The final round of the Bridgestone Canadian Superbike Championship was already set to deliver another weekend of thrilling Pro Supersport action, but the nation’s most unpredictable class has served up yet another batch of surprises for round four at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park next weekend, August 8-10.
The middleweight category will look a lot different than fans remember when the series returns to “Old Mosport”, with a number of familiar names switching to new machinery in what is expected to be one of the deepest grids the CSBK paddock has ever seen.
Not even the championship leader will be staying put, as Torin Collins confirmed his shocking move to join the powerhouse Economy Lube Ducati program just days ago, handing his Novalda Suzuki over to Ryan McGowan despite taking five wins through seven races in 2025.
Collins has stretched out a commanding 24-point lead over most recent winner Andrew Van Winkle, the only rider who can mathematically catch him at CTMP with just 50 points remaining and a 55-point gap to Alex Michel in third.
Still, it’s a stunning switch at a crucial point of the season as Collins will swing his leg over the V2 Panigale for the first time at a circuit he isn’t particularly fond of, having finished sixth and 12th in his two Superbike appearances at the venue last year.
The 20-year-old is seemingly much more confident than this time a year ago, and will have the support of a decorated Economy Lube team that has helped numerous riders to success at CTMP – including Superbike champion Alex Dumas – but it’s still far too early to put one hand on the #1 plate, especially given his new wave of challengers.
That group could either complicate things for Van Winkle or offer him a lifeline in his title quest, as he needs to beat Collins by multiple meaningful positions if he wants to eras his championship deficit.
The Mountainview Motorsports Suzuki rider will have an uphill battle in doing so aboard his “old-gen” GSX-R600 at such a fast, horsepower-heavy circuit, though that didn’t faze him a year ago as he finished fifth and third on the same machine.
The 18-year-old Van Winkle will hope to turn in some trademark CTMP slipstream heroics, as the famous kilometre-long Andretti Straightaway does allow for a chasing pack to stick together, much like the one Van Winkle and company will be joined by next weekend.
Leading that pack is the return of two-time class champion Tomas Casas, though with a new manufacturer of his own as he ends a decade-long relationship with Yamaha to join the FAST Riding School Suzuki team aboard a GSX-R750.
Casas quickly established himself as one of the best riders in Supersport history during his five-year run in the category, winning ten times, securing 25 podiums, and capturing the championship in 2017 and 2018 as a teenager.
Still only 26, Casas will now be starting the next chapter in his career at a venue where he has not missed the podium in eight consecutive Supersport appearances, a run he will try to keep going as he builds his new relationship with Suzuki in the wake of Collins’ departure.
Though Casas’ departure from Yamaha will be a crushing one, the brand will get reinforcements in a big way from former race winners Brad Macrae and Matt Simpson, with Macrae set to debut the new “next-gen” YZF-R9.
Macrae had hoped to debut the R9 in round one but was forced to pilot his old-gen Colron Excavating YZF-R6, crashing out of race one and finishing eleventh in race two.
However, the more competitive R9 could be enough to bring Macrae back to the front and further disrupt the race winning battle, with a new next-gen machine adding a massive bit of unpredictability to challenge the GSX-R750 and V2 Panigale.
Simpson will not have the same upgrade available to him but has shown he can still be competitive without it, having pushed Collins as hard as anyone else in round one before a scary crash cut his weekend short.
Now fully recovered and having fixed his Blackstock Motorsports Yamaha YZF-R6, the true home favourite – hailing from nearby Bowmanville – will look to return to the podium at the same venue where he took his first pro victory in 2022.
Another former race winner unlikely to return is Trevor Daley, who suffered an unfortunate injury to his hand/wrist in the second round at Atlantic Motorsport Park. However, should Daley make a quick recovery, he would represent another instant contender aboard his OneSpeed Suzuki.
As for the more familiar names, the batch of newcomers may complicate things for the likes of Michel, Sebastien Tremblay and Elliot Vieira, though all three will have fond memories of their trips to CTMP in recent years.
Tremblay has struggled by his lofty standards in 2025 but is one of the most successful riders in CTMP history, having earned seven of his 17 career victories at the venue, including race one a year ago.
The S.T. Motosport Suzuki rider will see his #1 plate come off after this weekend as he sits fifth in the championship, but ending the year with his first victory of the campaign wouldn’t be surprising for a rider who looked practically unbeatable at times in 2024.
As for Vieira, he has been his most consistent self this season even if the raw pace has been slightly harder to find, but that could change in a hurry at CTMP, a track he has mastered in recent years aboard his GP Bikes Ducati.
The fan favourite harassed Tremblay right to the finish in race one last season after winning two of the previous four contests there, and Vieira will also be eager to find himself back on the podium to end the year after six top-five finishes in a row prior to race three at Edmonton.
Michel will find himself at a disadvantage on his old-gen SpeedFactory67 Kawasaki, but this year’s breakout star showed his competitiveness at the venue with a maiden podium at the AMP make-up race in 2022.
The lone Kawasaki frontrunner will hope to at least preserve his third overall spot in the championship with faint hopes of catching Van Winkle in second, as Michel sits six points clear of Vieira and eight points ahead of Tremblay in fifth.
Michel’s efforts in the Constructors Championship may also be disrupted by Ducati’s big signing of Collins, with the Panigale brand just 12 points ahead of Kawasaki but still an insurmountable 151 points behind Suzuki, who will claim their second consecutive title – though with Collins now no longer part of the celebration.
The doubleheader finale will officially get underway with practice and qualifying on Friday, August 8 at historic CTMP, just an hour east of Toronto, before race one on Saturday and the last race of the year for each class on Sunday.
More information can be found on the series’ official website.
