Home
Season Openers of Days-Gone-By: A 10-year CSBK History Review
- Details
- Category: CSBK News
With the initial round of the Bridgestone CSBK Championship scheduled for Victoria Day Weekend at Shannonville Motorsport Park, May 16-19, we decided to have a look back at the recent history of opening events for the National Championship tour – in ten year increments.
1984 Sanair International, Quebec - Castrol XLR Challenge Series
MacMillan Launches Title Campaign
Forty years ago, the structure of CSBK was still evolving, and the Pro Superbike category was still really Formula One, with an open rules structure that still permitted various pure race bikes including a range of Yamaha TZs in 250cc, 350cc, 373 and 750cc displacements. The premier series was based at Shannonville, but the RACE-sanctioned Castrol Eastern Canada Challenge also travelled to Quebec and Nova Scotia and would host their first stand alone National later in the season.
The Feature race at Sanair went to Brooklin Cycle Racing’s legendary Suzuki GS1100 Katana, a machine that had first appeared three years earlier at the same dragstrip-based venue southeast of Montreal. At that time, the bike was piloted by Castrol’s Steve Gervais, who wasn’t fond of the big bruiser. Gervais put the bike in a gravel-filled ditch, and the team soon turned to rising start MacMillan (a Ducati pilot for distributor Keith Harte Racing at the time) to develop the eventually potent “can-of-tuna.”
At Sanair, MacMillan battled early with the supposedly superior Yamaha TZ750s of Miles Baldwin and reigning RACE Champion Art Robbins, a recent convert from Superbikes to the legendary but aging two-stroke. Baldwin fell and Robbins experienced mechanical issues, and MacMillan’s win was crucial in his eventual journey to the 1984 overall Championship and number one plate.
Missing from action was Canadian Kawasaki’s Rueben McMurter, who was also a top privateer in the Untied States on a International Motorcycle SuperShow-backed HRC kitted Honda VF750 Interceptor.
Second went to Colin Gibb, the former Superbike front runner moving to the Production ranks with Kawasaki support on the brand new 900 Ninja. Gibb was racing in the F1 feature with his just-arrived Ninja in Open Production class specification, meaning DOT treaded tires and the stock mufflers. Third was respected veteran Don-Gray Wheeler, Robbin’s only Amateur rival in 1981, also mounted on the brand-new liquid-cooled 900cc Ninja “R.”
In the actual Open Production race, the precursor to Sport Bike, CAM2-backed Suzuki star Michel Mercier used the big air-cooled GS1150 he nick-named “the bus” to hold off the Ninjas of second-placed Gray-Wheeler and Gibb. These Open Production class fights during the 1984 season between Gibb and Mercier were legendary.
Mercier went on to be a three-time overall number one for Suzuki (the GSX-R launched in 1985) and Yamaha, while Gibb would quit competition to focus on his new shop, Two Wheeled Motorsports near Guelph. Gibb is no longer the owner, but the store is still there.
In the middleweight division, rookie Pro Al Royer won Pro 600 Production on his Yamaha RZ350, followed by the similar machine of James Pletsch and Honda pilot James Kutschke.
Amateur competitors attracting attention included father-of-MX-stars Derrick Medaglia, Amateur Open and Superbike winner on a Suzuki. Hall of Famer Mario Duhamel was sixth in Open on a Production BCR Honda VF750, and then won Amateur 750 Production on the same machine.
1994 Mosport International, ON – Castrol ASM National Victoria Day Opener
Clarke on top of deep field at C.T.M.P.
The Mosport opener thirty years ago was the first National hosted by Alan Labrosse’s new Association of Sports Motorcyclists (ASM), with backing from Castrol. Labrosse had left RACE at S.M.P. to organize events at the newly revamped Autodrome St-Eustache northwest of Montreal, a track he would eventually own, a venue the racers called “Twin Peaks” due to its location near Deux Montagnes.
In 1994, Mosport International (now Canadian Tire Motorsport Park) had not been used for a motorcycle event since the boycotted World Superbike round in June of 1991. Labrosse, currently the General Manager of NASCAR in Canada, was a former top bike and auto racer who was also managing rising start Miguel Duhamel’s Grand Prix career at the time.
The Mosport National opener was a one-day event on the Monday of the long weekend and attracted the biggest field of top Canadian racers seen in several years – most of the established Pro racers were eager to return to the 4 kilometer long, daunting ten turns of Mosport, still a favourite with the fast guys.
