Dumas takes maiden Superbike win in Race One, Tremblay dominates Pro Sport Bike at Calabogie

Toronto, ON – The opening race of the 2021 Canadian Superbike Championship churned out a surprising result on Sunday, as rookie Alex Dumas scored his first career Pro Superbike victory in his debut race at Calabogie Motorsports Park.

The 18-year-old quickly made up for a poor qualifying as he got a terrific jump from the second row, placing his Liqui Moly Suzuki GSX-R1000 squarely behind reigning champion Jordan Szoke and his Canada General Warranty Kawasaki ZX-10R Ninja on lap one. Szoke managed to hold off Dumas for much of the opening laps, before the rookie made the decisive move in turn five on lap three.

His once-insurmountable gap began to come under fire in the dying moments, however, as pole-sitter Ben Young overcame a brutal start to charge his way through the field and past Szoke, with the 2019 champion lapping quicker than Dumas for much of the second half before running out of time on his Van Dolder’s Home Team BMW S1000RR.

Dumas becomes the first rider in CSBK history to ever win their Pro Superbike debut, a feat no one has accomplished in the first 42-year history of the series, in what was also his first ever CSBK race.

It was a disappointing result for Young, but one he would have been happy to take after his disaster start off the grid, as he dropped back as low as sixth on the opening lap and at the back of the lead group.

Szoke, meanwhile, was forced to settle for third and the final podium spot to begin his title defence, as his strong start was undone by heavy pressure from Dumas and Young throughout the race. The third-place finish was amazingly Szoke’s worst career race at CMP, snapping a five-race unbeaten streak at the circuit.

Another few laps may have seen Szoke come under pressure from another Suzuki rider in Trevor Daley, who found front-running pace in the second half to charge through the lead pack on his OneSpeed machine.

Completing the top-five in race one was Tomas Casas, who was unable to build any momentum off his career-best qualifying performance of second on Saturday. Casas managed to hang with Szoke and Dumas in the early stages, but ultimately faded aboard his Parts Canada Yamaha to settle for fifth.

The race one results also give Suzuki an early advantage in the new Constructors Championship, as Dumas and Daley provided some early momentum entering race two on Sunday afternoon.

Sebastian Tremblay also took home some early hardware in the Liqui Moly Pro Sport Bike category, overcoming a surprising lap one deficit to teammate Christian Allard to win the opening race of the season.

The Turcotte Performance Kawasaki rider initially grabbed the holeshot before the race was red flagged on lap one, and the advantage on the restart went to Allard as he paced Tremblay through most of the opening lap. An early pass for the lead was ultimately the decisive one, however, as Tremblay cruised to a two-second victory and demonstrated why he is the overwhelming favourite for the 2021 title.

Allard’s early push was perhaps his undoing, as he faded towards the end to allow Phillippe Masse into second as the duo completed an all-Quebec and all-Kawasaki podium in the middleweight class.

Masse was emotional on the podium, as he captured his best career Pro finish after dealing with mechanical problems earlier in the week and making sporadic appearances over the last few seasons.

Notably finishing fourth in the Sport Bike category was rookie Jake Leclair, who settled in nicely behind the lead group in his Pro debut aboard his bLU cRU Yamaha machine.

Full results from race one on Sunday, and the schedule for the rest of the afternoon’s racing, can be found on the series’ official website at www.csbk.ca.

More, from another press release issued by CSBK/Professional Motorsports Productions (PMP):

Dumas wins thrilling battle in Race Two to sweep CSBK opener at Calabogie

Toronto, ON – Teenage sensation Alex Dumas continued his winning ways at Calabogie Motorsports Park on Sunday, winning race two of the Pro Superbike doubleheader to sweep round one of the Canadian Superbike Championship.

Though the top-five finishers are identical to race one earlier in the day, the results were under much different circumstances in race two, as Dumas found himself trailing pole-sitter Ben Young for most of the early portion amidst a seven-rider battle.

