Toronto, Ontario – The Liqui Moly Pro Sport Bike class has already become known as perhaps the most wild and unpredictable category in the Bridgestone Canadian Superbike Championship, so it’s hard to imagine any more surprises could be thrown our way entering round two at Grand Bend Motorplex, June 8-11.

Instead, enter Sebastien Tremblay.

His return is especially bad news for championship leader Matt Simpson, but perhaps more so former rival David MacKay, who would have entered Grand Bend as the overwhelming favourite.

MacKay has plenty of mileage around the circuit as a SOAR regional star, proving that in 2022 as he looked set to win race one before crashing out of the lead, only to get redemption and score his first career national victory in race two.

He could still prove to be a challenge to Tremblay, however, as his experience at Grand Bend is unmatched while his racecraft has improved tremendously from the version Tremblay last saw in 2021.

The ODH Snow City Cycle Kawasaki star recently dominated the SOAR regional opener and already approached his national lap times from 2022, meaning MacKay will at the very least be able to match Tremblay’s pace entering his home track.

As for Simpson, it’s tough to gauge where he stands entering round two, having experienced numerous highs and lows at the venue. The Blackstock Motorsports Yamaha rider captured his first career pro national podium in race one a year ago, but followed that up with a hard crash in race two.

His recent run at the SOAR regional was also challenging, having run off and settling only for seventh. However, regional struggles aside, Simpson has looked like a much more polished rider in 2023, earning his championship lead in round one by finishing a pair of smart races in third and second and avoiding the crash-filled drama around him.

While the list of additional challengers could go on forever, the two other names to watch out for will be the two winners thus far, Connor Campbell and Brad Macrae.

Campbell mastered the wet conditions of race one at Shannonville to score his own first pro national victory for the B&T MacFarlane/Kubota Kawasaki team, before Macrae did the same in race two on his Colron Excavating Yamaha, becoming the seventh different first-time winner in the ten races since Tremblay’s departure.

As for their 2022 performances, Campbell scored what was then a career-best finish of fourth in race one at Grand Bend, as he looks to improve one spot and join the podium once again in 2023, while Macrae battled to finish seventh in race two.

Surprise race one leader and eventual second-place finisher Alex Coelho will be making his first trip to Grand Bend since 2019, where the Lean Angle Motorsports Kawasaki rider finished seventh.

One fan-favourite who was expected to be in a much different position by now is Elliot Vieira, who crashed in qualifying for round one in his GP Bikes Ducati debut and failed to start either race as he couldn’t repair his damaged machine.

Now back at full strength, Vieira will need to at least replicate his 2022 performances of second and fourth if he wishes to keep his championship hopes alive, though you can never count out the double-race winner from a season ago.

As for any local names that may threaten the top of the timesheets, the focus turns to the pair of Jordan Bauer and rookie Sebastian Hothaza, who shared the podium with MacKay in the SOAR regional opener last weekend.

Bauer quietly impressed with a pair of sixth-place finishes at Grand Bend in 2022, his only appearance of the season, and looked strong once again in the final tune-up for the national as he aims for his first pro national podium.

As for Hothaza, the first-year pro won the Scorpion EXO Amateur Sport Bike race at Grand Bend last season, far and away his best result of the campaign, and he proved he has the potential to do so once again as he threatened MacKay’s times en route to finishing second at the regional opener.

Running jointly with the Liqui Moly Pro Sport Bike class, Jeff Williams will be the favourite to expand his title lead in the developing Pro Twins category, after winning both races comfortably in its inaugural weekend.

The Williams Paving Aprilia rider battled closely with some of the top sport bike’s in round one, finishing as high as fourth on-track in the rain in race one, but all that matters is that he keeps his advantage over his fellow Twins competitors.

The closest of those competitors will likely be British Columbia’s Andrew Van Winkle, who sits second to Williams aboard his FD Racing Suzuki and just ahead of veteran Hans Van Sleuwen, riding his Total Truck Care Suzuki.

The full schedule for the Liqui Moly Pro Sport Bike and Pro Twins class can be found on the series’ official website, as well as other support class action and the feature GP Bikes Superbike category.

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

Toronto, Ontario – After months of speculation surrounding a vastly different and unpredictable 2023 Bridgestone Canadian Superbike season, our first answer will finally be delivered this weekend at Shannonville Motorsport Park, May 18-21.

