Ben Young on another success for Van Dolder’s Home Team Honda at Grand Bend Motorplex
“This morning, yes, we had some issues; but in time for the race, we were fine,” explained Ben Young after Saturday’s GP Bikes Pro Superbike Feature win in the fourth 2026 round of the Bridgestone Canadian Superbike Championship, CSBK.
“I never intended to lead from the start,” continued Young, who chased pole sitter David MacKay’s rapid Snow City Honda in the early going. So far this season, Young has been pleased with his launch of the Van Dolder’s Home Team Honda Canada entry, even if his initial placing isn’t always so strong.
“I just wanted to be relaxed, and my biggest worry was the starting procedure, and the local guys, they might really want to get after it from the start,” indicated Young, referring to the strong local contingent of racers from the SOAR series. “It worked out well, and we’d taken some big swings on our set up, really all weekend, not just this morning.
“There were just too many variables, and it just didn’t feel like my bike. Riding around yesterday (practice and qualifying), I ran off the track three times, and I never run off the track – certainly not three times in one session.
“We got there by the race, by then I felt good,” continued Young, who won his last Canadian national two weeks ago at Calabogie Motorsports Park and since then had a strong finish as part of a works supported Honda Team at the World Championship Eight-Hour Endurance race in Suzuka, Japan.
“I don’t think we’ll make any changes for tomorrow, we’re pretty happy with where we got to right now. The pace was right where I was aiming to be – when I was pushing, I was taking chunks out of David’s lead, but it was all quite manageable.
MacKay is famously careful about revealing any secrets of a hot lap at Grand Bend, and Young didn’t pick up much in the way of pointers.
“He still rides this track like a 600 (MacKay holds the Supersport lap record), lots of lean, where I am still upright.
“With the high wind today, going onto the backstraight was the real challenge of the lap. It was so hard to tell how the bike would run, so it wasn’t a battle of power between us, it came down to who could manage the wind. If I could deal with the wind better, then I would get the best run onto the backstraight. Whoever got the drive managed the wind the best.”
“I think David ran a smart race, he didn’t quite have the pace, and he made sure to finish,” reflected Young. MacKay’s runner-up spot matched his best result of his career at the previous round at Calabogie on Sunday, where MacKay fell while leading on Saturday at round three.
“I was as comfortable as I can be, don’t quite have the feel I’m looking for, but as good as it has been during the season,” confirmed Young, who has now won six of seven races this season, the one exception being the legendary Szoke’s career defining success at Calabogie on Saturday, when Young netted second dealing with shifter issues.
“It was hot, but no overheating concerns, unlike Calabogie,” confirmed Young of the extreme summer conditions on Ontario’s “West Coast.”
“I wasn’t as uncomfortable on the bike in the race as I was in the warm-up this morning,” reflected Young of his health following a big fall in practice in Japan that damaged his shoulder and hip. “I was sore, but it’s my back and hip, and when I get off the bike, I’m kind of hunched over, and it takes me a while to stretch back out.
“I wasn’t really able to get any attention to my injuries this week; I was OK, and I ran a couple of times, saw my trainer Thursday morning. A little heat in the body, some movement, that helped the shoulder. The shoulder is the worry, but we got a good points haul today, that helps.”
During the interview, Young reviewed the lap times and observed that eventual fifth place Frast (who fell while fighting Szoke) actually set the fastest lap at an impressive 1:03.17, two one hundredths of a second quicker than Young’s second best effort. Next up is MacKay at 1:03.32, followed by third placed Szoke at 1:03.42. The GP Bikes Pro Superbike lap record belongs to now retired local hero Trevor Dion who turned a lap at 1:02:37 on a BMW in 2022.
The eighth of the ten scheduled 2026 Bridgestone CSBK National feature races runs tomorrow afternoon at Grand Bend and will be available to watch live for free on the CSBK YouTube channel, along with the rest of the afternoon’s program including the afternoon opener, OPP Racing Pro Supersport. Saturday’s Supersport counter was won by points leader “T.V. Tommy” Casas on the FAST-Racing School Suzuki GSX-R750.
As well as the dice with leader MacKay, Young also had the AIM Insurance Kawasaki ZX-10RR Ninja of Jordan Szoke and Zoltan Frast’s ex-Young BMW S1000RR to contend with, very close behind by mid-race.
