A pair of national champions were crowned and plenty more title fights ramped up on Saturday in the support classes, with five categories delivering more thrilling action on the penultimate day of the Bridgestone CSBK season at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park.
Most of the attention was on the pair of championship battles in the Amateur ranks, where Cole Alexander had a chance to clinch the AIM Insurance Amateur Superbike title as well as build upon his three-point lead in the EBC Brake Amateur Supersport division.
Instead, it was a former champion grabbing the headlines in the Superbike class as Ryan Beattie produced one of the most dominant victories of the season, winning by over 15 seconds in his first race of the campaign aboard his EFC Group BMW.
Beattie blitzed his way to pole on Friday and had even more up his sleeve in race one, as the 17-year-old reigning Lightweight champion immediately cruised clear of the field and set a new lap record en route to the runaway win – a time of 1:23.748 that would have put him roughly seventh-quickest in today’s Pro Superbike race.
“I got to give a huge thanks to EFC Group, and Mario and Sam (Guerin) for this opportunity,” Beattie said, part of a massive two-win day for the EFC Group BMW team after Guerin’s pivotal win in the feature class. “I just tried to put in some good laps and manage things. It was a lot of fun!”
The battle for second was much closer, with round four wildcards Jason Thoms and John Cadman dueling for the final podium places.
Thoms would finish second on-track aboard his BMW, but the Ducati-mounted Cadman would inherit the position after Thoms was dealt a five-second jump start penalty, knocking him back to third but still keeping him on the podium.
The added storyline was the championship battle further down the order, where Zaim Laflamme crucially kept his hopes alive with a fifth-place finish. The Octo Racing Triumph rider still holds a 21-point deficit to Alexander, but managed to keep a bit of pressure on the frontrunner after Alexander could only muster seventh.
It would be a much different outcome for Alexander in the Supersport ranks, where he inched slightly closer to becoming a potential double-champion with a crucial victory over Laflamme.
The 18-year-old Alexander had just a three-point lead entering the day but more than doubled that with his nail-biting fifth win of the campaign, extending an eight-point advantage after Laflamme was unable to make a last-lap move in the 0.362 second loss.
Laflamme remains firmly in contention entering race two on Sunday, though he will need a major mistake from Alexander as he can win the championship with a second-place finish, a reasonable expectation after the duo finished 25 seconds clear of Nicolas Audet in third.
The first champion of the year was crowned in the Super Sonic Road Race School Lightweight Sportbike class, where Dante Bucek was officially rewarded with his #1 plate to cap off a dominant year in the junior category.
“Last year was pretty awkward for us, so to tell me I’d win the championship this year and after only round three – it feels unreal. I genuinely can’t believe it,” Bucek said.
The 16-year-old wasn’t able to celebrate his trophy from the top step of the podium, however, as he came out on the losing end of a dramatic last-lap battle with first time national winner Jorbert Joo.
Joo was amidst a four-rider group at the front for majority of the race before he and Bucek began to separate, with Bucek leading onto the final lap as he eyed a fifth win of the year and third in a row.
Instead, Joo would out-muscle the youngster in the second half of the lap before winning a drag-race to the line, beating Bucek by only 0.019 seconds in one of the closest finishes in CSBK history.
Bucek would maintain his streak of top-two finishes while Jared Walker came out on top in the battle for the final podium place, fending off former pro champion Gary McKinnon in their own close duel after the pair lost track of Bucek and Joo late in the race.
Walker’s strong day would continue with a victory in the Kawasaki ZX-4RR Cup class, overcoming an early push to cruise to his third win of the season, though the attention in that class was on the second national champion to be crowned in Jacob Black.
Black missed the podium in fourth but finished one spot ahead of Jean-Pascal Schroeder to secure an emotional title, the first of his career.
Joining Walker on the podium in his place was Edmonton winner Rob Cousineau and the aforementioned McKinnon, who hopped on the bike for the first time on Friday and instantly found himself at the front of the field.
More championship celebrations were denied in the Importations Thibault Twins Cup class, as Bucek added to his haul with a much-needed victory over rival and championship leader J.P. Tache.
Tache and pole-sitter Louie Raffa battled early on while Bucek tried to recover from his rollercoaster opening lap, going quicker than the veteran duo but with time to make up.
He would eventually continue his march into the lead at the halfway point, though Tache hung around to the finish to set up a potentially championship-awarding battle on the final lap.
Bucek would prevent that pass from materializing, however, escaping with the victory to cut his deficit to 15 points behind Tache entering the final race on Sunday.
The final five national championships of the support classes will now be handed out in the last day of the season on Sunday, scheduled to kick off at roughly 1 pm ET at CTMP, just an hour east of Toronto.
Full results can be found here.
