The Canadian Superbike Championship will have plenty of hardware to hand out this weekend, as three support classes remain up for grabs entering the third and final round at Calabogie Motorsports Park, September 17-18.
While all eyes will be on the nail-biting championship battle in the Pro Superbike feature class, there are still three other National champions to be crowned for the 2021 season, including one thrilling showdown in the AIM Insurance Amateur Superbike category.
Pascal Bastien will lead that championship by ten points entering the second trip to Calabogie this season, thanks in large part to a crash from title rival Anthony Bergeron in race one at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park. Bastien took advantage of the golden opportunity in front of him, winning that race before settling for third in race two to exit with a narrow advantage atop the standings.
Bergeron has kept his championship hopes alive with a pair of victories, however, the first of which came in round at the same circuit he returns to this weekend. The privateer BMW rider will have ground to make up on Bastien, but will enter with the momentum after claiming his second victory in race two at CTMP.
Also in the title fight will be Alex Cleary and Pierre Simard, who sit 28 and 29 points behind Bastien, respectively. Cleary crashed out of the opening round but responded with a pair of second place finishes in round two, while Simard improved upon a disappointing ninth-place finish at Calabogie to end up third and fifth in CTMP.
Sebastian Tremblay will hope to wrap up the most high-profile of the support classes on Friday, as he takes a commanding 46-point lead into the season ending doubleheader for the Liqui Moly Sport Bike class.
Tremblay dominated both the opening round and race one at CTMP, and would have had a strong chance at clinching the championship in race two that weekend, but that race was unfortunately postponed to the third and final round.
The Turcotte Performance Kawasaki rider will be doing double-duty as he also contests the feature Pro Superbike class, but his primary focus remains on wrapping up his first career middleweight crown.
The battle for “vice-champion” in the Sport Bike class will be a wide-open one, as Vincent Levillian will enter the doubleheader with a slim grasp on second as just 26 points separates the next seven riders. The Édonia Signature Kawasaki rider benefitted from penalties ahead of him to finish third at CTMP, but will have a shot at repeating that finish after claiming a career-best second at Calabogie a year ago.
Right behind Levillian in the standings will be a pair of Ontario-born youngsters in Jake Leclair and David Mackay, who sit tied with 57 points and just nine behind Levillian. The former has enjoyed a solid rookie Pro season for bLU cRU Yamaha, finishing fourth in his debut at Calabogie before settling for seventh at his home race at CTMP.
Mackay, meanwhile, scored a solid seventh in the season opener before taking an eventful fifth at CTMP. The Mack Attack Kawasaki rider claimed fifth on track before being given a two-place grid penalty, but a pair of penalties in front of him meant he retained fifth and crucially exited round two tied with Leclair.
The third and final support championship to be decided will be the Super Sonic Race School Lightweight class, where teenager Mackenzie Weil takes a decisive 77-point advantage into the doubleheader with 108 points on the board.
Weil has been dominant in the 2021 campaign, scoring 210 out of a possible 216 points as he has won all four races across Calabogie and CTMP. However, the results have been closer than they appear on circuit, as the MotorcycleCourse.com Kawasaki rider has battled on numerous occasions with rivals Jacob Black and Paul Etienne Courtois.
Black remains the closest threat to Weil, albeit a distant one, as he has finished second in three of the four races to keep his slim championship hopes alive. The Australian native saw his title bid derailed after he was taken out in race two at Calabogie, but he remains in strong position to claim second for the Canadian Kawasaki Motors team.
The only champion to be named already, Brad Macrea will take an insurmountable 62-point advantage into the finale of the Amateur Sport Bike season, though his focus for the weekend may lie in the Amateur Superbike class or even an early jump to the Pro ranks.
Macrae has scored the maximum 164 points this season with a pair of pole positions and three consecutive victories, and the Yamaha rider will exit with a championship in hand regardless of his focus in round three, though there remains a close battle behind him to decide the runner-up spot.
Nathan Playford will carry that honour into the final weekend after finishing third in round one and grabbing a pair of fourth-place finishes in round two, but the Honda rider sits just three points ahead of Suzuki’s Nickolas Zangari in third and 12 points clear of teenager Matthew Simpson in fourth.
Simpson may be the biggest threat for that spot, however, as a pivotal round two crash has been the only blemish in his championship bid after the Yamaha rider took second in both the first and third races of the season.
The full standings and schedule for the four support classes can be found on the official website at csbk.ca.
- From Professional Motorsports Productions
<
