The trip west for the third round of the Bridgestone CSBK Series and the opening two races of the MiniGP Nationals was always going to be entertaining and feature any number of rising stars that confirm the strong potential offered by young Canadian competitors. However, it wasn’t just the smaller bikes and racers that pointed to a strong youth movement making it’s way up the Canadian roadracing ladder system.
The big story of the western swing was Torin Collins, a full time Super Sport racer with the Latus Suzuki squad in the U.S. For the past couple of years Collins has been climbing the ladder in Europe but opted to return to North American late last season. A strong MotoAmerica debut for M4 Vision Suzuki promised much, but the switch to his current team hasn’t worked as expected.
Almost 19, Collins and his family are no doubt concerned that he was starting to “age out” in the extremely aggressive world of southern European youngsters trying to make their way onto the world stage. Not only is this pre-GP scene competitive, but it is also expensive, and very much dog-eat-dog.
So, Collins opted to bring his well-worn Kawasaki training bike, a former track day machine, to RAD Torque (formerly Castrol Raceway) beside the Edmonton airport to make his Pro Superbike and CSBK debut. This machine is normally detuned electronically to mimic the performance of the restricted “Gen 2” Suzuki GSX-R750 he uses in MotoAmerica, and even “unplugged” the Ninja was well down on the 190 plus horsepower available to the front runners.
But any lack in his machine was more than balanced by Collins’ all-out riding style, more SuperMoto than pre-Moto3. Dangling his foot on corner entries, Collins was pushing the front Bridgestone to the limit, and often setting down the rear wheel to complete the turn, Toprak Razgatlioglu-style. Early trackside witnesses were near shock.
The first official Superbike session on Friday morning saw the pace well below the elderly track record, in the 1:17 range, and optimism was high that 1:16s laps would be possible in afternoon Qualifying. However the track became slick in the sun, and BMW’s Ben Young took his traditional pole at “just” 1:17.37, followed by the Collins Kawasaki ((1:17.51), the returning former Champ and early pace setter Alex Dumas on a v4 Ducati (1:17.64), former lap record holder Jordan Szoke’s Kawasaki was fourth (1:18.1) and previous round winner Slammin’ Sammy Guerin netted fifth on another BMW with a tour at 1:18.3.
Honda’s David McKay completed the racers into the 18s with sixth overall to complete row two at 1:18.5. For McKay, Young, Dumas, and Guerin, it was their first time out on the 12 turn, stop and go RAD Torque layout.
Collins’ ambition was confirmed Saturday morning, when he went quickest in the warm-up, close to his Q time, followed by points leader and favorite Young, Dumas and Szoke. Young got clear early in the race, while Collins got stuck back in fourth and made slow progress, eventually battling Dumas for second.
When Collins finally got clear and started to chase Young in earnest, the leading Van Dolder’s BMW ran into Young’s 2024 arch nemesis – traffic. This allowed Collins to get oh-so-close, but at the flag Young won by half a second from Collins and Dumas.
Winner Young, a three-time overall number one plate holder, is now a 31-year-old, while Dumas is 21 and Collins a much-discussed 18. So, the average age of the podium men was all of 23!
45-years-old and gaining speed, Szoke carved a few tenths off his best Q effort to set the pace in Sunday’s pre-race warm-up, followed by Guerin, Collins, and Dumas.
In Edmonton race two, Young once again jetted into the lead, but this time Collins was moving quickly through traffic, and back on the tail of the Dumas Duc. However Young was soon briefly off the track and struggling, slowing his pace, and setting into third, holding off Szoke and Guerin.
Eventually Collins monstered Dumas up the inside in one of the technical turns on the west end of the circuit, beyond the view of most of the crowd, to take the lead and go on to win in his second ever career CSBK Pro attempt by 1.8 seconds.
Young kept control of the points with a well judged third, no doubt trying to keep everything in one piece to protect a busy upcoming schedule. Young will need to rush to the World Championship Coca-Cola eight hour in Suzuka, Japan, to race a Bridgestone-supported BMW, for Saturday, July 20. Of course, he also needs to survive the Atlantic Motorsport Park CSBK round the weekend before!
On the Monday following RAD Torques National, many of the CSBK racers headed south to the new Rocky Mountain venue for a multi-class test. Local Collins was already the unofficial motorcycle lap record holder, and he backed that up by setting the pace, and a new outright bike mark, at 1:41.1.
Both the venue and CSBK organizers, as well as spec tire suppliers Bridgestone (with two new tracks to process data for over the weekend) judged the test at the very modern, hillside venue as an all-round success.
A year ago, I was in the west for the opening round of the Toni Sharpless-organized MiniGP series at Greg Moore Raceway in B.C. I was intrigued that the cheerful volunteer running Timing and Scoring, Jim Van Winkle, was the father of top CSBK Twins racer Andrew. Son was on hand to help too, walking in a cast courtesy of a practice incident at the Grand Bend National.
A year later, Andrew joined the CSBK tour for the first time in 2024 to ride a Suzuki provided by long-time campaigner Marco Sousa, who had an “extra” GSX-R600 due to his construction of a new-rules Suzuki 750.
Van Winkle might not have attracted the initial attention awarded to Superbiker Collins, but his efforts were perhaps more sensational – he qualified third for Pro Sport Bike in his debut, just behind new lap record holder John Laing’s Kawasaki and the Ducati v2 of Elliot Vieira. Right behind Van Winkle was points leader and class standard Seb Tremblay, dealing with an injured shoulder.
Laing was impressive Saturday, setting the pace to take his first dry win in his second year on the tour. Vieira netted second from Tremblay, while a great battle was waged for fourth.
Former Triumph pilot Mavrick Cyr, in his debut with the Econo Lube Ducati, sister to Viera’s borrowed machine, held fourth for most of the race, with local Yamaha ace Justin Knapik, Van Winkle and the on-form Philip DeGamma-Blanchet trying to find a way by. Eventually DeGamma-Blanchet, all of 16, forced his way to the front, with Van Winkle right behind.
Sunday, 17-year-old Van Winkle found some real pace, racing almost a second quicker than the day before.
Vierra lead early but fell, and this handed Van Winkle a solid lead, aided by Laing’s near miss adventures that slowed his pace. Cyr, aged 19, also found better form to grab second (how far away is a win for the Rookie Pro?) behind impressive first-time winner Van Winkle, while Laing had to settle for a still impressive third. Laing is the veteran of the group at 32.
Later in the week, the MiniGP tour kicked off in Stratotech, near Edmonton, before moving to Strathmore, east of Calgary. 2023 Champ Michale Galvis was back, and 2023 pre-season favorite, Lincoln Scott, was also ready to earn a trip to the World Finals in Valencia.
The weather turned ugly at Stratotech, Scott earning a pair of well-judged wins while opener victor Galvis struggled with tire changing woes. At Strathmore, once the home of Collins in his very early racing days in the strong Calgary mini scene, Galvis dominated the opener but fell in the rain in Sunday’s race two, won by Scott.
Last year, Scott looked like the guy to beat, but hurt his wrist right before the start of the Nationals. Now the tour heads east to Lombardy, south of Ottawa, for two weekends in August. On the weekends of 17-18 and 24-25, the final five MiniGP races will decide the 2024 Title. Scott can afford to play it safe, at least initially.
<
Discussion about this post