Young overcomes early battle to take debut Sport Bike win at CSBK opener in Shannonville

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Category: CSBK News

Published on Saturday, May 18, 2024 14:51 EDT

Written by Cam Bickle

Reigning Bridgestone Canadian Superbike Championship winner Ben Young added a new accolade to his resumé on Saturday, taking his first career Economy Lube Pro Sport Bike victory in the season opener at Shannonville Motorsport Park, presented by the Fallen Rider Support Team sponsored by Pace Law.

It was anything but a straightforward win for Young, however, as Elliot Vieira grabbed the holeshot and stormed out to an early lead with 2021 champion Sebastien Tremblay moving up to second. 

Vieira initially began to stretch out his lead before Tremblay and Young reeled him in by lap four, setting up a brilliant battle for the lead as they distanced themselves from the rest of the field. 

It was on lap four where Young wasted no time in making his moves, though, out-breaking both riders as they went three-wide off the back straightaway, allowing rookie Mavrick Cyr and John Laing to briefly re-join the fight at the front.

The group of five began to thin out over the next handful of laps, with Young eventually squeezing out a one-second advantage while Vieira faded back to a comfortable third. 

Tremblay started to cut into that gap with six laps to go, shrinking the deficit to around 0.7 seconds behind a pair of fast laps, but Young promptly responded as he successfully held off the pre-season favourite to escape with his first career Pro Sport Bike victory.

It was a long-overdue result for the three-time Superbike champion, who carved out an excellent Sport Bike career between 2013-2015 but never managed to take the top step of the podium before switching to the feature class.

“It feels good to be back in Sport Bike. I had a lot of fun battling with my buddies Jodi Christie and Kenny Riedmann back in the day, and now I get to fight with these two,” Young said, referencing Tremblay and Vieira. “Sebastien wouldn’t let me back off at all, he pushed us the whole way, but fortunately I was able to bring it home for the team and reward them for all their hard work.”

While Tremblay will be disappointed to begin the year from second, the Turcotte Performance Suzuki team will have some comfort in knowing he can run with Young right until the end – not an easy feat against the Canada Cup champion. 

“The pace was good once we settled in behind Ben, but he was really on it today,” Tremblay said. “I tried to reel him in at the end and just didn’t have enough, but we’re happy to be here and build towards race two tomorrow.”

It was a similar result for Vieira, who was forced to settle for third after his brilliant start but will be pleased to start the 2024 campaign with a podium after missing last year’s opener for the GP Bikes Ducati team.

While the top three distanced themselves after the early battle, the fight for fourth went almost right to the finish, as Cyr and Laing continued their scrap for the final spots in the top-five.

Cyr would lead most of the early portion before Laing pushed past the Rizzin Racing Triumph rookie, snatching fourth around the midway point. Cyr nearly mounted a late comeback as the two closed back together in the final laps, but Laing would hold onto fourth aboard his Vass Performance Kawasaki.

Nathan Playford was unable to improve upon his career-best qualifying result of fourth but still managed to exit race one with a strong sixth, fending off a fierce late duel with rookie Philip Degama-Blanchet aboard his Playford Company Ducati.

Degama-Blanchet would settle for seventh, an excellent pro debut for the 17-year-old for Vass Performance Kawasaki, while Zoltan Frast got the best of a thrilling seven-rider battle for eighth aboard his Eurorace Kawasaki machine.

Completing the top ten in race one was local riders Sean Latta and Rob Massicotte, who will hope to carry the momentum into race two on Sunday for Latta Racing Suzuki and Lean Angle Yamaha, respectively.

The debut of the new Pro Sport Bike Constructors championship will begin with plenty of momentum for Suzuki, as they exit with a maximum 45 points thanks to their one-two finish on Saturday.

Vieira’s podium and Playford’s sixth-place result would prove to be a big boost for Ducati’s hopes, however, while Kawasaki countered with solid performances from Laing and Degama-Blanchet to sit third entering the second half of the weekend doubleheader.

The full results from Saturday’s race can be found here.