A drastic weather change brought an early end to proceedings at the Bridgestone Canadian Superbike Championship finale on Saturday, as race one in the feature GP Bikes Pro Superbike class was postponed to Sunday at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park.
Racing was able to be completed in three national classes before the day was cut short in the mid-afternoon, halting the penultimate Superbike race of the campaign after four laps due to threat of hail and lightning in the area.
The initial race start saw David MacKay grab the holeshot from Alex Michel, with Ben Young third off the line while Andrew Van Winkle got a poor start and was relegated to fifth.
Both Young and Van Winkle would make quick work of Michel and Zoltan Frast ahead, reuniting the front row trio before Young made a decisive pass for the lead in turn four, eyeing an eighth victory of the year in race nine.
Van Winkle would make his own move on MacKay two laps later in turn five before rain brought a red flag stoppage on lap four, pausing the action temporarily before the eventual postponement due to worsening weather.
The remainder of race one will resume on Sunday with a new grid according to the lap four running order, before race two goes as scheduled with the original grid later Sunday afternoon. Amateur Superbike and Lightweight Sportbike action will also be made up on Sunday morning after being postponed on Saturday.
Tomas Casas inched even closer to a third career OPP Racing Pro Supersport crown prior to the postponement, winning a dramatic race one after Mavrick Cyr crashed out of the lead in changing conditions.
Morning rain produced a slightly damp but drying circuit leading into the race, with CSBK officials declaring an “open” event and allowing both wet and dry Bridgestone tire compounds - typically a sign of unpredictable weather.
That didn’t initially faze Mavrick Cyr, who got a terrific launch from the middle of the front row to stretch an early gap over Matt Simpson, who notably gambled on a rain front tire.
Simpson would dice with Sebastien Tremblay for second while championship leader and pole-sitter Tomas Casas was left stranded in eighth after a disastrous start, creating an early opportunity for Tremblay to erase his 13-point championship deficit.
That opportunity was short-lived, however, as Tremblay struggled to make significant in-roads on S.T. Motosport Suzuki teammate Cyr while Casas carved his way through the chasing pack behind.
Casas would hunt down Tremblay only moments after he dispatched Simpson for second, forming a four-rider battle between the trio and Brad Macrae all while Cyr continued to hammer fast laps out front.
The two championship protagonists would go side-by-side a couple of times before Casas finally made a move stick off the long Andretti straightaway, snatching second just prior to the halfway point.
His sensational pace would see him quickly eat into Cyr’s lead, but that progress was halted when the skies opened once again with light rain on lap seven.
Casas had begun to ease off just when disaster struck for Cyr, crashing out of the lead in an awkward highside between turns nine and ten and forcing a red flag stoppage with his bike in the middle of the track and the rain getting heavier.
Cyr was thankfully unhurt, but the result would see him sent to the back of the order and the victory handed to Casas with Tremblay second, stretching the points lead to 18 for the #18 FAST Riding School Suzuki rider with only one race to go.
“I’m glad Mavrick’s okay and nobody was hurt, that rain was getting sketchy,” Casas said in the pit lane. “Those points are huge, but nothing’s done yet. We’ll still have a big race tomorrow”
Casas will only need to finish tenth or higher to secure the Supersport championship, having already clinched the potential tiebreaker with a sixth victory in seven races this season.
It’s a heartbreaking result for Cyr, who led every lap of the race and was potentially set for a second career victory prior to the crash.
The outcome will push Tremblay to the brink regardless on Sunday, as his path to a third career championship is now impossible without a top-two finish in race two.
Cyr’s crash will promote Brad Macrae onto the podium for just the second time in his career and his first aboard the Colron Excavating Yamaha YZF-R9, a hard-earned result for the former race winner after a string of injuries in recent years.
Macrae remained in contention for a podium regardless as he showed excellent pace behind Tremblay, having breezed past Simpson on the rain front tire prior as the track dried out.
It appeared as though Simpson’s tire gamble may come back to him with the late rain, but he ultimately had to settle for fourth after the red flag - which ironically was fortunate timing for the Blackstock Motorsports Suzuki rider as he crashed in turn eight just moments after Cyr’s race-ending incident.
Simpson’s Suzuki Canada teammate Marco Sousa would round out the top five in his best result of the season, marching past championship frontrunner Cole Alexander in the late stages as Alexander struggled with his Supersport setup.
The French Glass Co. Suzuki star would settle for a season-worst sixth, narrowly holding off fellow teenager Philip DeGama-Blanchet who has been battling his own mechanical issues aboard the Taylor Racing Ducati.
Ryan McGowan claimed a strong eighth in the tricky conditions for Revolver Racing Suzuki, leapfrogging Nathan Playford after he battled a late issue with his Playford Company Inc. Ducati in turn six, leaving the track before re-joining in ninth.
Baillie Ives capitalized on a huge momentum shift in the EBC Brakes Amateur Supersport championship battle, winning race one comfortably while former points leader Alexis Beaudoin crashed out.
The result will see Ives’ five-point deficit swing to a 20-point lead entering the final day of racing, an almost insurmountable gap for Beaudoin as long as Ives can finish on Sunday.
The Nova Scotia rider would cruise over nine seconds clear of Nolan Eadie in second, who put an equally impressive six seconds between himself and Corey James Campbell to complete the podium in third.
J.P. Tache’s unbeaten streak continued in the Importations Thibault Twins Cup class, winning a close battle with veteran Gary McKinnon to make it seven consecutive victories in 2026.
The two-time defending class champion sustained plenty of pressure from McKinnon but ultimately held on for a two-second victory, while the real drama unfolded behind them in a four-way battle for the final podium place.
That would ultimately go to Bronti Verbeek, her first podium of the season after a scary crash in round one nearly ended her campaign.
Verbeek would make an excellent move in turn eight to snatch third from Nicholas Krans, with Cecil Montour also making an excellent last-corner move on Sebastian Silva squarely behind them.
Jared Walker would clinch the national title in the Scorpion EXO ZX-4R Cup class, winning in dominant fashion for a seventh win in a row to keep his own perfect season intact.
Walker would wind up over seven seconds clear of outgoing champion Jacob Black in second, with Jean-Pascal Schroeder completing the podium in third. While Schroeder’s slim championship hopes will come to an end, he will officially secure second in the championship behind Walker with the result.
Full results can be found here.
