Lombardy, Ontario – The first season of the FIM MiniGP Canada Series came to a nail-biting conclusion on Sunday, with three different winners in each of the three feature races helping crown Michael Galvis as the inaugural champion at Lombardy Karting Club.

Galvis entered the last championship weekend of the season with just a one-point title lead over Treston Morrison, with only another 22 points separating the duo from a red-hot Ben Hardwick, the winner of both races one weekend ago at Lombardy.

While the series returned again to Lombardy for the season finale only seven days later, this time it was on the reverse counter-clockwise layout, though the change didn’t seem to faze Hardwick as he squeezed out pole position from Galvis in second and Morrison on the end of the front row in third.

Race one quickly negated that grid position advantage, as Morrison snatched the holeshot with Hardwick and eleven-year-old Galvis close behind, the lead trio running only marginally ahead of Ashton Parker in fourth.

With Galvis unable to launch an attack on Hardwick for second, Morrison seemed to be on the verge of snatching the top championship spot, but that quickly turned to disaster as the 13-year-old crashed out of the lead early on lap five.

The heartbreaking mistake promoted the battle between Hardwick and Galvis to the front, but it didn’t completely ruin Morrison’s race as he managed to quickly remount and begin a charge back up the field, ultimately salvaging much-needed points in fourth.

Galvis kept sustained pressure on Hardwick right to the finish, but was unable to find an opening as the 14-year-old out of Sudbury, ON won his third race in a row, moving himself even further into the title mix.

Parker would run a quietly solid race to a career-best third ahead of CSBK Scholarship rider Rhys McNutt in fifth, with Lincoln Scott closely behind in sixth from American newcomer Cooper Glover in seventh, with fellow debutant Cole Reimche and Mason Archer completing the field.

A short turnaround then led the MiniGP class into race two, where Hardwick again lost out on the start but this time to title leader Galvis. Hardwick would have more chaos into turn one, colliding not once but twice with Morrison as both riders got their elbows out in an aggressive early battle.

That opening showdown allowed Galvis to stretch out some breathing room, but it didn’t last long as Hardwick ultimately broke free of Morrison and began to reel in Galvis at the front, setting up another late battle for the race win.

Much like race one though, the buildup wouldn’t result in any last-lap heroics as Galvis would hold off Hardwick for his third win of the campaign, and a pivotal one that handed him a comfortable 17-point advantage after Morrison could only muster third.

Parker would continue his strong weekend in fourth with Scott moving up to fifth, while McNutt fended off Glover with Reimche and Archer again concluding the field.

The series then shifted it’s focus to the tenth and final points-paying race of the season, with Galvis hoping to avoid any drama and wrap up the title while Hardwick hunted down Morrison for the vice-champion spot and an invitation to the FIM MiniGP World Final in Valencia, Spain.

This time Hardwick would finally get a good launch, grabbing the holeshot as Galvis and Morrison bumped into turn one, the latter putting plenty of pressure on his former championship rival as he needed a spot in the top-two to preserve his standings advantage over Hardwick.

With the lead beginning to stretch, Morrison forced a daring move into the final corner that would unfortunately prove to be the final nail in the coffin of his weekend, crashing into the barriers and watching his Spanish hopes evaporate.

The drama didn’t end there, however, as a hard-charging Parker quickly caught the back of Hardwick and Galvis and promptly pulled off one of the most spectacular moves many in attendance had ever seen, taking both of the lead riders at once into turn one and moving from third to first.

Hardwick would put plenty of pressure back on Parker, but the weekend’s 14-year-old breakout star wouldn’t give an inch, snatching his first ever FIM MiniGP victory to close out the season, moving himself to fifth in the final standings in the process.

The celebration would quickly start further back, though, as Galvis did enough in third to clinch the inaugural Canadian championship and Hardwick narrowly moved his way into second overall, both earning a trip to Valencia in the process.

“I really wanted to go to Spain and race for Canada, so I was trying to protect my spot in the championship,” Galvis said. “Treston went down, and then Ashton passed Ben and I at once, so I didn’t know what would happen. But it was so much fun!”

After dueling all season, he and Hardwick will now plan to become teammates for their trip to Europe and the MotoGP paddock, where both are eager to be Canada’s first ever FIM MiniGP representatives.

“I was trying to take second and get a spot in Spain, so I had to make sure Treston didn’t get there, but I feel bad that he crashed after the season he had,” Hardwick said. “It means a lot to be able to represent Canada, and hopefully I can put us on top.”

A dejected Morrison would remount to finish ninth, holding onto third in the championship.

