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Guerin decimates lap record to take BS Battery pole at RAD Torque
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The unpredictable season in the GP Bikes Pro Superbike class continued on Friday, as Sam Guerin claimed his second career BS Battery Pole Position in the third round of the Bridgestone Canadian Superbike Championship at RAD Torque Raceway.
Ben Young appeared to be the man with all the momentum after setting a new lap record in the P1 session on Friday morning, bettering that time again in qualifying as he paced Q2 for majority of the 20-minute period.
Young blitzed the timesheets with the first ever sub-1:17 lap time around RAD Torque, posting a benchmark of 1:16.926 to put himself over a second clear of the field aboard his Van Dolder’s Home Team Honda.
The chasing pack would gradually close that advantage, though Guerin was not amongst them as he was mired down in tenth after having his early time attack deleted for cutting the track in turn three.
That all changed drastically in the final moments, as Guerin stunned the field to jump straight to the top of the leaderboard behind a time of 1:16.889, just 0.037 seconds quicker than Young but almost a half-second faster than Young’s 2024 lap record aboard his EFC Group BMW.
That blistering time would be unmatched the rest of the way as Guerin – who celebrated his 33rd birthday on Friday – secured a pivotal BS Battery Pole Award, continuing his stellar mid-season comeback after sweeping round two in AMP.
“It was a difficult session. All our early laps got discarded because I guess I cut the chicane, so I had to change my line a bit – and when you don’t cut the track it’s faster,” Guerin joked. “It feels good to be back on pole. Hopefully we get good weather this weekend and we can keep it rolling in the races.”
Guerin’s effort makes the Quebec City native the third different pole-sitter through the first three rounds in 2025, the first time that’s happened in exactly 20 years (Jordan Szoke, Clint McBain, Steve Crevier to begin the 2005 campaign).
Young, meanwhile, was content with his qualifying performance despite falling just short of a second consecutive BS Battery Pole, securing a spot on the middle of the front row ahead of three pivotal races aboard his Van Dolder’s Home Team Honda.
The championship leader will line up alongside his longtime title rival Alex Dumas, who put in a last-lap improvement of his own to climb onto the front row in third.
Dumas had briefly jumped to second aboard his Economy Lube/Fast Company BMW before getting shunted back down the order by Guerin and Jordan Szoke, though Dumas would head back out in the final three minutes to leapfrog Szoke again in a top-four covered by just 0.449 seconds.
That late push would come at Szoke’s expense after he looked like Young’s closest challenger in the late stages, though the 14-time champion remains in a good spot for the weekend tripleheader as he starts from fourth for Canadian Kawasaki Motors.
Rounding out the top five was home star Torin Collins, a terrific effort aboard his Supersport-spec Octagon Energy Services Suzuki.
Collins’ participation in the Superbike tripleheader is to be determined as he focuses on his Supersport title charge, but the 19-year-old will have a spot on the middle of the second row should he decide to race in the feature class at any point this weekend.
His time would wind up only 0.004 seconds quicker than fellow Calgary teenager Phil DeGama-Blanchet, who at one point ran as high as second as the 17-year-old continues to impress for the Mots Machining Honda team.
David MacKay would wind up seventh on the grid after crushing the Q1 session, going marginally slower in Q2 but still firmly in contention for a top-five finish as he wound up 0.277 seconds off Collins aboard his ODH Snow City Cycle Honda.
Local star Brian Worsdall managed an excellent eighth for his season debut on Friday, earning a spot through Q1 and then finding a massive 0.6 second gain in Q2 to put his Hindle / DP Brakes BMW only marginally behind the group of Collins, DeGama-Blanchet, and MacKay.
Reigning Supersport champion Sebastien Tremblay would claim the last spot on row three after a late push into Q2, putting his S.T. Motosport Suzuki in ninth as he chases Collins into the middleweight class on Saturday.
Eric Russnak completed the Q2 times and will lead off row four in his pro CSBK debut, continuing an excellent day for the Alberta representatives as he looks to climb the midfield at his home track this weekend for Motorheads Kawasaki.
