The 102nd running of the famous Loudon Classic featured strong performances from a pair of Bridgestone CSBK stars this weekend, as both Jordan Szoke and Mavrick Cyr left New Hampshire Motor Speedway with excellent results on Saturday.
Szoke headlined a two-class effort for Economy Lube HSBK Celtic Ducati, piloting a V2 Panigale in the feature, $400,000 purse event as well as a new V2 Streetfighter machine, supported heavily by Bridgestone, Importations Thibault, and renowned tuner Scott Miller.
Cyr, meanwhile, did double-duty for Octo Racing aboard his Triumph 675R in the main race as well as riding an Aprilia RS660 in the Thunderbike category.
While Szoke faced the tough task of learning his new Ducati machine on the fly and with limited practice time, the 14-time Canada Cup winner immediately got up to speed, provisionally qualifying eleventh out of 37 entries on Friday before the final portion of qualifying was rained out.
Szoke’s pace would put him just a second off the front two rows, an impressive feat in what was another deep field full of MotoAmerica stars such as Tyler Scott, Brandon Paasch, and Jake Lewis, amongst others.
Cyr would qualify 25th for the feature race, but managed an incredible fourth on the grid for the Thunderbike division out of 20 entries. Szoke, meanwhile, would put his Streetfighter machine seventh out of 17 riders.
After a brief delay due to morning rain, the feature race would get underway on Saturday afternoon with Szoke slipping to the back of a crowded battle in 17th, while Cyr made up three spots to 22nd.
Szoke would begin climbing his way up the order by lap four, however, gradually chipping away at the group ahead of him to move into the top-ten by the midway point of the race, matching the pace of the top-five runners in clean air but a distant eight seconds to the riders ahead.
The Brantford, Ontario native would eventually cut that deficit down to just under a second by the penultimate lap, before making a last-lap move on Jacob Crossman to wind up an impressive ninth at the finish line and just one place behind two-time Daytona 200 winner Brandon Paasch in eighth.
As for Cyr, the 20-year-old out of Quebec City didn’t make the same mid-race progress as Szoke but would run a clean effort in his first ever appearance at the Loudon Classic, finishing 18th after making up three places in the last ten laps.
The race was won by pole-sitter Tyler Scott of Vision Wheel M4 Suzuki, with Joseph Limandri Jr. and Jake Lewis joining him on the podium.
The day would get much better for Cyr in the Thunderbike division, where he managed to improve upon his fourth-place spot on the grid to secure a podium finish in third, narrowly beating Brett Guyer in a race won by Adam Guyer.
As for Szoke’s first-ever Streetfighter appearance, he would also manage to find a bit more pace on race day to climb to fifth at the finish, just behind the duo of Shane Narbonne and Gus Rodio in a race won by Dominic Doyle.
For their efforts, Szoke will exit New Hampshire with $14,300 in purse money ($9300 for the Loudon Classic, and $5000 for the Streetfighter class), while Cyr will collect $3750 for his performances on Saturday ($2750 for the feature race and $1000 for Thunderbike).
Also in attendance at the event was former CSBK top pro Chris Peris, who qualified one spot behind Szoke in 12th for the feature Loudon Classic before finishing eleventh for Suzuki.
Full results from the event can be found on the Roadracing World website.
For more information on the Bridgestone Canadian Superbike Championship, visit www.csbk.ca or email info@csbk.ca.