Sport Bike Preview: Tremblay, Younger face off at Shannonville
Hamilton, ON – The lengthy await the 2024 Bridgestone Canadian Superbike Championship season is lastly over, because the nationwide collection will return to historic Shannonville Motorsport Park for the opening spherical this weekend, introduced by the Fallen Riders Assist Workforce sponsored by Tempo Legislation.
Included amongst the motion would be the Financial system Lube Professional Sport Bike class, which has endured loads of adjustments from its 2023 grid. Reigning champion David MacKay and former SMP winner Connor Campbell have each graduated to the Superbike ranks, final yr’s title runner-up Matt Simpson has entered a semi-retirement, and accidents have sidelined frontrunners Brad Macrae, Alex Coelho, and Louie Raffa.
Whereas a brand new inflow of expertise will certainly assist offset these absences – together with a loaded rookie class – it will have been honest for title favorite and 2021 champion Sebastian Tremblay to be licking his chops coming into spherical one at Shannonville.
As an alternative, he’ll now have to take care of an sudden rival – three-time Canada Cup champion Ben Younger.
The face of the Superbike class will do double-duty for the primary time in his profession this season, becoming a member of the middleweight grid aboard a Van Dolder’s Residence Workforce Suzuki and committing to all six nationwide rounds in each courses.
Younger hasn’t raced within the Sport Bike division since 2015, incomes a second-place end in his remaining look at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, however his current Daytona 200 end proved there needs to be minimal adjustment as he pivots again to the smaller machine.
His path to a championship shall be something however a formality, nonetheless, as he’ll be going up in opposition to top-of-the-line Sport Bike riders of the fashionable period in Tremblay.
The Turcotte Efficiency Suzuki rider received the ultimate three races of the 2023 marketing campaign and completed third within the championship regardless of sitting out spherical one – the identical professional monitor structure that may host spherical one this season – reminding everybody why he swept the 2021 marketing campaign behind eight consecutive victories.
That Sport Bike expertise will play massively in Tremblay’s favour, setting the desk for what needs to be a implausible duel between the 2 former champions each on the opening spherical in Shannonville and all through the 2024 marketing campaign.
Specializing in solely one another can be a mistake, nonetheless, as each could have their palms full simply keeping off the remainder of the sector in what has been probably the most unpredictable class in current CSBK historical past.
Main that cost is the duo of Elliot Vieira and John Laing, the fourth and fifth-place finishers in final yr’s championship. Vieira missed three races with mechanical points and really nicely may have been in title competition with out them, whereas Laing was some of the constant frontrunners following his crash within the opening race of the season.
Vieira shall be again aboard his GP Bikes Ducati and hoping to construct upon his robust finale at Shannonville final yr, the place he completed second and third (albeit on the lengthy monitor structure). As for Laing, the Cochrane, AB native now has a yr of expertise below his belt across the Ontario circuits, and can intention to construct some early momentum forward of his dwelling races in spherical three.
Maybe the largest leap in potential from 2023 to 2024 is sophomore Alex Michel, who quietly put collectively a robust rookie professional season final yr and lately received the Sport Bike race on the SuperSeries regional at SMP. The younger Kawasaki rider completed seventh in every of the 2 races across the professional monitor final season earlier than claiming his first profession podium at CTMP, and it wouldn’t be surprising to see him return to the entrance at Shannonville like he did this previous weekend.
Amongst the opposite returnees is a gaggle of darkish horse contenders that features Marco Sousa, Nathan Playford, and Zoltan Frast, amongst others. Sousa particularly has proven a few of his finest tempo at Shannonville, scoring a pair of fifth place finishes to start final yr’s marketing campaign, and a podium spot is hardly out of the query for the Suzuki veteran.
Every of the returnees might want to preserve a watch out for a number of the new names round them, although, with a minimum of 5 high-profile rookies anticipated to make the bounce from the beginner ranks this season.
Headlining them is none aside from 19-year-old sensation Mavrick Cyr, the champion in each beginner courses final season and one of many brightest skills within the Bridgestone CSBK paddock. Any doubt of Cyr’s potential was shortly silenced in September, when he bought an early begin to his professional profession and completed ninth within the remaining race of the season aboard his Rizzin Racing Triumph.
Becoming a member of Cyr shall be a quartet of younger rivals from his beginner days, together with the likes of Mack Weil, Phil Degama-Blanchet (the youngest professional rider at simply 16 years previous), Bryce DeBoer, and Andrew Cooney. Weil joined Cyr within the professional finale final yr, ending thirteenth, and is hoping to construct on that have aboard his MotorcycleCourse.com Kawasaki.
New to the category in 2024 would be the Constructors Championship, which has added an additional layer of intrigue within the Superbike class since its introduction in 2021 and can now increase to the middleweight division.
Suzuki will enter because the overwhelming favourites with the 2 important title protagonists of their steady, whereas Sousa will present assist because the third rider of their program.
Kawasaki will lose a significant piece of their 2023 puzzle with MacKay gone, however will solely want two of Laing, Michel, Weil, or Degama-Blanchet to carry out nicely at SMP to open the yr on a excessive notice.
Ducati will rely closely on Vieira and Playford within the early going, including Raffa to the combination as soon as wholesome, whereas former frontrunners Yamaha shall be in powerful following Simpson’s departure and Macrae’s harm.
The complete weekend schedule for the Financial system Lube Professional Sport Bike class – and the remainder of the seven Bridgestone CSBK classes – could be discovered right here.
For extra info on the Bridgestone Canadian Superbike Championship, go to www.csbk.ca or e-mail [email protected].