Fortunately, the weather was good, by no means a given at “old Mosport” on Victoria Day weekend! Kawasaki’s new top duo of Michael Taylor and Don Munroe were expected to feature, having doubled up to replace Steve Crevier as the focus of Canadian Kawasaki’s successful Superbike program with the very popular ZX-7R Ninja. Crevier had headed to the U.S. to ride for the works Muzzy Kawasaki program.
Privateers running near the front on Kawasaki equipment included Canadian Tire backed Kevin Graham and Glenn Barrett, who had won the opening RACE event of the season at a cold Shannonville on his Tony Russell built Ninja.
Yamaha didn’t have the same resources as Kawasaki, but still supported a selection of top racers, most on the new five valve YZF750 model. Linnley Clarke lead the FAST program when new Champ Michel Mercier retired at the end of 1990 and was now running his own program with the tuning of Scott Miller and Fast Company.
Also piloting Yamahas were popular veteran Benoit Pilon, and rising start Neil Jenkins. Mark Kowalski was also a threat with a Yamaha 1000cc engine in his well-travelled OW01 Delta box alloy chassis.
In the race, Pilon lead early with Clarke close behind, while Don Munroe was getting use to his ex-Crevier Kawasaki, pressured by Jeff Sneyd on a similar ZX-7R. Clarke eventually got clear for the win, Munroe making his way to take second while Taylor rod through the pack for third. Munroe also won the 600 Super Sport race after a dice with Graham.
Clarke would turn out to be possibly the best Canadian racer in 1994, winning the RACE Super Series and running at the front in ASM – but Taylor would clinch his first National Superbike crown and overall number one plate for Kawasaki at September’s final ASM National of the season at the Alma Street circuit.
2004 Shannonville Motorsport Park, Parts Canada Superbike Championship Round One
Veteran Stars Crevier and Picotte Battle
Shannonville Motorsport Park frequently hosted the opening National of the CSBK season, and in 2004 it was the third straight season that started at S.M.P, on the perimeter Pro track. Reigning Champion Pascal Picotte grabbed the lead from the front row on his Yamaha YZF-R1, chased by the Blackfoot Suzuki of Clint McBain, the Brooklin Cycle Racing Yamaha of former Picotte protege Kevin Lacombe, BCR Yamaha’s Frank Trombino and the slow starting Diablo Suzuki GSX-R1000 of Steve Crevier.
Top gun of the era Picotte controlled much of the race, but as Crevier moved up to second, he picked up tail gunner McBain, and this pair mounted a serious late race charge.
Crevier caught Picotte on the last lap, jamming past between Allen’s corner and the final right hander, McBain also making a late move for second. Patrice Goyette was the tuner of the winning GSX-R1000 and looked after the similar machine of former number one Alex Dumas for the past three current seasons.
An angry Picotte was forced to settle for third in the first Feature race of 2004’s nine Nationals. Lacombe netted fourth, while early race front runner Trombino, the “war lord of Shannonville” as named by announcer Frank C. Wood, faded to fifth.
Honda Canda’s Andrew Nelson was the pace setter in Hindle Exhaust Pro Sport Bike with his CBR600RR, building a lead and hanging on for the win. Suzuki GSX-R600 pilot McBain, a former class Champ, worked up to a close second. Picotte was third aboard a Yamaha YZF-R6 from Trombino (R6) and the GSX-R600 of Diablo’s Crevier.
2014 Mopar CSBK Nationals Round One, Shannonville Motorsport Park
Szoke Edges Christie in initial War
Once again, the 2014 opening race for the Mopar CSBK National Championships was at S.M.P.’s Pro Circuit, again for the third time in a row. BMW’s Jordan Szoke was riding a winning streak: “Jordan of the Jungle” had won the final race of 2013 at Le Circuit Mount Tremblant in Quebec to clinch his 43rd career National feature success and eight overall number one plate.
However, there would be some changes to CSBK in 2014, as the National tour switched to spec Dunlop rubber after nine years with Pirelli, a circumstance that would repeat in 2023 when the series moved to the current title support agreement from Bridgestone, starting at Shannonville.
In the Superbike race, Szoke tussled early with Jodi Christie’s Accelerated Technology Honda Canada CBR1000RR and the unique v-4 Aprilia of Frank Trombino. Christie would go all out in the late running, setting the fastest lap, but Szoke would hold on to win by just .2 of a second.
