The Bridgestone Canadian Superbike Championship is already set to wind down its 2025 campaign next weekend, with a season finale at historic Canadian Tire Motorsport Park still offering five national championships in the support classes when the weekend kicks off August 8-10.
Despite a year of chaotic title battles and nail-biting on-track action, two riders will enter CTMP with a chance at joining an exclusive list of double-champions, as Cole Alexander leads two championships while Dante Bucek eyes a pair of #1 plates himself.
Alexander has been perhaps the biggest breakout star of 2025, winning eight times and taking ten podiums across 12 overall races split between the AIM Insurance Amateur Superbike class and EBC Brakes Amateur Supersport category.
The 18-year-old Suzuki star has a bigger lead in the Superbike ranks, taking a 23-point lead into the doubleheader weekend with just 50 points remaining in each class, but his three-point lead in the Supersport class will give him far less wiggle room.
Alexander doesn’t exactly hold the momentum either, after title rival Zaim Laflamme – who sits second overall in both classes – won the two most recent races in Edmonton to mount the pressure on ahead of the finale.
Both riders enjoyed solid weekends at CTMP late last season, though crucially in different classes as Laflamme had already made his “big-bike” debut at that point, finishing on the podium in race two of both classes aboard his Octo Racing Triumph.
As for Alexander, he exited the Bowmanville, Ontario venue with finishes of fifth and tenth in the combined Lightweight Pro-AM class, meaning he will need to re-familiarize himself with the circuit aboard the much quicker GSX-R750.
There’s also no guarantee that Laflamme and Alexander will be left alone at the front, complicating their title battle as a number of riders look to disrupt the podium places at the always unpredictable CTMP.
Amongst them will be the trio of Mark Stecho, Alexis Beaudoin, and Nicolas Audet, who will be vying for a crucial third overall place in the Superbike standings and the final automatic pro licence for 2026.
Stecho currently holds third thanks to a pair of round one podiums and top-six finishes in every race he entered, and he’ll hold the experience advantage after Beaudoin and Audet were absent for round five at CTMP a year ago.
However, Audet will be the rider with the strong form on his side after podiums in three of the last four races, including a career-best second in Edmonton to pull himself to within just three points of Beaudoin and 13 points of Stecho in third.
Audet will also find himself in good shape for a pro licence in the Supersport category, leading Louis Levesque by 15 points behind the strength of three consecutive podiums and five top-four finishes in a row.
The season regulars will also have to deal with the anticipated return of a former national champion and Supersport race winner in Ryan Beattie, the reigning Amateur Lightweight title winner who will make his season debut for BMW.
Beattie has only raced regionally thus far in 2025 as he gets more comfortable on bigger machinery, though the 17-year-old should have some confidence underneath him either way after winning his only appearance in the intermediate classes last season.
The other rider chasing a rare double-title at “Old Mosport” will be Bucek, who enters with very differing chances in the Importations Thibault Twins Cup class and Super Sonic Road Race School Lightweight Sportbike category.
Bucek already cannot be beat to the Lightweight title, as the amateur will receive the overall #1 plate at the finale thanks to his 61-point lead over top pro Scott Szollos.
However, the 17-year-old will have a much steeper hill to climb in the Twins Cup as he looks to erase a 20-point gap to veteran J.P. Tache atop the championship order.
Tache had looked practically unbeatable through the first two rounds before his undefeated run came to a dramatic end out west, losing to Bucek in race one and salvaging fifth in race two in the rain to see his points lead cut almost in half.
The veteran Aprilia rider also had mixed results at CTMP a year ago, finishing fourth in race one before winning a crash-filled race two, but he will need only to finish on the podium in each race to exit with a maiden national crown.
As for Bucek, it was business as usual for him in the Lightweight class a year ago at CTMP, finishing eighth and fourth in the combined ranks to finish third-best of the amateurs, though it remains to be seen how those strong results will carry over to his bigger Aprilia twin as he takes it around the super-fast circuit for the first time.
While Bucek has clinched top amateur honours in the Twins Cup regardless, the battle behind him between a number of top pro’s is just heating up, after Bronti Verbeek’s sensational win last time out at her home race in Edmonton.
Justin Marshall currently leads Verbeek by 16 points for Suzuki, having finished consistently in the top-five in every race (including four fourth-place results), but a 41-point weekend for Verbeek out west has closed the gap dramatically and put her two points clear of former Pro race winner Louie Raffa, who will return at the finale.
While the overall Lightweight title is already decided, the battle for top pro honours is still razor-thin as Szollos leads former champion Gary McKinnon by three points entering the finale.
McKinnon was admittedly absent from round three after sweeping his home round in Nova Scotia, but Szollos capitalized on the opportunity with a pair of podium finishes to put the pressure on CSBK’s most experienced competitor.
Despite that vast track knowledge, CTMP wasn’t a friendly place for McKinnon last season either, finishing seventh in race one and bowing out of race two for his worst weekend of the year.
Norbert Joo will also try to complicate matters for the two pro’s as he enters on a run of four consecutive podiums, pulling himself within four points of McKinnon and seven of Szollos for the vice-champion spot.
The amateur Joo cannot claim any sort of championship for 2025 thanks to Bucek’s efforts but can still continue his stellar form into CTMP, having closed the gap to his title rivals despite missing round one in Shannonville.
Another former Lightweight frontrunner looking for a first national title will be Jacob Black, who leads the Kawasaki Ninja ZX-4RR Cup standings by 31 points entering the last round.
Black has finished first or second in every race this season to give himself a comfortable cushion over Jean-Pascal Schroeder, and while his weekend at CTMP didn’t go great in 2024 he has put together strong enough results in the past, including a photo-finish loss to Mackenzie Weil in 2021.
Schroeder will find himself in an equally comfortable second overall, sitting 33 points clear of Rob Cousineau in third, though Cousineau is fresh off a first career victory in the category’s most recent race in Edmonton.
The full slate of support class championships will get underway with practice and qualifying on Friday at CTMP, just an hour east of Toronto, before five national champions are crowned during the weekend racing.
More information can be found on the series’ official website.