Fourth would go the way of Scott, who was part of a thrilling four-rider battle at the end to decide the victory, though a pair of late lunges weren’t enough to displace Galvis for the final podium spot. As a result, Scott will wind up sixth in the final standings, losing out to Parker as his last-race victory would prove to be the tiebreaker.

McNutt would hang onto fifth in race three and thus earn fourth in the overall standings aboard his CSBK Scholarship bike, while newcomers Reimche and Glover took sixth and seventh, respectively, with Archer eighth and taking seventh in the title fight.

Galvis and Hardwick will now prepare to represent the series internationally, as they head to the Circuit Ricardo Tormo in Valencia on November 24-26 for the FIM MiniGP World Final.

Toronto, Ontario – The Bridgestone Canadian Superbike Championship has already delivered plenty of twists and turns to begin the 2023 campaign, so there’s nowhere more fitting for the season to go next than Atlantic Motorsport Park this weekend, July 20-23, presented by Pro Cycle and Kawasaki.

The uniquely demanding circuit, known affectionately as “the rollercoaster,” will be the site of round three of the GP Bikes Pro Superbike class, but there’s no need to remind championship leader Alex Dumas of the challenge that lies ahead near Halifax, Nova Scotia.

It was just one year ago that the battle for the 2022 Canada Cup was blown wide open at AMP, with Dumas crashing out of the lead amidst an intense battle with Ben Young, who would go on to win his second feature championship in large part thanks to Dumas’ costly error.

Jump ahead to 2023, and there are so far no errors to be found for Dumas.

The Purple Skull Brewing/Liqui Moly Suzuki rider has been sensational, winning three of four races in dominant fashion and taking a commanding 36-point lead over Young to put one finger on the Canada Cup already.

Granted, there has been plenty of misfortune for the reigning champion that has helped expand Dumas’ gap atop the standings, but all three of his victories have demonstrated a new, more determined version of himself than the one we have seen so far in his short career.

Watch the official AMP video preview here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdPXLOf2Brg

It also won’t take much improvement in outright pace for Dumas to close his gap to Young, as there memorably wasn’t any gap at all a year ago – the duo infamously tying in qualifying and needing a coin toss to decide the polesitter – with his race mistakes making it seem as though Young’s advantage was bigger than it is.

With that, it’s hard not anoint Dumas the favourite even with his forgettable east-coast debut last season, as he will know Young has to throw everything at him across the final five races in hopes of rallying back in the championship.

However, the Van Dolder’s Home Team BMW rider will have his own claim to being the weekend favourite. After all, Young swept both races in 2022 and has won three of the last four on the east coast, including his spectacular comeback from tenth to first in 2019.

The circuit has traditionally favoured Young, perhaps owed in part to his experience on narrow, twisty tracks in the British Superbike Championship, and that comeback win four years ago is still considered the best of his career.

However, that victory will also remind Young that AMP is no stranger to chaotic results, likely a bigger concern for Dumas than himself as the title leader aims to avoid any drama, and it may be a closer group of challengers this weekend than the duo has grown accustomed to.

Riding the biggest wave of momentum will be Trevor Daley, who is fresh off a historic charge of his own in Grand Bend where he snatched fourth after crashing out of a battle for the lead on lap two.

Daley has rarely had luck on his side, but round two proved once again he has the race-winning pace to overcome it, and there may not be anywhere better for the OneSpeed Suzuki rider to finally end his quest for a debut victory than at the same place where he came painstakingly close in 2019.

The true X-factor may be tied to Daley regardless, as the biggest question mark of the weekend will be the home favourite aboard his old machine, 17-year-old rookie John Fraser.

Riding the rebranded RLS Contracting Suzuki, Fraser has quietly put together a strong debut campaign already with top-eight finishes in three of four races, but he could more than double that output with a pair of podium challenges this weekend.

That may seem like a tall ask for the first-year rider just out of high school, but Fraser has already approached pole position times in his regional stints at AMP, and even for his young age will bring more track knowledge than majority of the Superbike field.

One rider he certainly won’t have more experience than, however, is 14-time AMP winner (and coincidentally 14-time champion) Jordan Szoke, who will be first in line to pick up the pieces if any of the three Suzuki’s falter.

The banged-up veteran will likely be in for his toughest test yet since his inspiring return, with a pair of 22-lap races on the schedule around a physically grueling circuit, but Szoke and his LDS Consultants Kawasaki will have more expertise to draw from than many of his competitors combined, having tasted victory so many times in Nova Scotia.

