The Canadian Storm continued to steal the show at the Bridgestone CSBK opener on Sunday, as Torin Collins capped off a perfect weekend with a race two victory in the Pro Supersport class at Shannonville Motorsport Park.
Collins faced far more adversity than in his runaway win on Saturday, fending off a lap one assault from defending champion Sebastien Tremblay as part of a six-rider group in the early stages.
After clearing Tremblay and resisting a charge from Trevor Daley, it was Matt Simpson who began to pose the biggest threat as he climbed his way back from a poor start to lap faster than everyone on track – including Collins out front.
Unfortunately, an incidental collision between Daley and Simpson exiting the turn five hairpin would cause a brake failure for Simpson off the end of the long back straightaway, resulting in a terrifying crash for the 2023 championship runner-up.
Simpson thankfully avoided any critical injuries and is expected to make a full recovery.
The crash would force a red flag stoppage, however, with an eight-lap restart as a result of the race not meeting half-distance.
This time it was Daley who would grab the holeshot, igniting an epic first-lap battle between himself and Collins as they traded places in turn five and down the back straightaway.
Collins would then make the race-winning move in spectacular fashion into the Allen’s chicane, barely getting his Novalda Suzuki stopped as he moved past Daley and began to stretch his lead once again.
The 19-year-old would run a comfortable pace the rest of the way to escape with a second career victory in the Supersport category, confirming himself as the favourite for the 2025 middleweight crown.
“I didn’t think I was getting the bike stopped on that pass, to be honest. I was all over the place there,” Collins laughed, before acknowledging his strong opening round with a broom gesture. “Pole position, one win, now two wins – that’s a weekend sweep!”
As for Daley, the OneSpeed Suzuki rider mounted an excellent comeback from seventh on the grid to claim an excellent runner-up finish, moving to second in the championship after round one.
“First of all, I just want to send my thoughts to Matt Simpson, I hope he’s okay. That looked pretty scary,” said Daley from the podium. “I got a great start, couldn’t quite hang with Torin but I have to give a huge thanks to Suzuki. The bike is great, and to have three of us up here is pretty awesome.”
Tremblay would take third to complete a different kind of sweep for Suzuki, as they locked out the podium thanks to the S.T. Motorsports rider. While he was unable to launch a last-lap pass on Daley, the consecutive third-place finishes will keep Tremblay’s hopes of a title defence in good shape as he takes a 17-point deficit into round two at AMP.
Elliot Vieira held onto fourth for GP Bikes Ducati after a great start of his own, running with the lead group both before and after the restart before ultimately settling into a comfortable position aboard his V2 Panigale.
Another couple of laps and Vieira may not have been as lucky, however, as the hard-charging duo of Andrew Van Winkle and Alex Michel were quickly reeling in the Ducati in the final moments.
Van Winkle would settle for an impressive fifth after starting from 12th on the grid for Mountainview Motorsports Suzuki, finishing tops amongst the “old-gen” machines on his GSX-R600.
That was just narrowly ahead of fellow old-gen rider Alex Michel, who earned an impressive sixth for SpeedFactory67 Kawasaki as he matched the pace of the leaders in the late stages aboard his ZX-6R Ninja.
The podium lockout for Suzuki will give them a commanding early lead in the Supersport Constructors Championship, while Ducati moves past Yamaha for second after Simpson’s unfortunate crash, just 45 points adrift of Suzuki thanks to the performances of Vieira and Philip DeGama-Blanchet (eighth).
The Supersport category will return for round two at Atlantic Motorsport Park in Nova Scotia, a favourite circuit of reigning champion Tremblay as he looks to chase down Collins atop the 2025 standings.
Full results can be found on the series’ official website.
