Superbike Preview: Young, Dumas usher in new era as wide-open grid heads to Shannonville
Hamilton, ON – The long offseason for the Bridgestone Canadian Superbike Championship is finally over, but the feature GP Bikes Pro Superbike class is going to look much different when they return to the track for round one this weekend at Shannonville Motorsport Park.
Two of the biggest moves in recent memory have seen the last two Canada Cup winners change programs for 2025, with reigning champion (and four-time winner) Ben Young leaving BMW after nearly a decade together to join Honda, while Dumas departs Ducati after only four rounds to take Young’s place at BMW.
The latter move was unsurprising, as the BMW Motorrad program has become synonymous with winning in Canada – taking 11 of the last 14 riders championships and three consecutive constructors titles – and Dumas will give them a great shot at continuing that success alongside last year’s runner-up Sam Guerin.
It’s Young’s switch to Honda that caught many off guard, as one of the greatest riders in CSBK history – still very much in his prime at 31 years old – will join forces with a brand that hasn’t won a single race in over ten years and has just one podium finish since 2016.
That being said, the newest iteration of the CBR1000RR-R is a significant upgrade on its predecessors, and if anyone can make an unfamiliar machine work it is likely Young, who has starred at the Daytona 200 and Suzuka 8 Hours in recent years and has an excellent Van Dolder’s Home Team crew behind him.
Young also holds an excellent record at Shannonville, winning six times (including three on the faster “pro track” layout that CSBK will be using for round one) and missing the podium only twice in 13 appearances there.
As for Dumas, the 2021 champion has also proven himself for multiple brands, winning extensively for Suzuki before taking a pair of victories for Ducati last season, a bike that proved to be very fast but was plagued with mechanical issues – a concern he likely won’t have on the factory-backed M1000RR.
Dumas’ history at SMP might seem less positive than Young’s, having famously crashed out of the title fight at this venue in 2023, but his four wins in seven career races paint a different picture, including a sweep on the pro track to begin 2023.
This means that it’s less of a question of “if” Young and Dumas will win for their new teams, and more of a matter of “when” they get up to speed – a crucial question for their title challengers entering round one.
Leading that group is Sam Guerin, one of the breakout stars of 2024 as he scored his first two career Superbike victories and finished as the vice-champion to Young in the overall standings, pushing the title fight right to the final round.
Guerin will be back aboard his familiar EFC Group BMW and will be able to build upon his 2024 setup from Shannonville, where he took a pair of second-place finishes on the pro track last season.
It was this layout where Guerin nearly scored his first career win in 2023, leading Dumas in the rain before crashing out, and he will have a golden opportunity to make up for it this season as he chases his first ever Canada Cup.
The new-look grid could also play into the hands of the winningest rider in both CSBK and Shannonville history, as Jordan Szoke will lead a retooled but mostly similar Canadian Kawasaki Motors effort.
Szoke looked the most like his old self in 2024 after suffering career-altering injuries just three seasons ago, scoring four podiums and finishing in the top-four in every single race to claim third in the overall championship.
A new and improved ZX-10RR machine, combined with improving health and fitness, will give Szoke all the tools he needs to win once again in 2025, and there may not be a better circuit for the 14-time Canada Cup winner to do so at then “The Birthplace of Champions.”
The ultimate wildcard in the championship picture will be Trevor Daley, who only contested part of the 2024 campaign and yet put together perhaps the best season of his impressive career with his first two Superbike victories for OneSpeed Suzuki.
Should Daley run the full slate of races this season, it will be impossible not to consider him a true championship contender right from day one at Shannonville, a track where he nearly swept the Supersport finale last season.
Looking to join the “big four” this season will be former Honda flag-bearer David MacKay, who may actually benefit from the addition of Young as his unofficial running mate aboard the CBR1000RR-R.
After winning the 2023 Pro Supersport championship, MacKay graduated full-time to Superbike and didn’t look out of place at all for ODH Snow City Cycle Honda, finishing in the top-six on eight occasions and fifth overall in the championship as he looks to build upon that in his second feature class campaign.
Another dark horse podium contender will be the last factory-backed machine of Connor Campbell, who will pilot the B&T MacFarlane/CKM Kawasaki as Szoke’s unofficial teammate once again in 2025.
Campbell claimed the Pro Rookie of the Year award last season by finishing seventh in the overall championship, running consistently in the top-ten all year after graduating to Superbike near the end of 2023, and an intense offseason training program may be enough to push Campbell firmly into the podium mix right away at Shannonville.
The feature class will get underway with Friday morning practice at the SMP opener, May 16-18, just an hour west of Kingston, Ontario.
More information can be found on the series’ official website.