Over the season, Szoke and Christie often exchanged the lead in Superbike, with Szoke looking the likely Champ until he was injured riding his low-speed Trails bike just before the final at C.T.M.P. – Christie would earn the crown with a run-away Sunday win after a wet Saturday National.
Meanwhile, back at the former Nelson International Raceway, Trevor Daley on his OneSpeed Suzuki GSX-R1000 picked off Trombino and net a solid third, 15 seconds back from the winning duo. Trombino earned fourth, with Sebastien Tremblay riding through the field to grab fifth on a Kawaski ZX-10R.
In Hindle Exhaust Pro Sport Bike, it was a fight between several eventual middleweight class National Championships. Reigning number one Christie again came up just short in a battle for the win, finishing just over .4 of a second behind the Triumph 675 Daytona triple of Sturgis Cycle backed Kenny Riedmann. These two are good friends to this day and attended the Canadian Motorcycle Hall of Fame event in Toronto together last November.
A rising rookie at the time Will Hornblower would place third on his R6, making for a Triumph/Honda/Yamaha final podium. Current Shannonville specialist Elie Daccache earned fourth on another Yamaha.
In Amateur action, Stacey Nesbitt made headlines by earning the Bell Amateur Sport Bike win for Honda, followed home by James Moore (Tri) and current front superbike runner Tomas Casas (Yam). In Magnetti Marelli Amateur Superbike, Tim Toldnes won on a Kawasaki ZX-10R Ninja from Pedro Sousa’s Honda and the Yamaha R6 of Steve Hamer, with Nesbitt fifth aboard the same CBR600RR, top middleweight.
Sport Bike Preview: Tremblay, Young face off at Shannonville
- Details
- Category: CSBK News
The long wait for the 2024 Bridgestone Canadian Superbike Championship season is finally over, as the national series will return to historic Shannonville Motorsport Park for the opening round this weekend, presented by the Fallen Riders Support Team sponsored by Pace Law.
Included amongst the action will be the Economy Lube Pro Sport Bike class, which has endured plenty of changes from its 2023 grid. Reigning champion David MacKay and former SMP winner Connor Campbell have both graduated to the Superbike ranks, last year’s title runner-up Matt Simpson has entered a semi-retirement, and injuries have sidelined frontrunners Brad Macrae, Alex Coelho, and Louie Raffa.
While a new influx of talent will surely help offset those absences – including a loaded rookie class – it would have been fair for title favourite and 2021 champion Sebastian Tremblay to be licking his chops entering round one at Shannonville.
Instead, he’ll now need to deal with an unexpected rival – three-time Canada Cup champion Ben Young.
The face of the Superbike class will do double-duty for the first time in his career this season, joining the middleweight grid aboard a Van Dolder’s Home Team Suzuki and committing to all six national rounds in both classes.
Young hasn’t raced in the Sport Bike division since 2015, earning a second-place finish in his final appearance at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, but his recent Daytona 200 finish proved there should be minimal adjustment as he pivots back to the smaller machine.
His path to a championship will be anything but a formality, however, as he’ll be going up against one of the best Sport Bike riders of the modern era in Tremblay.
The Turcotte Performance Suzuki rider won the final three races of the 2023 campaign and finished third in the championship despite sitting out round one – the same pro track layout that will host round one this season – reminding everyone why he swept the 2021 campaign behind eight consecutive victories.
That Sport Bike experience will play massively in Tremblay’s favour, setting the table for what should be a fantastic duel between the two former champions both at the opening round in Shannonville and throughout the 2024 campaign.
Focusing on only each other would be a mistake, however, as both will have their hands full just fending off the rest of the field in what has been the most unpredictable class in recent CSBK history.
Leading that charge is the duo of Elliot Vieira and John Laing, the fourth and fifth-place finishers in last year’s championship. Vieira missed three races with mechanical issues and very well could have been in title contention without them, while Laing was one of the most consistent frontrunners following his crash in the opening race of the season.
Vieira will be back aboard his GP Bikes Ducati and hoping to build upon his strong finale at Shannonville last year, where he finished second and third (albeit on the long track layout). As for Laing, the Cochrane, AB native now has a year of experience under his belt around the Ontario circuits, and will aim to build some early momentum ahead of his home races in round three.
