At many of the races on the CSBK Championship national tour, the post GP Bikes Podium features a special award from the FAST Riding School. The FAST “big cheque” goes to the hard charger from the just-finished national, in the same way that viewers vote for “Driver of the Day” during Formula One auto video broadcasts.
Choosing a hard charger moments after the completion of the race is a challenge, and on Saturday at Shannonville for the opening CSBK national, the decision was made to go with Ben Young. The reigning number one, fresh from top Canuk honors at Daytona, earned pole position for S.M.P.’s features, after a disrupted-by-rain Friday.
In Saturday’s race, Young had a rough start, and at one point faded back to fourth, slight off the pace of resurgent leader Jordan Szoke’s Express Lube Kawasaki, “Slammin’ Sammy” Guerin EFC Group BMW and the LDS Consultants Ducati of Trevor Dion. Apparently Young was distracted by the different feel of his regular Dolder’s Home Team BMW Superbike compared to the Suzuki GSX-R750 he had just used to win his first career Pro Sport Bike middleweight win.
So, Young’s anticipated march back to the front made the race interesting and earned him Saturday’s FAST Award. Ben stepped to the left of the Podium when his name was called, with all the smooth behavior of a game show host!
Sunday was… different. The morning story was the warm-up crash of Trevor Dion, his Ducati damaged beyond immediate repair. The 2022 Pro Sport Bike champ had another Ducati under the Economy Lube Tent, but that bike wasn’t fully sorted, and the team were not comfortable to make that switch.
Instead, a brand-new BMW M 1000 RR was rolled out of the team’s trailer, and the crew led by Scott Miller hustled to get the bike ready for technical inspection and then the race. The bike was recently built for Economy Lube and Tire owner Steve Moxey, mostly a Ducati guy of late.
“Trevor’s ridden the BMW before,” smiled Miller of a session in the US earlier this year. “He went almost three laps and ran out of gas. He’s pushed it further than he’s ridden it!”
Dion was in at the deep end, and no one was confident of his pace. He had piloted his own family BMW years ago, earning the pole at Grand Bend, but it’s a big change from the V-4 Ducati Panigale.
An apprehensive Dion went to the grid as a focal point, and eventually his race went fairly well – he earned fourth place for the second day in a row.
The interesting part was at the podium post race, when Dion was called up to get his FAST Award. He confirmed that he could, contrary to suggestion, ride a Superbike, and that he would further demonstrate his big bike prowess on home ground at Grand Bend at the next national.
Such bravado is not typical from Canadian racers, and Dion’s powerful statements will inform events in two weeks on “Ontario’s West Coast.” Fans certainly hope so!
Dion will have some company in terms of home track hero’s looking to make good. There are typically a couple of local surprises at Grand Bend, just like Dion’s unexpected pole position in Superbike with his earlier BMW. Chris Pletsch was fast near his Stratford home for Honda last season and is expected to feature again.
One fast guy from the SOAR Regional series who won’t be much of a shock for Grand Bend success in David McKay. Soft spoken and inclined to fly under the radar, and happy with that, McKay and family managed a solid, title-winning campaign for Kawasaki in Pro Sport Bike last year.
McKay was rewarded with Honda’s much-anticipated return to the Pro Superbike category, with a new CBR1000RR-R provided by Toronto’s multi-line Snow City and built by former Miller partner Andrew Westbrook.
At Shannonville, McKay and his bright red Honda attracted attention in a very McKay way. With minimal fuss, McKay got up to speed and earned a pair of fifth place finishes, and a podium at Grand Bend would seem a realistic goal – not bad with a bike that first turned a lap two weeks ago.
Back at the front, the big story going into Shannonville was Young’s eleventh-hour decision to ride his Daytona Suzuki in the Pro Sport Bike race. In a class that regularly offers plenty of fairing-banging drama, this addition was an unexpected bonus, and the media were cheered by the notion of Young getting into it with Seb Tremblay and Ducati’s Elliot Vieira.
The Tremblay factor was intriguing, since “the Shaker” often takes control of Pro Sport Bike in a similar manner to Young’s best Superbike performances. Tremblay has made a big effort for 2024 with new, second-generation rules Turcotte Performance GSX-R750s. Young’s crew has certainly noticed the intensity of Tremblay’s old school program – the bike shop owner does most of the work on his machines himself. Shades of Lang Hindle!
Saturday’s Sport Bike race wound up with Young pushing past Tremblay and Vieira for the win, but there wasn’t much of a battle – Young got a small lead and managed his pace.
Tremblay made it clear he had a few more ideas to try, and on Sunday built a good lead before Young started to hunt him down. Could Young make a pass, trying for a perfect weekend and the start for two possible perfect series?
(Riding for Fast Company Honda in 2010, Jordan Szoke earned the first CSBK perfect season in Superbike. But Szoke came up one race short in Pro Sport Bike, defeated in the final race of the year at Atlantic Motorsport Park by Kawasaki’s Alex Welsh, ironically now Young’s boss at BMW.)
Tremblay and Young were close with two laps to go, but Young’s rad hose came off at the pump on the lower left side of the bike, and the Superbike Champ fell in his own coolant at the hairpin. Damage was minimum, but Young had to retire due to lack of coolant.
The Suzuki had suffered some overheating issues at Daytona, and this likely contributed to the rad hose issue – the hose wasn’t damaged. Is this a warning about a failure with the head gasket? If that is the actual problem, it might mean Young doesn’t ride the Suzuki for a couple of rounds, and that would be a shame for both CSBK fans and the highly motivated Tremblay.
- From Colin Fraser
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