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Canadian Motorcycle Hall of Fame to sponsor Hard Charger award at CTMP finale

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Category: CSBK News

Published: August 7, 2025

The popular Hard Charger award will be returning to the final round of the Bridgestone Canadian Superbike Championship, this time courtesy of the Canadian Motorcycle Hall of Fame as they celebrate a host of CSBK alumni entering this year’s class.

The award will feature another slight tweak as it gets handed out in the Pro Supersport class for the first time at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, having been offered exclusively to riders in the GP Bikes Pro Superbike category for its previous seven iterations. 

First awarded in 2021, the Hard Charger is given to a rider “deemed to have produced the best effort in the context of the race, as chosen by various Bridgestone CSBK staff,” and this time will also include the advice of Hall of Fame representatives in attendance.

Typically, this has been a rider who has overcome a significant setback during the weekend, or one who has made up a number of positions during the race.

Three-time reigning Pro Superbike champion Ben Young is the most successful rider in the award’s history, having secured it four times in his career and once this season in round one at Shannonville.

The Canadian Motorcycle Hall of Fame will be celebrating their 18th annual Banquet & Reunion this fall, October 25th, at the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum near Hamilton. 

Inductees for the Class of 2025 include CSBK icons (in alphabetical order) Rob Egan, Scott Miller, and Frank Wood, as well as George Evans, Doug Hoover, Inglis Cycle, Jay Kimber, Doug Lawrence, Ab Everest, and John & Dominique Bondar.

Egan has been a fixture on both sides of the series, having worked with various successful teams and riders throughout his career before joining the CSBK staff as the transporter and operator of the DynoJet Dyno. He has also served as the longtime owner of Brooklin Cycle Racing, a crucial supporter of the national championship.

Miller is widely considered the greatest engine builder in CSBK history and one of the most successful crew chiefs the series has seen, having led a number of riders to race wins and championships (most notably 14-time champion Jordan Szoke) as the owner of FastCompany.

For 2025, Miller is also currently in charge of the Economy Lube BMW team of Pro Superbike points leader Alex Dumas.

Wood has been the longtime voice of the series, announcing all CSBK action both trackside and for a number of years on TSN. Also a significant voice in the Flat Track community, Wood is the winner of the Bar and Hedy Hodgson Award for 2025.

The Canadian Motorcycle Hall of Fame will host a gala in the reception area of CTMP’s control tower and hospitality building, located just outside turn ten, on Saturday evening (August 9) featuring the three CSBK inductees above. 

Superbike Preview: Dumas leads four-rider showdown into championship finale at CTMP

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Category: CSBK News

Published: August 4, 2025

The most anticipated season finale in years is finally here in the Bridgestone Canadian Superbike Championship, as the feature GP Bikes Pro Superbike class is set to crown another champion this weekend at historic Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, August 8-10.

Just who will lift the Canada Cup this year, however, is anyone’s guess.

Four riders will enter the doubleheader finale covered by just 24 points, with Alex Dumas leading reigning champion Ben Young, Sam Guerin, and Jordan Szoke in what has been a clear-cut lead for the entire season.

The trio of Dumas, Young, and Guerin each won races last time out in the Edmonton tripleheader, while Szoke has been a mainstay at the front himself despite a first win of the year still eluding him, giving all four their own bit of momentum entering CTMP.

Despite the practically even odds, Dumas would be the betting favourite by virtue of his five-point championship lead over familiar rival Young, a place the two have found themselves in multiple times before.

Dumas carried slim title leads over Young into the 2021 and 2023 seasons, though with very contrasting fortunes. He would sweep the final round in ’21 to earn a stunning championship as a rookie, but a crash out of the lead in ’23 spoiled his second attempt to hand that title to Young.

Neither one of those finale’s were at CTMP, but it’s unclear who will be more excited by the change of venue. Since their head-to-head rivalry began in 2021, Young has taken five wins and eleven podiums at “Old Mosport,” while Dumas has countered with three wins and ten podiums.

But a part of Young’s success – even by his own admission sometimes – was the BMW package underneath him, one that has mastered the very fast CTMP layout and now belongs to Dumas. 

None of this should write off Young from a fourth consecutive title and fifth in his career, as his record at CTMP speaks for itself regardless of machine – including a pair of dramatic last-corner passes on Dumas to add to that win total.

While Young has dealt with his growing pains aboard the new Van Dolder’s Home Team Honda, his CBR1000RR is more than capable of keeping him in the lead fight at a track where it’s often difficult to break away from a chasing pack thanks to the long Andretti Straightaway.