That knowledge will be especially valuable to his teammate, LDS Consultants Kawasaki rookie Trevor Dion, as he tries to navigate a Superbike around the Shubenacadie track for the first time. Dion won at AMP a year ago during his Sport Bike championship campaign, but it’s a far different ask around a 210-horsepower feature bike as he looks to build upon his race two podium from Grand Bend.

A difficult challenger to predict will be usual frontrunner Sam Guerin, who has looked like a legitimate race-winning threat on numerous occasions in 2023 but was ordinary in his 2022 Atlantic debut, finishing a distant fourth and fifth aboard his EFC Group BMW.

AMP is no stranger to wet weather, though, and Guerin has begun to gain a reputation as a rain expert, meaning he could be quick to climb the leaderboard if the skies open up at any point over the weekend.

Another wet-track expert worth mentioning is Parts Canada Yamaha rider Tomas Casas, who famously scored his first career Superbike podium in the rain at AMP in 2019.

Casas has dealt with his own physical challenges this season after an injury-shortened 2022 campaign, and this track is hardly one to ease himself back into after four years away, but fond memories may give his team the boost they need in round three.

The midway point of the season will also prove to be crucial in the Constructors Championship fight, where Young’s adversity has left BMW a comfortable 28 points adrift of leaders Suzuki.

The trio of Dumas, Daley, and Fraser don’t appear likely to ease that gap anytime soon, either, but Young and Guerin will be equally in the mix up front for BMW.

Friday’s qualifying sessions could also go a long way in deciding the BS Battery Pole Position award, where Young currently leads Dumas by six points after taking pole in both rounds thus far, with a three-way tie for third another six points back.

The full schedule for the feature GP Bikes class, as well as the six support classes, can be found on the series’ official website at CSBK.ca.

For more information on the Bridgestone Canadian Superbike Championship, visit www.csbk.ca

Toronto, Ontario – The Bridgestone Canadian Superbike Championship has announced a revised schedule of events for rounds four and five of the season, after last week’s cancellation of round three at Atlantic Motorsport Park.

Severe rain and flooding forced the immediate cancellation of round three at AMP on Saturday Morning, July 22. This was the first time in the 43-year history of the national series that an event was cancelled due to weather, in what was an unprecedented period of rain for both CSBK and the province of Nova Scotia.

A return to AMP will unfortunately not be possible in 2023, with a focus turned towards returning to the east coast in 2024.

As for the remaining 2023 schedule, CSBK officials have announced the following changes in an effort to restore as many national races as possible, while fulfilling the TSN broadcast schedule, initially set for 21 episodes covering the three pro classes.

At round four, set for Canadian Tire Motorsport Park on August 18-20, the schedule will be amended to include one Friday make-up race for Liqui Moly Pro Sport Bike and Bickle Racing Pro Twins, using the official grid set for Atlantic Motorsport Park and available only to the entrants of round three.

This will be the only official make-up race to carry over from AMP, as this was the only qualifying session to run as scheduled in dry conditions in round three, with Sebastien Tremblay (Sport Bike) and Andrew Van Winkle (Twins) on pole.

The rest of the Liqui Moly Pro Sport Bike and Bickle Racing Pro Twins schedule will remain unaffected, with the initial commitment of ten national races now becoming nine.

In the feature GP Bikes Pro Superbike category, round four at CTMP will remain as scheduled, with a completely new race scheduled at the final round at Shannonville Motorsport Park on Friday, September 15.

This will make each of the final two rounds of Pro Superbike a tripleheader, resulting in their commitment of eleven national races becoming ten.

It will be the first time two tripleheaders have been held in the same season, and the first to be held outside of CTMP after the format was debuted in 2021.

As for the amateur ranks, the final round at Shannonville will now become a full doubleheader, adding one race to each of AIM Insurance Amateur Superbike and Scorpion EXO Amateur Sport Bike.

These two categories will now go from seven national races to six, while Super Sonic Race School Amateur Lightweight and EBC Brakes Lightweight Pro/Am will drop from ten scheduled races to eight.

More details regarding entry fee changes will be provided at a later date.

These amendments will see 19 of the scheduled 21 episodes fulfilled for TSN broadcast purposes with Pro Superbike (ten episodes) and Pro Sport Bike/Pro Twins (nine episodes) races.

The remaining two episodes will show CTMP race one of the Lightweight Pro/Am class (never before shown on TSN), and a Shannonville highlight show covering Amateur Superbike race one and Amateur Sport Bike race two (not shown on TSN since 2010).

CSBK officials would again like to thank everyone for their patience and understanding during this unprecedented situation.