The feature GP Bikes Pro Superbike class will now turn their focus to race one on Saturday, currently scheduled for roughly 3 pm MT, before a pivotal doubleheader on Sunday to wrap up round three.
Full results can be found on the series’ official website.
Collins smashes lap record to take Supersport pole; Bucek paces support classes at RAD Torque
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The blistering times continued in the third round of the Bridgestone Canadian Superbike Championship on Friday, as Torin Collins crushed the old lap record to take his third consecutive pole position at RAD Torque Raceway.
The Pro Supersport championship leader was considered the runaway favourite for his home round after taking three convincing victories in four races, but faced a stiff challenge in qualifying in the form of fellow teenager Andrew Van Winkle.
Van Winkle would go quickest on his first attempt before Collins immediately set a new lap record just moments later, surpassing Elliot Vieira’s benchmark of a 1:19.320 from last season.
The 18-year-old Van Winkle would then respond with the first ever 1:18 lap in the Supersport class, finding a quarter-second on the 19-year-old Collins as the two young western talents traded blows early on.
Collins would deal the decisive blow just after the five-minute mark, however, blitzing the field to go fastest with a time of 1:18.361, nearly a full second quicker than the previous lap record aboard his Octagon Energy Services Suzuki.
The Calgary native would see that advantage shrink gradually over the next 15 minutes but would hold on to a third pole in three attempts since moving to the Supersport ranks, fending off Van Winkle by 0.360 seconds in the end.
Van Winkle kicked off what was a razor-thin battle for second on the grid aboard his Mountainview Motorsports Suzuki, putting his old-gen GSX-R600 only 0.117 seconds clear of Cochrane, Alberta native John Laing who provisionally finished third.
Laing had just moved into second in the opening minutes when he crashed in turn four, spoiling a shot at pole for the Vass Performance Suzuki rider but giving him enough of an advantage to crucially retain a front row spot at the time the chequered flag waved.
It appeared as though that would come at the expense of reigning champion Sebastien Tremblay, who posted his best time of the session on his last flying lap but fell just 0.084 seconds short of Laing in third for the S.T. Motosport Suzuki team.
However, Laing was hit with a one-place grid drop penalty after slightly exceeding the horsepower limit on the DynoJet dynamometer in parc fermé, promoting Tremblay to the end of the front row for this weekend’s tripleheader.
Lining up in the middle of row two will be Alex Michel, who also put in a late improvement to wind up just 0.234 seconds behind Tremblay on his SpeedFactory67 Kawasaki.
Notably, the entire top five finished below the lap record from 2024, demonstrating the pace of the Bridgestone tires at RAD Torque despite less-than-ideal weather.
Amateur rivals Cole Alexander and Zaim Laflamme traded pole positions on Friday, with Alexander claiming the top spot in the AIM Insurance Amateur Superbike class while Laflamme got his revenge in the EBC Brakes Amateur Supersport ranks.
Alexander entered the day with a 30-point advantage over Laflamme in Superbike and will try to build on that this weekend from pole position, putting his Suzuki just 0.194 seconds clear of Laflamme as both riders beat the previous lap record from 2015.
British Columbia native Jason Langeveldt will join them on the front row for Suzuki, complicating the fight for third in the championship between Nicolas Audet and Alexis Beaudoin, who will line up fourth and fifth respectively.
It looked as though Alexander would double up his day yet again in Supersport until Laflamme snatched pole position right at the finish, surpassing the 18-year-old by just 0.080 seconds as he took the chequered flag.
Laflamme would smash the previous lap record along with rival Alexander, while Beaudoin will join them on the front row ahead of Audet in fourth, a reversal of their fortunes in Superbike as well.
Dante Bucek brought an end to at least one perfect run for J.T. Tache on Friday, claiming pole position in the Importations Thibault Twins Cup class after Tache had paced almost every session of the season.