The bigger problem for Young may be that it’s not a straight fight with Dumas this time around, as he will also have to contend with a former BMW-mate and a career-long rival in his title charge.

Guerin might be the one with the most confidence behind him, having out-scored every other rider in rounds two and three with three victories and five consecutive podiums, the only rider who’s been in the top three every time in that span.

The EFC Group BMW star is still paying for a heartbreaking electronics issue that knocked him out of the lead battle in round one, but he’s managed to cut that deficit to just 16 points behind Dumas thanks to his incredible mid-season comeback.

He also will be carrying that momentum into one of his strongest circuits, even though a first victory at CTMP still eludes him. It was here last season where Guerin took pole by the largest margin in history (1.6 seconds), and his six podiums since 2020 are fewer than only Young and Dumas.

If machinery proves to be a difference-maker, Guerin is also on the same M1000RR as Dumas, meaning he will have all the tools to stay with the two former champions as he chases a first Canada Cup of his own.

The last rider of the four, though one still in a very good position, is Szoke. The 14-time champion has finished in the top four in every single race this season, taking four podiums for the Canadian Kawasaki Motors team.

Szoke has come up painfully short of a 79th career victory on a few occasions, but that might finally change at a venue where’s won an astonishing 20 times before, especially with a tweaked ZX-10RR this season that has proven to be far more competitive.

The problem for Szoke is that his impressive consistency will only get him so far if Dumas, Young, and Guerin avoid any major issues, meaning he will have to get his elbows out if he wants to add another #1 plate to his loaded resumé – something he will have no problem doing with a title on the line.

Should the lead pack extend beyond the four usual names, there will be a handful of proven riders vying for their first Pro Superbike win, headlined by a pair of emerging Honda stars in David MacKay and Phil DeGama-Blanchet.

MacKay has been consistently “best of the rest” in 2025, his second Superbike campaign, finishing between seventh and fourth in every race he’s finished aboard the ODH Snow City Cycle Honda.

As for DeGama-Blanchet, the 17-year-old has been equally as impressive in his first year aboard the Mots Machining Honda, finishing between seventh and fifth in all but one race, though he will have far less experience around CTMP compared to former Supersport champion MacKay.

Both riders will be crucial to Honda’s hopes of a first Constructors Championship, which will require a heroic effort from Young and company as they trail reigning champions BMW by 59 points with Dumas and Guerin at the front.

Entering the fray for Kawasaki will be Supersport flag-bearer Alex Michel, who fills in for the injured Connor Campbell to make his Superbike debut aboard the B&T MacFarlane/CKM Kawasaki.

Michel has been a regular frontrunner in the middleweight class, including taking a first career pro podium at CTMP in 2023, and will hope to carry that form into his first career weekend in the feature class.

Barring anything dramatic, the doubleheader will likely see Laurent Laliberte-Girard crowned as the latest winner of the Brooklin Cycle Racing Pro Rookie of the Year award, holding a 32-point lead over Zoltan Frast.

Laliberte-Girard has done double-duty aboard his Nadon Sport Yamaha YZF-R6, and his career best fifth-place finish in Edmonton may prove to be the crucial difference as the reigning Amateur Supersport winner tries to cap off his strong rookie year in the history books.

The feature class will officially begin it’s highly-anticipated season finale with practice and BS Battery Qualifying on Friday, before the decisive doubleheader gets underway on Saturday and Sunday at CTMP, just an hour east of Toronto.

More information can be found on the series’ official website.

Supersport Preview: Collins makes surprise Ducati switch as new rivals try to spoil title decider at CTMP

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Category: CSBK News

Published: August 3, 2025

The final round of the Bridgestone Canadian Superbike Championship was already set to deliver another weekend of thrilling Pro Supersport action, but the nation’s most unpredictable class has served up yet another batch of surprises for round four at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park next weekend, August 8-10.

The middleweight category will look a lot different than fans remember when the series returns to “Old Mosport”, with a number of familiar names switching to new machinery in what is expected to be one of the deepest grids the CSBK paddock has ever seen.

Not even the championship leader will be staying put, as Torin Collins confirmed his shocking move to join the powerhouse Economy Lube Ducati program just days ago, handing his Novalda Suzuki over to Ryan McGowan despite taking five wins through seven races in 2025.

Collins has stretched out a commanding 24-point lead over most recent winner Andrew Van Winkle, the only rider who can mathematically catch him at CTMP with just 50 points remaining and a 55-point gap to Alex Michel in third.

Still, it’s a stunning switch at a crucial point of the season as Collins will swing his leg over the V2 Panigale for the first time at a circuit he isn’t particularly fond of, having finished sixth and 12th in his two Superbike appearances at the venue last year.

