Reigning Bridgestone CSBK champion Ben Young overcame a cool and cloudy morning to pace the final practice session of the weekend on Sunday, leading FP3 ahead of Jordan Szoke at Shannonville Motorsport Park.
The GP Bikes Pro Superbike class was met with a dry but cold track to begin the day, with temperatures hovering around only 13°C (55°F) and plenty of overcast ahead of race two this afternoon.
That meant times were more spread out than usual as teams tried different setups and worked through various strategies, with some riders even putting on rain tires despite the dry circuit.
None of it would faze Sam Guerin in the early going as he put in a number of fast laps in the first half of the 20-minute session, leading for majority of the period aboard his EFC Group BMW.
Guerin was forced to retire from Saturday’s race while battling for the lead due to a throttle issue, though his team seemingly fixed the issue as he looks to make up for the heartbreak with a race two victory on Sunday.
His time wouldn’t be enough to pace the session, however, as longtime rivals Ben Young and Jordan Szoke each found improvements in the final five minutes, with Szoke going to the top of the leaderboard and Young climbing to third.
Szoke looked set to lead FP3 as he led through the final seconds aboard his CKM Kawasaki, but Young made his last flying lap count as he crossed the line to go marginally quicker with a time of 1:06.807.
That marks the second day in a row Young has paced the morning practice after leading FP2 on Saturday, though the Van Dolder’s Home Team Honda rider will hope for an improvement upon his third-place finish from race one as he navigates the tricky conditions this afternoon.
Szoke would settle for the second-quickest spot to begin the day, but just 0.268 behind Young as he also looks to improve on his runner-up result from the season opener.
Guerin would end up third in FP3, well clear of the next group of riders which was headed by Sebastien Tremblay aboard his S.T. Motorsports Suzuki.
Trevor Daley would round out the top five for OneSpeed Suzuki, running inside the top-three for majority of the session before getting displaced by Szoke and Young in the last few minutes.
Notably absent from the lead times was pole-sitter and race one winner Alex Dumas, who crashed in the turn five hairpin and missed most of the session. Dumas was thankfully uninjured and didn’t appear to have a ton of damage to his Economy Lube BMW, though he will have less data available to him ahead of race two this afternoon.
The second half the round one doubleheader is scheduled for 3 pm ET at Shannonville Motorsport Park, where Dumas will look to fend off Szoke, Young, and Guerin following their epic battle in race one on Saturday.
Full results can be found here.