Bucek and Tache would each make gradual improvements over the final ten minutes, with the gap dipping as low as 0.070 seconds at one point, before Bucek found his crucial last advantage with a time of 1:24.360.
That would put the 16-year-old a more comfortable 0.384 seconds clear of Tache, with the championship leader unable to respond on his last flying lap as Bucek exited with the first pole position of his Twins career.
Bucek will now try to end another perfect streak for Tache this weekend as he eyes a first career victory in the Twins ranks, with the veteran having conquered every race thus far in dominant fashion.
The duo will line up alongside local fan favourite Bronti Verbeek on the front row, who claimed the best qualifying result of her CSBK career at her home track, just 0.887 seconds off the pace for Yamaha as she spoiled the front row lockout for Aprilia.
Bucek continued his strong day with another pole position in the Super Sonic Road Race School Lightweight Sportbike class, smashing the field as he looks to put one hand on the championship this weekend.
His title hopes will be boosted significantly by the absence of Gary McKinnon, though Bucek did what he needed to do regardless on Friday as he wound up a comfortable 1.230 seconds clear of Norbert Joo in second.
Joo would hold an equally comfortable gap to Scott Szollos in third, who will try to prevent Bucek from clinching the championship this weekend as he enters round three with a 43-point deficit to the amateur frontrunner.
Championship leader Jacob Black will start from pole in the Kawasaki Ninja ZX-4RR Cup class, beating Rob Cousineau by just under a second with title challenger Jean-Pascal Schroeder in third.
Black will try to build on his 18-point lead to Schroeder this weekend, having narrowly improved upon the lap record from a year ago in the spec category.
Full results can be found on the series’ official website.
MacKay leads Q1 to advance to BS Battery Q2 at RAD Torque
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David MacKay paced a quiet Q1 session at RAD Torque Raceway on Friday, topping the first portion of qualifying to advance to the BS Battery Q2 shootout this afternoon.
The Q1 group benefitted from slightly better conditions than in this morning’s P1 session, where Ben Young set a new lap record despite cool temperatures at the circuit just south of Edmonton.
With the top-five automatic entries into Q2 already decided, the rest of the field returned to Q1 to determine the five names to join them, with DeGama-Blanchet and MacKay the headliners after finishing sixth and seventh this morning.
The time between sessions was especially beneficial to MacKay, who bettered his time by over 0.7 seconds on his very first flying lap, securing a relatively straightforward spot in Q2 aboard his ODH Snow City Cycle Honda.
MacKay would park his machine almost right away, understandably happy with his time of 1:18.107, a lap that would have put him fourth in this morning’s practice.
It was a less impressive first stint for DeGama-Blanchet, who could only manage a time of 1:19.576 for the Mots Maching Honda crew – roughly 0.7 seconds slower than his best time in P1 – though it was enough to secure him a spot in Q2 for the third consecutive weekend.
Leapfrogging him in the final moments, however, was reigning Pro Supersport champion Sebastien Tremblay, who managed to go second-quickest aboard his S.T. Motosport Suzuki GSX-R750 with a time of 1:19.350.
That late effort shunted local riders Brian Worsdall (BMW) and Eric Russnak (Kawasaki) to fourth and fifth, respectively, though the EMRA stars would hang on for Q2 entries at their home venue to put four Alberta natives into the BS Battery top ten.
Russnak’s first ever Q2 appearance would come at the expense of top rookie Laurent Laliberte-Girard, who put in his best time of the day at the chequered flag but couldn’t dislodge the Edmonton native, winding up roughly a second away from Q2.
The group of MacKay, Tremblay, DeGama-Blanchet, Worsdall, and Russnak will now join this morning’s top five of Young, Alex Dumas, Sam Guerin, Jordan Szoke, and Torin Collins to form the BS Battery Q2 session, which will get underway at roughly 3:10 pm MT.
Full results can be found on the series’ official website.
Young breaks lap record in chilly Friday practice at RAD Torque
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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.
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