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Young squeaks out Sport Bike pole for Shannonville opener
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The 2024 Bridgestone Canadian Superbike Championship season officially kicked off with a familiar face at the front, as Ben Young snatched pole position in the Economy Lube Pro Sport Bike class at Shannonville Motorsport Park, presented by the Fallen Rider Support Team sponsored by Pace Law.
Young, who will aim for pole position in the feature GP Bikes Pro Superbike class later Friday afternoon, returned to the middleweight category after an eight-year hiatus as he begins his quest for the rare double-title in 2024.
However, things hardly started out in dominant fashion for the Van Dolder’s Home Team Suzuki rider, as he found himself fourth-fastest throughout the opening stint while Elliot Vieira and rookie Mavrick Cyr exchanged provisional pole laps.
Vieira would move the needle once more around the halfway point of the 20-minute session, topping the timesheets with a lap of 1:07.318 aboard his GP Bikes Ducati, but with just a half-second separating the top-five as the pace continued to drop.
Young would finally move to the front with just over seven minutes remaining, narrowly moving past Vieira with a 1:07.170 lap, while fellow title favourite Sebastien Tremblay immediately moved behind him and only 0.104 seconds off the pace.
Both Tremblay and Young would make marginal improvements in the late stages, but the three-time Superbike champion managed to hang on for his first career pole position in the middleweight class by just 0.133 seconds over Tremblay.
The Turcotte Performance Suzuki rider will now line up between his two title rivals on Saturday and Sunday, with Vieira hanging onto third by the finest of margins over Nathan Playford, who put his Playford Company Ducati only 0.006 seconds off the front row and into fourth for the season opener.
Cyr would not improve upon his early provisional pole pace but still managed to escape with an impressive fifth in his first full pro weekend, despite crashing in the final moments aboard his Rizzin Racing Triumph and collecting another rider (both were uninjured).
The field will be set for a pair of potential thrillers on the weekend as the Economy Lube Pro Sport Bike season begins, with just 0.404 seconds separating the top-five on the grid and as many as seven riders within a second.
Race one of the middleweight class is set to get underway at roughly 1:15 pm ET on Saturday, while race two is scheduled for 1:15 pm ET on Sunday at Shannonville Motorsport Park.
Young takes pole position for Canadian Superbike opener at Shannonville
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Ben Young will begin the 2024 Bridgestone Canadian Superbike Championship in the perfect spot to defend his Canada Cup, earning pole position for the GP Bikes Pro Superbike season opener at Shannonville Motorsport Park, presented by the Fallen Rider Support Team sponsored by Pace Law.
Young’s day got off to a brilliant start as he opened the morning with a dominant showing in FP1, setting the pace by over a full second from rival Jordan Szoke, and he showed no signs of slowing down early in Q1 with a provisional benchmark of 1:05.515.
The Van Dolder’s Home Team BMW rider would continue to chip away at that time as Szoke and Sam Guerin battled for the second spot, though one that theoretically wouldn’t matter much in the end as the riders chased a top-ten spot and birth into Q2.
Instead, the dry conditions quickly changed as rain interrupted the 20-minute Q1 session just past the halfway point, halting the afternoon events. The qualifying procedure was paused with Young on provisional pole with a time of 1:05.279, roughly a second clear of the rest of the field.
Ultimately, Bridgestone CSBK officials determined that the Q1 times would be combined with the morning practice session times to set the feature class grid for the weekend.
That decision had little impact on Young, who actually stretched his pole advantage thanks to a best lap of 1:05.278 in FP1 – a mere 0.001 seconds faster than his top time in Q1 – as he takes his 14th career BS Battery Pole Position by one of the largest margins in CSBK history (+1.019 seconds).
Joining him on the front row this weekend will be Szoke and Guerin, with the former benefitting from his Q1 performance to post a time of 1:05.911 aboard his Canadian Kawasaki Motors machine, roughly a quarter-second clear of Guerin and the EFC Group BMW team in third.
Just missing out on a front row spot was Trevor Dion, who improved in Q1 with a time of 1:06.329 but still fell just 0.079 seconds short of Guerin. The Economy Lube Ducati rider will hope he can join Szoke and Guerin in pressuring Young on Saturday, though the three-time champion seems a step ahead of the competition entering the weekend.
Centering the second row will be rookie Connor Campbell, who was banged up after a crash in FP1 but still managed to improve his time in Q1 for the B&T/MacFarlane Kawasaki team, roughly a second off his counterpart Szoke.
Finishing off the second row will be Elliot Vieira, who couldn’t improve in Q1 but did enough in the morning practice session to take a career-best sixth on the grid for GP Bikes Ducati, only two places behind lead Panigale rider Dion.
