The wet conditions couldn’t dampen the spirits of the usual support class leaders on Friday, as a number of familiar stars headlined the action to begin round five of the Bridgestone Canadian Superbike Championship at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park.
Tyler Brewer dominated the AIM Insurance Amateur Superbike session, cruising to a second pole position of the year by over two seconds.
The Yamaha rider looked far more comfortable than the rest of the field in the tricky conditions, securing a crucial edge over championship leader Goran Radisic in second.
Radisic will see his title grasp slip to 32 points, but still with an excellent shot at continuing his run of top-two finishes aboard the PMR BMW. Jeff Barnard completed the front row for Kawasaki, matching his best qualifying result of the season.
Nolan Eadie secured a first career pole position in the EBC Brakes Amateur Sport Bike class, putting an equally comfortable distance between himself and Barnard in second.
Eadie is making his season debut at CTMP and will look to exit with a maiden national podium this weekend, bettering the Yamaha rider’s best career finish of fourth from 2022.
As for Barnard, his hopes of a double-victory will be in firm contention from the middle of row one, while Denis Giguere kept his championship hopes alive with a strong third-place result in qualifying.
Championship leader Serge Boyer had to settle for a disappointing sixth on the grid, though title rival Laurent Laliberté-Girard also struggled to 12th in qualifying on Friday.
Vincent Wilson added yet another pole position to his resumé in the Importations Thibault Pro-Am Twins category, inching closer to an amateur title as he narrowly out-qualified top pro Dallas Reynolds.
Wilson would wind up well clear of next-best amateur Julia Krans, but only 0.143 seconds ahead of Reynolds for outright pole on the combined grid, extending his points lead to 62.
As for Reynolds, the pro championship leader will start second overall but effectively secure pole in his division and crucially one row ahead of title rival Craig Atkinson, who could only manage fourth amongst the pro split and fifth overall for Acme Yamaha.
Mack Weil celebrated his championship in the Niagara Race Crafters Ninja ZX-4RR Cup with a pole position award, having clinched the pro title last time out in AMP.
Weil has an insurmountable 121-point lead over Dave Walker but will have plenty to race for on-track against both Walker and lead amateur Jean-Pascal Schroeder, who will start second overall as he tries to erase his 14-point championship deficit in the amateur split.
Jacob Black earned his first outright pole position of the season in Super Sonic Road Race School Pro-Am Lightweight qualifying, narrowly besting reigning pro champion Stacey Nesbitt and top amateur Baillie Ives.
Nesbitt has yet to race this season and mathematically cannot defend her title, but will try to kick off her year with a pro victory as she battles with Black and Cameron Walker (fourth overall) this weekend, amongst others.
As for Ives, the Nova Scotian continued to own all the momentum in the amateur division as he outpaced championship leader Ryan Beattie by over a second, taking effective pole in the amateur split and starting third overall while Beattie starts fifth.
The support class action is expected to kick off their doubleheader at roughly 1:45 pm ET on Saturday with EBC Brakes Amateur Sport Bike up first, in what is shaping up to be an action-packed weekend at CTMP, just an hour east of Toronto.
Full results can be found on the series’ official website.