Perhaps the biggest leap in potential from 2023 to 2024 is sophomore Alex Michel, who quietly put together a strong rookie pro season last year and recently won the Sport Bike race at the SuperSeries regional at SMP. The young Kawasaki rider finished seventh in each of the two races around the pro track last season before claiming his first career podium at CTMP, and it wouldn’t be shocking to see him return to the front at Shannonville like he did this past weekend.
Amongst the other returnees is a group of dark horse contenders that includes Marco Sousa, Nathan Playford, and Zoltan Frast, amongst others. Sousa in particular has shown some of his best pace at Shannonville, scoring a pair of fifth place finishes to begin last year’s campaign, and a podium spot is hardly out of the question for the Suzuki veteran.
Each of the returnees will need to keep an eye out for some of the new names around them, though, with at least five high-profile rookies expected to make the jump from the amateur ranks this season.
Headlining them is none other than 19-year-old sensation Mavrick Cyr, the champion in both amateur classes last season and one of the brightest talents in the Bridgestone CSBK paddock. Any doubt of Cyr’s potential was quickly silenced in September, when he got an early start to his pro career and finished ninth in the final race of the season aboard his Rizzin Racing Triumph.
Joining Cyr will be a quartet of young rivals from his amateur days, including the likes of Mack Weil, Phil Degama-Blanchet (the youngest pro rider at just 16 years old), Bryce DeBoer, and Andrew Cooney. Weil joined Cyr in the pro finale last year, finishing 13th, and is hoping to build on that experience aboard his MotorcycleCourse.com Kawasaki.
New to the class in 2024 will be the Constructors Championship, which has added an extra layer of intrigue in the Superbike class since its introduction in 2021 and will now expand to the middleweight division.
Suzuki will enter as the overwhelming favourites with the two main title protagonists in their stable, while Sousa will provide support as the third rider in their program.
Kawasaki will lose a major piece of their 2023 puzzle with MacKay gone, but will only need two of Laing, Michel, Weil, or Degama-Blanchet to perform well at SMP to open the year on a high note.
Ducati will rely heavily on Vieira and Playford in the early going, adding Raffa to the mix once healthy, while former frontrunners Yamaha will be in tough following Simpson’s departure and Macrae’s injury.
Superbike Preview: Young kicks off 2024 title quest at Shannonville
- Details
- Category: CSBK News
The long wait for the 2024 Bridgestone Canadian Superbike Championship season is finally over, as the national series will return to historic Shannonville Motorsport Park for the opening round this weekend, presented by the Fallen Riders Support Team sponsored by Pace Law.
It was just over five months ago that Shannonville hosted the 2023 season finale, a chaotic weekend in the feature GP Bikes Pro Superbike class as Ben Young clinched his third Canada Cup and second in a row.
A lot has happened in those months since, however, and the dynamic of the Superbike grid has shifted dramatically from the one fans would remember in September. Absent will be 2021 champion Alex Dumas, the main rival to Young and a three-time winner at SMP, along with frontrunners Trevor Daley and Tomas Casas.
Losing Dumas – the usual thorn in Young’s side – will be music to the ears of the Van Dolder’s Home Team BMW squad, as the two rivals had combined to win every race in the last two seasons and 24 of the last 26 races overall (12 victories each).
Betting on Young to potentially sweep the 2024 season would be a popular choice, having won at five of the six venues on the calendar and riding at the highest level of his career with five consecutive victories to snatch the 2023 crown.
But one rider’s absence is another rider’s opportunity, and you don’t have to look any farther than round one a year ago to see that Young is completely bulletproof. The Collingwood, ON native finished a distant second in race one before a bodywork issue relegated him to sixth in race two, undoubtedly his worst weekend of the season.
Young also won’t forget who was leading that opening race, as the eventual victory was handed to Dumas after a crash out of the lead by Sam Guerin – perhaps Young’s biggest rival entering the 2024 campaign.
Guerin has yet to taste victory in the pro ranks but proved he is more than capable a year ago, finishing third in the championship and at times looking like the only rider who could match the duo at the front.
The EFC Group BMW star would like nothing better than to finish what he started a year ago, winning the opening race at Shannonville and ending Young’s quest for a “perfect season” before it even begins, but he is hardly the only one with those ambitions.
Trevor Dion will also be chasing his first career Superbike victory in 2024, and he may not have to wait long for it after his breakthrough performances to end 2023. After starting the year with Kawasaki and only cracking the top-five on one occasion, Dion joined Economy Lube Ducati for the final round and promptly rattled off three podium finishes in a row to finish as the Pro Rookie of the Year.
