Laliberté-Girard, Silva wrap up final support class titles on Sunday at Shannonville

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Category: CSBK News

Published on Sunday, September 1, 2024 18:38 EDT

Written by Cam Bickle

The final two Bridgestone CSBK champions of 2024 were officially crowned on Sunday, as Laurent Laliberté-Girard and Sebastian Silva claimed titles in a thrilling day of support class action at Shannonville Motorsport Park.

Laliberté-Girard came out on top of the most nerve-wracking championship fight of the season, overcoming his three-point deficit to claim the EBC Brakes Amateur Sport Bike title over Serge Boyer.

After winning race one, “LLG” quickly found himself at the front again as he battled with Scott Szollos, who was fighting hard to overcome a jump start penalty.

Szollos would eventually charge clear of the field and win by over six seconds, a big enough cushion to retain the victory, but all eyes were on the championship scrap going on further down the order.

Laliberté-Girard would fall to third and right into the clutches of Boyer in fourth, a result that would have handed Boyer the trophy off a tie-breaker, but Laliberté-Girard managed to fight back past Matthew Hooper on the final lap and claim second.

That was enough to give him the #1 plate by only four points in the year-end total, completing a spectacular comeback for the Tactical Products Yamaha team as he took 45 out of a possible 50 points in the finale.

The other champion to be crowned came in the amateur split of the Importations Thibault Pro-AM Twins class, as Sebastian Silva brought home his first career national title.

Unlike in Amateur Sport Bike, it was the fight at the front that overshadowed the math in the standings, as pro veterans J.P. Tache and Jean-Francois Cyr went head-to-head in a spectacular battle throughout the race.

The pair of former Pro Superbike riders put plenty of pressure on each other but ultimately it was Tache who spoiled Cyr’s return to racing, taking his third victory in a row and fifth in the last six races.

Pro champion Dallas Reynolds would finish third in another Aprilia lockout, though it was Silva who did enough in eighth overall to escape with the amateur title over Vincent Wilson, while Julia Krans recorded another amateur victory in seventh overall.

Tyrone Tavares completed his perfect weekend in the AIM Insurance Amateur Superbike class, taking his third win of the season to clinch a pro birth for 2025.

The round one winner took pole and a race one victory before completing the 54-point weekend on Sunday, cruising clear of Denis Giguere as he claims third in the championship behind champion Goran Radisic (who advanced early to the pro ranks) and the absent Tyler Brewer.

Giguere would fend off a strong attack from Szollos to finish second, with the latter taking a pair of podiums on the day as Boyer settled for another fourth-place finish.

The Super Sonic Road Race School Pro-AM Lightweight class featured a memorable shootout between pro Stacey Nesbitt and amateur Treston Morrison, with Nesbitt taking the outright victory to end the year.

The pair didn’t hold any punches as they pulled away from the field, each making a number of impressive moves before Morrison began to stretch a slight gap at the front.

Unfortunately, the 14-year-old would crash out of the lead and hand the victory back to Nesbitt, who won her third pro race of the year but first in outright fashion on the combined grid.

Amateur champion Ryan Beattie would claim second overall and his seventh amateur victory of the season, coming out on top of an equally thrilling battle with race one winner Cole Alexander.

Jean-Pascal Schroeder celebrated his amateur Niagara Race Crafters Ninja ZX-4RR Cup championship with another outright victory, defeating pro champion Mackenzie Weil to extend his final points lead.

Schroder will end the year with six consecutive wins to go along with his #1 plate, while Weil exits the campaign with eleven victories across 12 races in the inaugural class, finishing ahead of pro championship runner-up Dave Walker again on Sunday.