Newly-crowned Bridgestone CSBK champion Ben Young picked up right where he left off at the season finale on Friday, torching the timesheets to lead FP1 at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park.
The six-time Canada Cup winner enters the weekend as the overwhelming favourite in the GP Bikes Pro Superbike class, having won seven of the eight races thus far in 2026, but even that underscores just how quick Young was in Friday’s 40-minute morning practice session.
The Van Dolder’s Home Team Honda rider put in an astonishing time of 1:21.018 to pace the session comfortably, going over a full second quicker than the rest of the field and only 0.649 seconds off his own lap record set back in 2022.
That effort would seemingly put Young on course to challenge his personal best in BS Battery Qualifying this afternoon, though the 33-year-old may not need to push himself to that extent with a sizeable gap to David MacKay in second and a championship already under wraps for 2026.
MacKay was by no means slow in the morning session, posting a respectable lap of 1:22.326 to lead the rest of the field - a time the Snow City Cycle Honda rider would have been pleased with if not for Young’s incredible early benchmark.
Andrew Van Winkle would complete a familiar top-three on Friday morning aboard his Mountainview Motorsports Honda, going 0.555 seconds slower than MacKay as he faces a similar challenge in trying to bridge the gap to Young this afternoon.
Notable Superbike-mounted competitors included Zoltan Frast in fifth, leading “the best of the rest” aboard his Frast Racing BMW roughly two seconds behind MacKay, and Alex Michel just a further 0.166 seconds behind in seventh aboard his Canadian Kawasaki Motors machine.
Superbike debutant Cole Alexander made a solid first impression as Young’s teammate, piloting his Van Dolder’s Home Team Honda to tenth in FP1 with a time of 1:25.441, just a second behind Frast and Michel in his first official session aboard a 1000cc machine.
In OPP Racing Pro Supersport action, championship leader Tomas Casas began his quest for a third career title with a spectacular practice time, topping the morning session by over a full second from rival Sebastien Tremblay.
The general pace was slower with plenty of overcast at roughly 9:00 am local time, but Casas made the most of his session with a time of 1:24.418 aboard his FAST Riding School Suzuki.
That put Casas a comfortable 1.030 seconds clear of Tremblay in second, who only narrowly out-paced Mavrick Cyr in third by just 0.059 seconds.
Tremblay will carry a 13-point deficit to Casas into this weekend’s action, and will now have ground to make up heading into Friday afternoon qualifying aboard his S.T. Motosport Suzuki.
Cyr will attempt to play spoiler for his teammate Tremblay, showing strong pace to begin the weekend aboard his own S.T. Motosport Suzuki machine.
Notable championship frontrunners Matt Simpson and Cole Alexander found themselves slightly off the pace in FP1, with Simpson going sixth-fastest while Alexander was ninth-fastest heading into afternoon qualifying.
The full schedule of weekend events can be found on the series’ official website.