However, the 18-year-old managed to find a little extra pace by the midway point, moving his Liqui Moly Suzuki GSX-R1000 into the lead and relegating Young to second once again. Young was able to maintain the gap aboard his Van Dolder’s Home Team BMW S1000RR, and even seemed poised for a last-lap maneuver, but it wasn’t in the cards as Dumas ended his historic debut weekend with another victory.

“The crash in qualifying was a bit of a setback, but we had two strong starts and now two wins, which is pretty amazing,” Dumas said. “Ben pushed me really hard in that second race, but everything worked perfectly. I really love racing Superbikes.”

Young will now leave Calabogie trailing Dumas by 17 points in the championship battle, and although he will head to round two expecting better results, the 2019 champion easily squashed any idea that he would be rusty in his return after a season off.

“There was a bit of a question mark, with a new bike and not having raced in nearly two years, but the BMW was amazing, and I didn’t really feel like I lost anything,” Young said. “I almost had Alex on the last lap, but it’s so hard to pass here. I look forward to watching that second race on TSN, because it was a lot of fun.

Reigning champion Jordan Szoke was in the mix for the entire race as well, consistently lapping close to Dumas and Young aboard his Canada General Warranty Kawasaki ZX-10R Ninja, but he was unable to capitalize on the two riders ahead of him as he will exit round two with a 29-point deficit.

“I was struggling with grip out there which was really hurting our drive, but I thought our corner speed was really strong. The new Kawasaki’s were phenomenal, so I think we’ll get better as the season goes on,” Szoke said. “Alex has been riding really well in the U.S., and obviously those are some of the best guys in the world, but we aren’t slow up here either.”

Continuing the trend of copycat results in fourth was Trevor Daley, who salvaged another solid performance on his OneSpeed Suzuki machine and helped extend Suzuki’s lead atop the Constructors Standings.

Rounding out the top-five for the second time on Sunday was Tomas Casas, who showed better pace in the second half of the doubleheader but still was unable to find the podium for Parts Canada Yamaha.

Suzuki will exit round one with a 30-point advantage over BMW in the new Constructors Championship, with Kawasaki just an additional 10 points behind, while Dumas takes a commanding 65-point lead in the Brooklin Cycle Racing Pro Rookie of the Year fight.

Anthony Bergeron won the season opener in the MotorcycleCourse Amateur Superbike category, benefitting from a late red flag that handed the Racine, QC native an early championship advantage for BMW.

Guillaume Lavallee and a hard-charging Julien Lafortune rounded out the all-Quebec podium, with Lafortune setting a new lap record in the process, as Bergeron will lead Lavallee by ten points and Lafortune by eleven in the series table.

Mackenzie Weil unofficially won race two of the Super Sonic Road Race School Lightweight Sport Bike class on Sunday, though the results of the incident-filled race were subject to post-race protest.

Weil came away as the winner and therefore the championship leader aboard his Kawasaki, though a last-lap crash involving a number of riders led to a controversial finish behind him at CMP. Mavrick Cyr was demoted one place to third for his part in the incident and placed on probation by CSBK officials, while Jean-Francois Croteau was promoted to second after the flag.

The full results from Sunday’s race and all of the weekend’s action can be found on the series’ official website at www.csbk.ca.

Young storms to Superbike pole, Tremblay smashes Sport Bike record on day one at Calabogie

Toronto, ON – The Canadian Superbike Championship kicked off day one of its 2021 season in stunning fashion on Saturday, as 2019 champion Ben Young crushed the Pro Superbike field in his return to racing at Calabogie Motorsports Park.

The Van Dolder’s Home Team BMW rider had some rust to shake off after nearly two full years away from the series, running nearly a full second off the pace in the morning practice sessions. Young quickly found his championship form in qualifying, however, as he posted a time of 2:02.436 to snatch his seventh career Yuasa Batteries Pole Position by a healthy 0.749 second margin.