The 22-year-old never got the chance to race around Shannonville’s round one “pro track” layout last season, missing the opener with an injury, but his performances at the “long track” finale were enough to put the entire field on notice.
The final name of the “big four” to watch will be one much more familiar to Young, however, as he is sure to renew his rivalry with 14-time champion Jordan Szoke at some point this season.
Now the healthiest he’s been since the 2021 season, Szoke has seemed revitalized in his quest for another title and is never one to doubt on at any track, including Shannonville where he has totalled an impressive seven career victories. The Canadian Kawasaki rider scored two podiums at the venue last season and will be hoping to add to that total this weekend from the top step of the box.
While the names above seem the most likely to pressure Young at the season opener, they are hardly the only riders capable of turning heads at Shannonville.
David MacKay will be an especially intriguing rider to watch as the reigning Pro Sport Bike champion adjusts to a bigger Snow City Cycle Honda machine, piloting a Superbike for the first time in his national career.
Joining him in the midfield will be teenage sensation John Fraser, who narrowly missed out on top rookie honours a year ago with six top-eight finishes on the season, including a career best fifth at the Shannonville pro track aboard his RLS Contracting Suzuki.
Fighting alongside him will be the favourite for this year’s Brooklin Cycle Racing Pro Rookie of the Year award in Connor Campbell, who made the jump to Superbike in the final round last season and will continue with B&T MacFarlane/Kubota Kawasaki for the full campaign in 2024.
Other dark horses to keep an eye out for at Shannonville will be Paul Macdonell and Guillaume Fortin, both of whom will be racing new machines this season. Macdonell has switched to Vass Performance BMW and will look to build upon his best finish of seventh at SMP last year, while Fortin returns to the series aboard a Turcotte Performance Ducati after just one appearance last season.
The fourth year of the Constructors Championship will also get underway at Shannonville, where two-time reigning champions BMW hope to kickstart their title defence with Young and Guerin at the front.
Inaugural champs and 2023 runners-up Suzuki will need to rely mostly on Fraser in round one at SMP, opening the door for the likes of Kawasaki and Ducati to join the title fight for the first time after the award was introduced in 2021.
Young sets blistering pace in FP1 at Shannonville
- Details
- Category: CSBK News
Reigning Bridgestone Canadian Superbike Championship winner Ben Young picked up right where he left off to begin the 2024 season on Friday, smashing the opening practice session at Shannonville Motorsport Park, presented by the Fallen Rider Support Team sponsored by Pace Law.
Young’s start to FP1 wasn’t as dominant as he would have expected, as the three-time Canada Cup champion traded the provisional top spot with rivals Sam Guerin and Jordan Szoke throughout the first stint of the GP Bikes Pro Superbike weekend.
The Van Dolder’s Home Team BMW rider would begin to stretch his legs around the 15-minute mark of the 40-minute session, laying down an impressive 1:05.278 lap, but Young had even more up his sleeve in the second half as he lowered his best time to 1:04.892.
That blistering pace – just a second off the outright lap record even in mild conditions – was comfortably clear of the rest of the field, who made marginal improvements after their early time attacks.
Guerin would cling to second for most of FP1 before Szoke put in a late flyer of his own, posting a time of 1:05.911 to put his Canadian Kawasaki roughly a second off Young at the top and nearly a quarter-second clear of Guerin.
The latter would not improve from his early stint but managed to hang onto third in the session aboard his EFC Group BMW, completing the most laps of any rider in FP1 as Guerin aims to perfect his race pace ahead of the season opener on Saturday.
Rounding out the lead quarter was Shannonville’s breakout star from the September finale, as Trevor Dion continued to get acclimated to his Economy Lube Ducati in fourth with a time just 0.079 seconds off Guerin in third.
Leading the next group of riders was Superbike rookie Connor Campbell in fifth, who quickly matched the leaders before crashing his B&T MacFarlane/Kubota Kawasaki around the ten-minute mark. Campbell thankfully avoided serious injury and is expected to continue this weekend, as he chases the Brooklin Cycle Racing Pro Rookie of the Year award in 2024.
Young will now hope to replicate his early pace in the afternoon when the grid returns for Q1 at roughly 2:10 pm ET, followed by the top-ten BS Battery Q2 session around 2:45 pm ET.
Page 138 of 170