For more information on the Bridgestone Canadian Superbike Championship, visit www.csbk.ca

Toronto, Ontario – The most unpredictable class in the Bridgestone Canadian Superbike Championship will continue east next weekend, as Liqui Moly Pro Sport Bike and Bickle Racing Pro Twins returns to Atlantic Motorsport Park from July 20-23, presented by Pro Cycle and Kawasaki.

The middleweight category has continued its trend from 2022 as perhaps the most wide-open class in the CSBK paddock, with three different winners and seven different podium finishers in the first four races, though it’s the lone double-winner that stands above the rest with David MacKay leading the championship by 12 points.

The ODH Snow City Cycle Kawasaki rider quickly made up for a mediocre round one with a pair of victories at his home venue last time out in Grand Bend, leading every single lap of the weekend from start-to-finish.

That momentum would lead many to assume MacKay will enter round three near Halifax, Nova Scotia as the favourite to extend his lead. In reality, he may not face any stiffer task than trying to hunt down Sebastien Tremblay next weekend.

Tremblay’s hiatus from the paddock lasted just one weekend before returning in round two, this time aboard an unfamiliar Turcotte Performance Suzuki, though his last-minute return went about as well as anyone could have expected as he finished second to MacKay in both races and challenged for the lead throughout race two.

Now having taken a few weeks to fine-tune that Suzuki and get back to race fitness, Tremblay will return to AMP with a crucial advantage on his resumé, representing the only previous winner on the grid around the challenging “rollercoaster” circuit.

His victory in 2018 was the first of his pro national career, beating a formidable duo of two-time class champion Tomas Casas and home phenom Jacob Shaw-O’Leary, and he would go on to add two more podiums at AMP in 2019 despite a shoulder injury.

As if being the lone winner wasn’t enough, Tremblay will also take comfort in knowing his remaining rivals haven’t exactly enjoyed the best time out east in their careers, with 2022 race winners Trevor Dion and Jake LeClair not returning.

MacKay importantly took a major step forward in 2022 with a pair of runner-up finishes, but just a single top-five result in his previous six races there will paint a different picture for the championship leader.

Adding to the intrigue is the fact that outside of Tremblay and MacKay, no other rider scheduled to take to the grid has ever even stood on the podium at AMP, meaning at least one name will be doing so for the first time in 2023.

The leading candidate amongst them is current vice-champion Matt Simpson, who had a mixed weekend a year ago with solid finishes of fourth and fifth but never really threatening the front of the field, something he will need to change if MacKay is closer to his 2022 form than the years prior.

However, Simpson did impress at his previous appearance in Shubenacadie – albeit as a member of the lightweight class – finishing what was then a career-best second place, a result the Blackstock Motorsports Yamaha rider will aim to replicate.

Another name to keep in mind is the first winner of the season, Connor Campbell, who will be perhaps the story of the weekend regardless of where he finishes.

The B&T MacFarlane/Kubota Kawasaki rider endured a terrifying, career-threatening crash at AMP one year ago, but hasn’t let that shake his confidence one bit, being quick to point out that he qualified fourth-fastest for that weekend and could very likely fight for a podium once again.

Elliot Vieira and Brad Macrae will each be looking for a very different kind of redemption as they journey east, having endured opposite ends of the spectrum in 2022.

Vieira fell just 0.063 seconds shy of the final podium spot in race two last season, a margin he hopes his new GP Bikes Ducati can overcome, while Macrae crashed out in both instances aboard his Colron Excavating Yamaha, injuring himself in the process and missing the final round.

As for Bickle Racing Pro Twins, the newest class on the schedule has stomached a slow build in 2023, with the limited entries joining the back of the Pro Sport Bike grid as part of a split-race effort.

However, veteran Jeff Williams has simply demolished whatever competition has been thrown his way, and it’s hard to envision that changing for the Williams Paving Aprilia rider as he returns to AMP for the first time since 2019.

Williams has gone four-for-four in the inaugural Twins season and has regularly fought his way up the grid against faster Sport Bike machines, something that may be even easier for him to do around the tight, twisty Nova Scotia layout.

Looking to at least secure the vice-champion spot will be 16-year-old Andrew Van Winkle, who has enjoyed an impressive campaign of his own with three runner-up finishes in four races. The Chilliwack, BC native will likely be making the longest trek of any CSBK entry, but an important one as he eyes a potential vacated crown in 2024.

The full schedule for the Liqui Moly Pro Sport Bike and Bickle Racing Pro Twins classes can be found on the series’ official website at CSBK.ca.

For more information on the Bridgestone Canadian Superbike Championship, visit www.csbk.ca