run of Honda frontrunners on his ODH Snow City Cycle-sponsored machine.
Reigning Pro Supersport champion Sebastien Tremblay was eighth in the morning practice for S.T. Motosport Suzuki, only marginally quicker than home favourites John Laing and Brian Worsdall, with just under 0.4 seconds covering the entire group from sixth to tenth by the end of P1.
The first Q1 portion of qualifying is set to get underway at roughly 2 pm MT at RAD Torque Raceway, just 30 minutes south of Edmonton, before the final Q2 time attack continues at roughly 3:10 pm MT.
Full results can be found on the series’ official website.