Following Young and starting from the middle of the front row on Sunday will be Tomas Casas, who earned a career-best qualifying in second place as he also made his return after a year off from CSBK. The Parts Canada Yamaha rider narrowly edged reigning champion Jordan Szoke in third, with just 0.097 seconds separating the two.

Szoke’s championship defense will see him start from the end of the front row aboard his Canada General Warranty Kawasaki, as the 14-time National title-winner looks to claim his sixth consecutive victory at Calabogie in race one on Sunday.

Leading off the second row will be highly touted rookie Alex Dumas, who overcame a disastrous qualifying session to salvage fourth at the chequered flag. The Liqui Moly Suzuki teenager crashed on his out lap and later had laps removed for violating pitlane procedures, but he was still able to post a time of 2:03.717 in the final seconds to vault himself inside the top-five and mark four different manufacturers amongst the top four.

Dumas’ final lap displaced a terrific effort from Sebastian Tremblay, who will start fifth aboard his lesser-powered 600cc Turcotte Performance Kawasaki. The fan-favourite posted a time of 2:03.847, which would have crushed his own Sport Bike lap record that he posted earlier in the day.

Headlining the third row and starting from sixth on Sunday will be last year’s runner-up Samuel Guerin, who struggled aboard his EFC Group BMW but still managed to place himself inside the front two rows for Sunday’s doubleheader.

Young’s pole time will also make him the early frontrunner in the Yuasa Batteries Pole Position award standings, as he’ll take an early advantage over Casas and Szoke in that category regardless of Sunday’s results.

Tremblay’s stellar Saturday was followed by a historic outing in Liqui Moly Pro Sport Bike, as he claimed pole position by over a second-and-a-half to smash the qualifying lap record, though his Superbike time was nearly a second better than his lap of 2:04.741 aboard the same machine.

Last year’s double race-winner is the consensus favourite to win the Sport Bike category and his first Pro championship in 2021, and he showed why on Saturday as he finished well clear of Turcotte Performance teammate Christian Allard in second.

Allard headlined what should be a close battle for second place, with the next five riders after Tremblay separated by just a second. David MacKay completed a Kawasaki front row lockout aboard his Mack Attack Racing machine, while Elliott Vieira placed his Snow City Yamaha in fourth to lead off the second row.

Julien Lafortune will start from pole position in the MotorcycleCourse Amateur Superbike category on Sunday, as the Nicolet, QC rider crushed the rest of the field by nearly an entire second, with Alexandre Cleary centering the front row in second place.

Brad Macrae became the first race winner of the 2021 National campaign, dominating the Brooklin Cycle Racing Amateur Sport Bike class with a clean sweep of pole position and the victory on Saturday.

The Perth Road, ON native held off a brief challenge from Bowmanville teenager Matthew Simpson, who settled for second in his Sport Bike debut after making the jump from the Lightweight class, while Nathan Playford completed the podium in the season opener at CMP.

The other event to run on Saturday was won by teenager Mackenzie Weil, who led start to finish in race one of the Super Sonic Road Race School Lightweight Sport Bike doubleheader to take an early championship lead aboard his MotorcycleCourse Kawasaki.

Weil was challenged closely by Jacob Black throughout the race, but Black’s last-lap pass attempt on the youngster nearly took both riders out as the enigmatic Australian was forced to settle for second.

“Things got a little squirrely at the end there, which was a bit disconcerting for both of us,” Black said, before dropping the quote of the weekend. “I just gotta’ have a beer, change my pants and go for the win tomorrow!”

Mike Maguire completed the podium in the first half of the doubleheader, benefitting from a late crash from Raphael Lacasse-Linteau who was in the lead group with Weil and Black until the penultimate lap.

Sunday’s action at Calabogie Motorsports Park will include a pair of races in the Pro Superbike feature class, as the full schedule – including Saturday’s results – can be found online at the series’ official website at www.csbk.ca.