Shubenacadie, NS – The Pro Supersport title fight was blown wide open in Atlantic Motorsport Park on Saturday, as Andrew Van Winkle won an incident-filled race to begin the second round of the Bridgestone Canadian Superbike Championship.
Starting from the second row in fourth, Van Winkle got a sensational launch aboard his Mountainview Motorsports Suzuki and powered around the outside of the leaders down the hill into turn two, snatching the holeshot from Alex Michel and Torin Collins.
Collins was visibly struggling for pace in the opening corners of what was a damp but drying track, going side by side with reigning champion Sebastien Tremblay into turn four just as John Laing tried to make a bold move on the pair of them, colliding with Tremblay and knocking all three riders down.
That briefly promoted Trevor Daley into the podium places, only for him to then crash moments later in turn eight, handing third to Elliot Vieira and creating a huge gap behind leaders Van Winkle and Michel.
That duo would set off at the front while Vieira defended from rookie Laurent Laliberte-Girard, with Mackenzie Weil leading the next group in fifth. Each of Collins, Tremblay, and Daley would remount, complicating things as a spread-out field on differing lap counts meant plenty of traffic for the leaders.
Van Winkle looked set to be the runaway winner before Michel gradually reeled him back in by lap five, lapping much quicker but struggling to find a place to pass around the tight and twisty AMP circuit.
Michel appeared to be sizing up moves into turn one and turn four when the duo hit lapped traffic with seven laps remaining, an opportunity that Van Winkle expertly used to his advantage as he immediately dove up the inside of the rider into turn nine, putting him between himself and Michel and building a slight cushion in the following corners.
That would prove to be decisive move, as Van Winkle quickly hammered out his fastest laps of the race to stretch out a three-second advantage over Michel with three laps to go, cruising the rest of the way for his second career victory and climbing to within four points of the championship lead.
“I’m so happy to be up here, that was wild. I got a great start around the outside of everyone, but I could hear Alex right behind me so it wasn’t easy,” said the 18-year-old Van Winkle. “I was biding my time a little bit with the lappers, and then I was able to put them between us which really helped.”
While the strategic move spoiled Michel’s chance at a first career pro victory, the SpeedFactory67 Kawasaki rider did manage to convert his second-place spot on the grid into a second career Supersport podium, his first since CTMP in 2023.
“I got a great start, and I really thought I’d have a shot at Andrew in a couple places, but traffic slowed me down a bit,” Michel admitted. “I’m still very happy just to be back on the podium. Last year didn’t go so great for us, so it feels great to be here again.”
While Van Winkle and Michel were already clear of the lap one chaos behind them, the biggest beneficiaries were Vieira and Laliberte-Girard, who were promoted into a battle for the final podium spot after starting seventh and ninth on the grid.
Laliberte-Girard would prove to have all the late pace as the track dried, lapping better than anyone besides Van Winkle in the closing stages as he carved his way past Vieira and into a stunning third place finish, a result the reigning Amateur Supersport champion didn’t even know he earned until after the race.
“Everyone crashed in front of me, and I lost count of where I was. I just figured I’d try and catch Vieira and finish where I finish,” he said. “I honestly didn’t believe it when they told me I was third! I can’t really repeat what I said.”
The sensational finish for the Nadon Sport Yamaha rider locked out an all “old gen” podium in the new era of Supersport racing, with Van Winkle sporting a GSX-R600 alongside Michel’s ZX-6RR Ninja and the YZF-R6 of Laliberte-Girard, the first time a “next-gen” machine has missed the podium since the new rules were adopted in 2023.
Vieira would hang on to fourth as the lead “next-gen” rider for the GP Bikes Ducati team, with Nathan Playford charging to a strong fifth after running off behind the lap one chaos, a great comeback effort for the Playford Company Ducati rider.
Daley would do the best salvage job of any of the lap one crashers, remounting and rocketing up the leaderboard to somehow claim sixth, a crucial result for the championship and an incredible ride aboard his OneSpeed Suzuki.
However, Daley was unfortunately injured in the crash, making his performance even more impressive but putting his status for race two on Sunday in doubt.
Marco Sousa would claim seventh aboard his Suzuki Canada machine, overtaking Weil after the Snow City Cycle Kawasaki rider had to briefly enter the pits to fix a mechanical issue, while Tremblay remounted and salvaged ninth to keep his hopes of a title defence in relatively decent shape for S.T. Motosport Suzuki.
Collins was less fortunate, picking his Novalda Suzuki back up and finishing the race but failing to do so within the 70% cutoff to be classified as a point scorer, completing only ten of the 18 scheduled laps.
Despite the DNF, the pole-sitter will somehow retain his championship lead entering race two on Sunday, though with just 13 points covering five riders at the top of the table.
The Supersport class will try to put the chaos behind them as they look ahead to race two, scheduled for roughly 1 pm AT on Sunday at Atlantic Motorsport, just 45 minutes north of Halifax.
Full results can be found on the series’ official website.
For more information on the Bridgestone Canadian Superbike Championship, visit www.csbk.ca or email info@csbk.ca.