That was barely enough to displace Sebastien Tremblay and David MacKay, as the two former Sport Bike champions will line up in seventh and eighth respectively. Both would improve their times in Q1, with Tremblay making the biggest leap aboard his Turcotte Performance Suzuki while MacKay’s debut weekend aboard the Snow City Cycle Honda will continue from the centre of the third row.
Completing that row on the grid will be rookie Andrew Cooney, who put in a strong effort in Q1 aboard his Two Wheel Motorsport Suzuki, while fellow first-year rider Mavrick Cyr rounded out the top-ten aboard his Rizzin Racing Triumph.
Young’s effort will also see him claim the maximum ten points towards the season-long BS Battery Pole Position Award, which combines results from throughout the season to determine the overall best qualifier of the GP Bikes Pro Superbike class.
That was all just part of what turned out to be a spectacular day for Young and the Van Dolder’s Home Team squad, who also claimed a first career pole position in the Economy Lube Pro Sport Bike class earlier in the day.
The full Sport Bike summary, as well as all official results from the weekend, can be found on the series’ official website at CSBK.ca.
Weil, Tavares headline support class qualifying from Shannonville
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The opening round of the Bridgestone Canadian Superbike Championship continued with plenty of support action on Friday, as qualifying for all seven national classes got underway at Shannonville Motorsport Park, presented by the Fallen Rider Support Team and Pace Law.
The two feature classes were both headlined by Ben Young on Friday, as the three-time Canada Cup winner took pole position in both the GP Bikes Pro Superbike class and Economy Lube Pro Sport Bike category, but there was still plenty of other spots to be decided in the remaining five support classes.
Tops amongst them was the revamped Importations Thibault Pro-AM Twins division, which ran on-track alongside the new Niagara Race Crafters Ninja ZX-4RR Cup.
That qualifying session was paced outright by Amateur Twins rider Vincent Wilson, who snatched pole position with a superb time of 1:12.793 aboard his Atlantic Mini Suzuki machine, over a second clear of Aprilia rider Sebastian Silva and fellow Lightweight graduate Jack Beaudry for Yamaha.
All three nearly matched the pace of the Pro Twins category, though pole-sitter Justin Marshall made the most of his switch to the Pete’s Superbike Suzuki with a best time of 1:13.952 to take the top spot, just a second clear of Dallas Reynolds for Aprilia.
Joining them on the grid this weekend will be ZX-4RR Cup pole-sitter and rookie pro Mack Weil, who is doing double-duty for the MotorcycleCourse Kawasaki team as he also joins the Pro Sport Bike ranks in 2024.
Weil’s best time of 1:14.570 puts him squarely in contention with the Twins riders ahead of him, and a comfortable six seconds clear of Dave Walker in second.
Headlining the AIM Insurance Amateur Superbike grid will be debutant Tyrone Tavares, who earned his first career national pole with a time of 1:09.511 for Yamaha.
That was just 0.352 seconds clear of fellow Yamaha rider Tyler Brewer in second, while Goran Radisic took third for BMW in a trio separated by less than a half-second entering race one on Saturday.
Serge Boyer confirmed his status as one of the top returning amateurs for 2024 by taking pole in the EBC Brakes Amateur Sport Bike class for Kawasaki, holding off a pair of Yamaha riders in Alexis Beaudoin and Denis Giguere in what will be an all-Quebec front row for each of this weekend’s races.
Completing the day’s action was the Super Sonic Road Race School Pro-AM Lightweight class, where pro Cameron Walker took the outright pole position for Kawasaki with a best time of 1:14.508.
That puts him a half-second clear of the rest of the field entering Saturday’s race and well clear of the rest of the pro grid, as the remainder of the front row was filled out by amateur youngsters Ryan Beattie and Zaim Laflamme, both for Kawasaki.
The full rundown of support class action, as well as the schedule for each of the seven national races on Saturday, can be found on the series’ official website at CSBK.ca.
CSBK confirms result of protest regarding pro #4 Mavrick Cyr
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Bridgestone Canadian Superbike Championship officials have issued a summary regarding Friday’s protest of pro rider #4 Mavrick Cyr and his results in the Economy Lube Pro Sport Bike class.
A formal protest was filed against the Rizzin Racing Triumph team following Friday’s official qualifying session, specifically regarding the engine displacement of his Triumph 675 Daytona.
The protest was filed by the Vass Performance Kawasaki team of pro rider #707 John Laing.
After a thorough inspection carried out by approved CSBK tech officials and attended by a crew member of the Vass Performance Kawasaki team, pro #4 Mavrick Cyr and the Rizzin Racing Triumph team have been cleared of any engine displacement infractions.
Measurement of the combustion chamber bore and stroke revealed that the team’s Triumph 675 Daytona was well within the technical regulations for Economy Lube Pro Sport Bike.
As a result, Cyr will maintain his fifth-place grid positioning for this weekend’s doubleheader as the results from Friday’s qualifying remain official.
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