The fourth round of the Bridgestone Canadian Superbike Championship kicked off with plenty of drama on Friday, as Alex Dumas led a rapidly changing FP1 session at Atlantic Motorsport Park, presented by Pro Cycle and Canadian Kawasaki.
Intense rain and nearby flooding on Thursday night put the daily schedule initially in jeopardy, but track conditions managed to improve dramatically overnight and allow the morning practice session to proceed as planned.
Still, conditions weren’t ideal in FP1 as riders navigated a few damp spots and below average track temperatures early in the 40-minute practice, leading to a surprising top-five led by Sam Guerin and accompanied by Connor Campbell, John Laing, Elliot Vieira, and local rider Cory Canfield.
The circuit would gradually ramp up after the ten-minute mark, with the leaderboard returning to more regular form when Ben Young jumped to the top of the timesheets roughly 13 minutes into the session.
Young would trade places a few times with Guerin, Jordan Szoke, and Alex Dumas over the next 15 minutes – including a span of thirty seconds where they all briefly led – before Young put in the first significant benchmark with just under ten minutes left.
The sun began to shine around that final stint, allowing Young to jump into the 1:08 range with a time of 1:08.619. However, the three-time champion wouldn’t be able to improve from there as an issue with the front sprocket forced him to park trackside for the final three minutes.
That allowed rival Dumas to jump to the front, leapfrogging Young with a time of 1:08.507 in the final few moments to put his Economy Lube Ducati on top of FP1 by just 0.112 seconds.
Young would retain second aboard his Van Dolder’s Home Team BMW but not by a comfortable margin, as Guerin and Szoke wound up within a very close top-four covered by just 0.507 seconds.
Guerin would be third for EFC Group BMW after leading the initial stint, while Szoke placed his CKM Kawasaki a very strong fourth entering qualifying later Friday afternoon at AMP.
Rounding out the top five was star rookie Mavrick Cyr, who flashed career-best pace aboard his Sport Bike spec Economy Lube Ducati. The 19-year-old was over a second behind the bigger-displacement Superbike stars but looked very menacing for the middleweight class as he eyes a debut pro national victory.
Qualifying for the feature GP Bikes Pro Superbike category is scheduled to begin at approximately 2:45 pm local time (1:45 pm ET), with the top-ten advancing to Q2 immediately after to fight for the BS Battery Pole Position Award.
Full results can be found on the series’ official website.