Much has changed since the last time we saw the feature GP Bikes Pro Superbike championship at CTMP in August 2022, and that different feeling will be on full display at historic SMP – a venue not seen on the CSBK calendar since 2019.

With the new era of Bridgestone tires fully underway, a return to a historic circuit for the first time in four years, and an influx of both purse money and new talent into the feature class, it will likely be a season full of unfamiliarity.

One thing that will feel familiar, however, is Ben Young being the man to beat.

Watch the exclusive round one video preview here: https://youtu.be/XevyIHWzpc0

The reigning national champion for the second time in his career, Young will be sporting the #1 plate for the first time after sitting out the 2020 season (winning in 2019), but it almost seems fitting as the 2022 version of Young was unlike anything we saw before.

Winning five of nine races and finishing inside the top-two in every single one of them, Young took home 225 of a possible 250 points to defeat rival and then-champion Alex Dumas by 29.5 points (the last race awarding half-points due to a red flag).

More impressively, Young completely obliterated the notion from earlier in his career that he was “too safe,” winning races six and seven in aggressive and dramatic fashion over Dumas to seal the Canada Cup for the Van Dolder’s Home Team BMW program.

Combine all of this with the memory that Young is the most recent victor at SMP – winning round one in 2019 en route to his first championship – and it would be fair to assume that no one will touch him this weekend.

That couldn’t be farther from the truth.

Dumas will have plenty to say about being the “underdog” entering 2023, having won eight times in 16 races since moving north to his home country and missing the podium only once – his infamous crash out of the lead in race five at AMP a year ago.

The Purple Skull Brewing/Liqui Moly Suzuki rider also won’t have the narrative of track inexperience against him this time around, after losing 44 points to Young across the two tracks he visited for the first time in 2022 (Grand Bend and AMP).

While he’s yet to race nationally at SMP, the 20-year-old is an instructor at the FAST School located right within the venue, and he showcased that track knowledge by topping the Super Series regional opener this weekend, just 1.8 seconds off the outright lap record.

When it comes to track knowledge, however, no one will have more around practically any venue in Canada than 14-time champion Jordan Szoke, who is aiming to make his long-awaited return to the Bridgestone CSBK paddock at the same place where he captured his first Superbike crown in 1998.

Szoke’s recovery from a brutal crash last offseason appeared to be behind him, topping the Winter Test in his first appearance back on board the LDS Consultants Kawasaki, but another recent health scare has put that in jeopardy – though he will surely be a threat to win should he manage to turn up.

He won’t be the only threat in the LDS Consultants Kawasaki garage, however, as his new rookie teammate, Trevor Dion, proved one year ago. Making his first and thus far only Superbike appearance, Dion came out of nowhere to steal pole position and a third-place finish in last year’s Grand Bend opener, before choosing to focus on his eventual Liqui Moly Pro Sport Bike championship-winning season.

Now fully focused on his Superbike career, Dion will lead off the group of riders that are next in line for their first career victories, finishing second to Dumas at the Super Series regional, but he’ll have another Trevor to deal with in the form of OneSpeed Suzuki’s Trevor Daley.

A podium challenger everywhere he goes, Daley struggled in his last appearance at SMP in 2019 but finished fourth the year prior, and will hope a fresh start at the venue can help him finally capture his elusive first career feature victory.

Also worth mentioning in the podium mix will be a pair of fan favourites in Sam Guerin and Tomas Casas, the former making his first ever national appearance at historic Shannonville. The EFC Group BMW rider went just marginally slower than Dion in his recent regional action, adjusting quickly to a number of new variables as he also broke in a new machine at the circuit.

As for Casas, an injury-riddled 2022 season prevented the Parts Canada Yamaha rider from taking the next step in the feature category, but the former two-time Sport Bike champion reminded everyone of his potential by finishing fourth at CTMP a year ago.

Outside of the individual rider battles on-track, there will also be a pair of other key awards to watch out for at SMP in the Constructors Championship and the Brooklin Cycle Racing Pro Rookie of the Year fight.

BMW will enter as the defending Constructors winners after stealing the trophy from inaugural champs Suzuki, thanks in large part to the efforts of Young and Guerin, but the one-on-one rivalry may be broken up in 2023 by the revamped effort of Kawasaki and the steady progress of Ducati and Yamaha, amongst others.

