The landscape in the Pro Supersport championship changed dramatically on Saturday, as Torin Collins won the first part of a weekend tripleheader in record breaking fashion at RAD Torque Raceway.
Collins found himself in a tricky position early on at his home venue, getting a lackluster start from pole position and slipping behind championship rival Andrew Van Winkle and ahead of reigning champion Sebastien Tremblay in a close lead trio.
The three-pack would quickly shrink to two when Tremblay bowed out of the race on only lap four, suffering from a suspected pit limiter malfunction on his S.T. Motosport Suzuki – a massive blow to his hopes of a title defence.
There was still plenty of entertainment between Collins and Van Winkle, however, as the two teenagers ran together for the entire first half of the race, even trading blows in turns three and four as Van Winkle was reluctant to let the championship leader past.
Collins would eventually take the lead for good on lap eight, breaking the lap record on his very next go-around as he began to stretch a slight advantage over Van Winkle.
The gap would hover around one second for the next handful of laps, keeping a slight bit of pressure on Collins as Van Winkle eyed a potential comeback attempt late in the race.
Instead, the 18-year-old would crash out of second place moments later, handing a massive lead to Collins as he remounted his Mountainview Motorsports Suzuki in sixth.
Collins would cruise the rest of the way to an incredible 30-second win aboard his Octagon Energy Services Suzuki, the largest margin of victory in Pro Supersport history, surpassing Jordan Szoke’s record of 27 seconds over Jean-Francois Cyr at CTMP in 2010.
“What a race! I actually had a bad start, thankfully I was able to keep Seb behind me but Andrew was keeping me honest, as he has all season really,” Collins said. “He was stressing me out a bit, I wasn’t sure how much harder I could push, but then I saw the gap jump up on my pit board and knew something happened.”
Perhaps more crucially, the win sees Collins’ championship lead grow from just nine points to now 24 over Van Winkle, who was able to salvage sixth in the end.
The devastating blows for Van Winkle and Tremblay proved to be great fortune for Alex Michel and John Laing, who were promoted to the podium places amidst an epic race-long battle of their own with Elliot Vieira.
It was initially Laing who charged through the pack after a terrible start, carving his way past Vieira and Michel and briefly matching the pace of the leaders aboard his Vass Performance Suzuki.
The home favourite would struggle to maintain that pace in the late stages, however, with Michel moving into second with six laps remaining and extending a slight cushion to match his best career result for the SpeedFactory67 Kawasaki squad.
“This smile’s going to disappear right around lap ten later,” Michel joked, with the tripleheader meaning another race later on Saturday afternoon. “I tried to put my head down and stay with John, but eventually I was faster in some corners. Once I got through I felt good, so I’m happy I could hold him off and get back on the podium.”
Laing would then have to deal with all sorts of pressure from Vieira, but it was too little too late for the GP Bikes Ducati rider as Laing held on for a popular podium – his first of the season.
“Yesterday went okay until the crash in qualifying, but we were able to get the bike fixed. I had a bad start and was down in ninth or something on lap one, but was able to climb back up to fourth in a couple laps,” Laing said. “I knew I didn’t have the pace to match them up front so I just tried to manage my time, but I think I managed a bit too hard!”
Vieira would continue his consistent run in fourth, the only rider to take a top five finish in every race this season following Van Winkle’s crash.
Rounding out the top five was rookie Laurent Laliberte-Girard, who endured a massive early battle aboard his Nadon Sport Yamaha before stretching away from the pack behind him, which included Van Winkle fending off Nathan Playford, Justin Knapik, and Mackenzie Weil across the final four laps.
The Pro Supersport class won’t have long to rest before returning to the circuit later this afternoon at RAD Torque Raceway, with race two of the weekend currently scheduled for roughly 4:30 pm MT.
Full results can be found on the series’ official website.