The 20-year-old is seemingly much more confident than this time a year ago, and will have the support of a decorated Economy Lube team that has helped numerous riders to success at CTMP – including Superbike champion Alex Dumas – but it’s still far too early to put one hand on the #1 plate, especially given his new wave of challengers.

That group could either complicate things for Van Winkle or offer him a lifeline in his title quest, as he needs to beat Collins by multiple meaningful positions if he wants to eras his championship deficit.

The Mountainview Motorsports Suzuki rider will have an uphill battle in doing so aboard his “old-gen” GSX-R600 at such a fast, horsepower-heavy circuit, though that didn’t faze him a year ago as he finished fifth and third on the same machine.

The 18-year-old Van Winkle will hope to turn in some trademark CTMP slipstream heroics, as the famous kilometre-long Andretti Straightaway does allow for a chasing pack to stick together, much like the one Van Winkle and company will be joined by next weekend.

Leading that pack is the return of two-time class champion Tomas Casas, though with a new manufacturer of his own as he ends a decade-long relationship with Yamaha to join the FAST Riding School Suzuki team aboard a GSX-R750.

Casas quickly established himself as one of the best riders in Supersport history during his five-year run in the category, winning ten times, securing 25 podiums, and capturing the championship in 2017 and 2018 as a teenager.

Still only 26, Casas will now be starting the next chapter in his career at a venue where he has not missed the podium in eight consecutive Supersport appearances, a run he will try to keep going as he builds his new relationship with Suzuki in the wake of Collins’ departure.

Though Casas’ departure from Yamaha will be a crushing one, the brand will get reinforcements in a big way from former race winners Brad Macrae and Matt Simpson, with Macrae set to debut the new “next-gen” YZF-R9.

Macrae had hoped to debut the R9 in round one but was forced to pilot his old-gen Colron Excavating YZF-R6, crashing out of race one and finishing eleventh in race two.

However, the more competitive R9 could be enough to bring Macrae back to the front and further disrupt the race winning battle, with a new next-gen machine adding a massive bit of unpredictability to challenge the GSX-R750 and V2 Panigale.

Simpson will not have the same upgrade available to him but has shown he can still be competitive without it, having pushed Collins as hard as anyone else in round one before a scary crash cut his weekend short.

Now fully recovered and having fixed his Blackstock Motorsports Yamaha YZF-R6, the true home favourite – hailing from nearby Bowmanville – will look to return to the podium at the same venue where he took his first pro victory in 2022.

Another former race winner unlikely to return is Trevor Daley, who suffered an unfortunate injury to his hand/wrist in the second round at Atlantic Motorsport Park. However, should Daley make a quick recovery, he would represent another instant contender aboard his OneSpeed Suzuki.

As for the more familiar names, the batch of newcomers may complicate things for the likes of Michel, Sebastien Tremblay and Elliot Vieira, though all three will have fond memories of their trips to CTMP in recent years.

Tremblay has struggled by his lofty standards in 2025 but is one of the most successful riders in CTMP history, having earned seven of his 17 career victories at the venue, including race one a year ago.

The S.T. Motosport Suzuki rider will see his #1 plate come off after this weekend as he sits fifth in the championship, but ending the year with his first victory of the campaign wouldn’t be surprising for a rider who looked practically unbeatable at times in 2024.

As for Vieira, he has been his most consistent self this season even if the raw pace has been slightly harder to find, but that could change in a hurry at CTMP, a track he has mastered in recent years aboard his GP Bikes Ducati.

The fan favourite harassed Tremblay right to the finish in race one last season after winning two of the previous four contests there, and Vieira will also be eager to find himself back on the podium to end the year after six top-five finishes in a row prior to race three at Edmonton.

Michel will find himself at a disadvantage on his old-gen SpeedFactory67 Kawasaki, but this year’s breakout star showed his competitiveness at the venue with a maiden podium at the AMP make-up race in 2022.

The lone Kawasaki frontrunner will hope to at least preserve his third overall spot in the championship with faint hopes of catching Van Winkle in second, as Michel sits six points clear of Vieira and eight points ahead of Tremblay in fifth.

Michel’s efforts in the Constructors Championship may also be disrupted by Ducati’s big signing of Collins, with the Panigale brand just 12 points ahead of Kawasaki but still an insurmountable 151 points behind Suzuki, who will claim their second consecutive title – though with Collins now no longer part of the celebration.

The doubleheader finale will officially get underway with practice and qualifying on Friday, August 8 at historic CTMP, just an hour east of Toronto, before race one on Saturday and the last race of the year for each class on Sunday.

More information can be found on the series’ official website.