As for the Rookie of the Year battle, it’s anyone’s guess who will be the closest challenger to Dion in a deep and wide-open freshman class, though Pierre Simard likely snatched the honour after his breakout performance at the Winter Test.

The D1C Suzuki rider went fourth-fastest in Florida to only Szoke, Young, and Dumas, as he prepares to take a second crack at his rookie season, retaining his status after an early injury derailed his 2022 campaign.

However, the top duo will have fellow Suzuki teenager John Fraser and reigning AIM Insurance Amateur Superbike champion Julien Lafortune (Kawasaki) to contend with, amongst many other talented rookies.

The full schedule for the opening round of the feature GP Bikes Pro Superbike class, as well as the other six support classes, can be found on the series’ official website.

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

Shannonville, Ontario – The Super Series launched the 2023 season on the warmest Spring weekend with the biggest grids in recent series history. With grids large, riders talented and weather perfect, the fans were treated to nine intense and action-packed races.

With the return of CSBK to Shannonville Motorsport Park, the Super Series saw a large number of National riders going up against the best local stars. First up was the 31-bike strong AM Sportbike feature. 2022 Novice champion Alexis Beaudoin started on pole ahead of Colin Duncan, Wes Barnes and Adam Pearsall. Duncan shot off to the early lead after a poor start from Beaudoin, and the field completed 90% of the first lap without issue.

Newcomer to the Super Series this season Jason Nash was the first to find trouble, after going down in the Allen’s corner braking zone. Both Ryan Dunwoodie and Pedram Jajarmizadeh were able to avoid the sliding Nash despite having little time to react. On lap 6, pole sitter Beaudoin lost control at the exit of Allen’s corner and the race ended under red giving Colin Duncan his first win of 2023. Wes Barnes and Maverick Cyr completed the podium.

Lightweight Sportsman was up next and despite starting at the rear, Istvan Hidvegi wasn’t going to be denied a win. Hidvegi, along with Chris Fehr, shot through the field like cannons. After less than two minutes, the pair found themselves 1st and 3rd with newcomer and polesitter Zaim Laflamme in between. Fehr got around Laflamme and gave chase to Hidvegi but an incident cut the race short and ended under red giving Hidvegi the win with Fehr and Jean-François Cloutier completing the podium.

The Pros took to the track next for their first Sportbike feature, and with the star-studded grid featuring Bridgestone CSBK’s very talented riders, it served as a preview to what fans can expect this coming weekend.

David MacKay lead the race from the get go with Brad McRae and Matt Simpson in chase. On Lap 3, Campbell found himself in battle with Simpson for third. Simpson tried a last-minute move on the back stretch right-handed to pass Campbell, but went down and was unable to finish the race. On the next lap the chase continued and race leader MacKay went down and handed the race lead to McRae and Campbell. Two laps later, Campbell retired with a mechanical problem allowing McRae to take the win ahead of Sean Latta and Marco Sousa.

The 2023 novice class got off to an amazing start with 13 riders challenging for their first Super Series wins. The Quebec rider, Denis Giguère, started on Pole and after a weak start found himself in last. The lead was inherited by Dawson McLaughlin who found himself under siege from Catherine Mackenzie. The two fought it out for the whole race before Giguère charged back through the field and passed them both.

With Giguère riding off the into the distance to claim his first win at Shannonville Motorsport Park, the 2nd and 3rd place riders still had to sort out their places. Despite hard challenges from MacKenzie, McLaughlin held his own to hold off Mackenzie for 2nd.

The Heavyweight Sportsman/ Lightweight Superbike feature was dominated by Jordan Decarie, who held off fierce challenges from defending champion Drew Weber. When it looked like Weber had caught Decarie, Weber crashed and the race was ended under the red flag. Decarie scored the win followed by Alex Coelho and Duncan. Hidvegi claimed the Lightweight Superbike feature with Cloutier and Sean Kitchen completing the podium.

AM Superbike saw a fight between Bev Ackerman and Matt Vanderhorst. Despite Ackerman logging faster laps near the end, it wasn’t enough for him to reel in Vanderhorst who held his 7-second lead to claim the win. Cyr completed the podium.

