The second round of the Bridgestone Canadian Superbike Championship kicked off in dazzling fashion on Friday, as Ben Young paced a fast-changing morning practice session in the GP Bikes Pro Superbike class at Atlantic Motorsport Park.
Eyeing a top-five spot and one of the automatic entries into Q2, Young found himself amongst a familiar group of four names who repeatedly traded places at the top, with Sam Guerin, Jordan Szoke, and championship leader Alex Dumas looking equally fast throughout the 40-minute P1 session.
Dumas took a little longer to get going than usual as he fought through some early setup changes, sitting sixth and on the cut line for Q1 after the first 15 minutes. The Economy Lube/Fast Company BMW star would find the right balance by the halfway point though, jumping to P3 behind Guerin and Young as the action began to ramp up.
Szoke would then slot himself into second-place moments later, with less than a half-second covering the top four rivals as they began to distance themselves from the rest of the pack and secure fairly comfortable entries into Q2.
That didn’t stop each of them from making as many improvements as possible, however, with Young going fastest for a few minutes before Guerin reinserted himself at the front, only for Young to find another flyer in the last 10 minutes to take the top spot for good aboard his Van Dolder’s Home Team Honda.
Dumas would then slot in behind the reigning champion on his final push lap, leapfrogging the EFC Group BMW of Guerin with just 0.169 seconds covering the lead trio.
Szoke would settle for fourth but remained firmly on the pace, winding up only 0.381 seconds off the lead for the Canadian Kawasaki Motors team.
The major story of the morning was the battle for the fifth and final entry into Q2, a spot that already looked up for grabs and was made even more available by an early crash for David MacKay.
MacKay was running inside the top-five just as he did in Shannonville before an early tumble in turn nine ended his session, though the ODH/Snow City Cycle Honda rider is thankfully uninjured and should be good to go for Q1 this afternoon.
That opened the door for an epic battle for the final automatic Q2 birth, with Torin Collins quickly jumping into the spot aboard his Supersport-spec Novalda Suzuki.
Connor Campbell would then jump into P5 before a spectacular lap from Andrew Van Winkle displaced both of them, forcing Collins into a few adjustments of his own at the midway point of the session.
Those changes appeared to work as Collins jumped back into fifth for good in the final ten minutes, but not without a scare as local star John Fraser nearly put himself into the top-five with an excellent late time attack.
Fraser would wind up missing Collins and a Q2 spot by just 0.328 seconds, but will get another opportunity this afternoon as he leads the charge in Q1 at his home circuit.
The first part of BS Battery qualifying will get underway at roughly 2:40 pm AT (local time) this afternoon, with the top five in that session joining Young, Guerin, Dumas, Szoke, and Collins in Q2 at roughly 3:10 pm AT.
Full results can be found here.