Pro Superbike saw a battle for the ages, 2021 CSBK Pro Superbike champ Alex Dumas and defending Shannonville Pro Superbike champ Elie Daccache. Daccache got the better start and Dumas was on a mission to get him. With both riders running times in the low 1:06’s, they were clear of eventual place finisher Trevor Dion by nearly 20 seconds. Dumas waited for his moment to strike and with a handful of laps to go made his move in the double apex in turn 3, 4 and 5. Now with Daccache in chase, Dumas score the win by 2 seconds. Little did the spectators know, they would see this battle one more time before the day was up.

The penultimate feature was the Lightweight Production race. With Laflamme on pole, it was Cloutier that got the better start. Cloutier had a slightly slower bike compared to Laflamme, however made all the right moves to keep him behind. For 12 heart-pounding minutes, Cloutier played defense. Coming to the stripe, New Brunswick’s Vincent Wilson managed to come out of nowhere and got passed Laflamme going into Allen’s corner. Cloutier took his first well-deserved win in several years.

The Sprint Cup final saw Dumas once again take on Daccache, but this time Dumas got the better start. Daccache was within a 3-bike length for most of the race. When Daccache saw an opportunity to make his move, young Dumas finessed his way to the win by less than 2 tenths over Daccache and 18 seconds over Sam Guérin.

Day two saw a few riders call it a weekend, however majority of riders that stayed put on more spectacular shows.

The first race to go off was the 23-bike strong AM Sportbike class, Maverick Cyr won the Pole and was quickly passed by Colin Duncan off the start. However, Cyr managed to get back around Duncan with a wild but fair lunge into Allen’s Corner. In the end Cyr was too strong for Duncan, holding on for the win by a margin of 2 seconds. Wes Barnes was third.

Istvan Hidvegi claimed the Lightweight Sportsman victory ahead of Chris Fehr and Zaim Laflamme, while the Pro Sportbike race was won by Brad McCrae for the second day in a row. He was followed by David McKay and Sean Latta.

The Novice race was a real educational experience for the beginner’s class where the race had to be re-started twice. On the first start, Dawson McLaughlin got the jump on Denis Giguère and Catherine Mackenzie. However, heading into the backstretch hairpin Giguère made contact with McLaughlin’s rear tire sending him out of the race. After the second start, Mackenzie was on a mission and made a daring pass on the outside of Mark Stecho in corner 2. Unfortunately, her bike got a little squirrelly and she went down.

The third and final restart saw Hamilton take the lead from Stecho and McLaughlin. Dropping back to third, McLaughlin was determined to win. Making a three wide pass into Allen’s, McLaughlin passed two of his competitors and walked away for his first Super Series victory.

Jordan Decarie took the Heavyweight Sportsman crown ahead of Coelho and Barnes, while Hidvegi doubled up the Lightweight Superbike win ahead of Cloutier and David Buckland. Maverick Cyr claimed the AM Superbike win ahead of Matt Vanderhorst and Bryce Deboer.

Alex Dumas bested Daccache and Dion for the PRO Superbike win while Vincent Wilson took this first Super Series win in Lightweight Production. Dumas would end the day with a Sprint Cup victory over Daccache and Dion, making the winning pass with less than 2 laps to go.

Official results and standings after Round 1 can be found on the Super Series’ website.

The Super Series will be back in action June 9-11, where the Long Track will play host. Round 2 will include the first ever 2-hour endurance race on the Friday, which is sure to draw a lot of rider support.

Don’t miss the opening round of the Bridgestone Canadian Superbike Championship this coming weekend at Shannonville Motorsport Park. General admission and VIP tickets are available online now or can also be purchased at the gate.

Toronto, Ontario – The 2022 Bridgestone Canadian Superbike Championship season will seem difficult to top in many classes, but perhaps none more so than the Liqui Moly Pro Sport Bike category. However, it appears the fun may just be starting in the middleweight class when they begin their 2023 charge at Shannonville Motorsport Park this weekend, May 18-21.

After a stretch of dominant one-man-effort seasons in the Sport Bike ranks, 2022 saw five different first-time winners and a stunning rookie champion in Trevor Dion, becoming the most nail-biting class in the paddock – and 2023 will likely be its encore.

Entering unfamiliar territory for most of the young field, a return to Shannonville and the start of the Bridgestone tire era will bring back fond memories for some and a strange new challenge for others.

No active rider in this group has ever won a Liqui Moly Pro Sport Bike race at SMP, with the last battle there having featured a hectic fight for the win that saw then-champion Tomas Casas take out future champion Sebastian Tremblay, opening the door for first time race winner and eventual title victor Will Hornblower.

Now with a vacant crown – Dion having graduated full-time to the Superbike class – the grid will want to separate themselves quickly and waste no time in establishing a favourite, though there may appear to be one already.

David MacKay will enter 2023 with another betting line in his favour, having been a title favourite in the previous handful of seasons and again falling painfully short by just eight points in 2022. However, his track record of success is not just limited to other tracks, bringing easily the most convincing resumé in his class to SMP.

Having finished third in 2018 and second the last time the series was there in 2019, the former serving as his first ever pro national podium, it’s safe to say MacKay will enjoy the return aboard his Snow City Cycle Kawasaki. His adjustment to the new Bridgestone tires hasn’t been as smooth as his rivals, but that is thus far the only thing preventing MacKay from being the slam-dunk favourite in at least the first two rounds.

Should he falter, however, there will be no shortage of competitors there to make him pay for it, and tops amongst them is a familiar face in Elliot Vieira. Fresh off an excellent Daytona 200 debut and having won the last race of 2022 to finish third overall, it would be easy to put all the momentum in the Guyanese stars favour.

The question mark surrounding Vieira will instead be his new machine, having switched from his long-time Yamaha partnership to the GP Bikes Ducati program for 2023, with the class now opening up the restrictions to include the V2 Panigale. His transition hasn’t been seamless, but the fourth-place finisher from SMP in 2019 should be a safe bet for at least a podium as he works out the kinks, if not a challenge for the win.

The biggest wildcard may be the sudden emergence of Matt Simpson, having stolen the spotlight in his home round at CTMP with a shocking race one victory that helped him finish fourth in the overall standings. The Blackstock Motorsports Yamaha rider has loved the switch to Bridgestone rubber, consistently running in the top-three both at the Winter Test and the recent Super Series regional opener.

Another storyline to follow will be the anticipated return of Connor Campbell, a dark horse championship threat in 2022 that saw his season cut short by a terrifying crash on the east coast. Now fully healthy, the B&T MacFarlane/Kubota Kawasaki rider will look to recapture the momentum he had early last season, though he will still be making his pro debut at SMP (finishing fifth in Amateur Sport Bike in 2019).

As for the new dark horse taking his place, the mantle appeared to be going to Vincent Levillain after his breakthrough weekend in the Winter Test, topping the timesheets out of nowhere aboard his SpeedFactory67 Kawasaki.

However, a heroic recent performance from Brad Macrae at the Super Series regional has put his name into the ring of dark horse threats, the local rider qualifying second to MacKay aboard his Colron Excavating Yamaha before winning race one on Saturday.

Despite the faster pace of the names above, the return after four years away from SMP will likely play largely on experience, and no one will have more than veteran Louie Raffa around this circuit. His switch to a Mohawk Gas Bar Ducati has thus far proved to be a tough adjustment, but the long-time Honda rider has consistently proved himself at Shannonville before, finishing fifth in both 2017 and 2018 as well as fourth in 2016.

Contrasting that experience will be the large crop of competitive rookies debuting in 2023, led by graduating Scorpion EXO Amateur Sport Bike champion Paul Etienne Courtois. The Ironhold Kawasaki rider – like all his fellow graduates – has never raced nationally at SMP, but proved his consistency is unmatched after scoring a podium in every race last season.

His closest rival from a year ago will also be making the step up, however, with Alex Michel piloting his own SpeedFactory67 Kawasaki after winning the last race of the season at CTMP, finishing 12 points shy of the title to Courtois.

Other rookies to watch include Lean Angle Motorsports Ducati rider Nathan Playford, who went fourth-fastest in the class at the Winter Test, or the pair of Grand Bend specialists in Sebastian Hothaza (KSR Yamaha) and Zoltan Frast (Eurorace Kawasaki).

Notably joining the Liqui Moly Pro Sport Bike class on-track will also be the debut of the all-new Pro Twins class, which will line up behind the main grid and score separately as the category develops.

The full Twins breakdown can be found in the support class preview, where former top pro Jeff Williams will look to threaten the bigger-displacement machines ahead of him at his home track.

The full schedule for this weekend’s Liqui Moly Pro Sport Bike action – as well as the feature GP Bikes Pro Superbike class and the support classes – can be found on the series official website.

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