Canadian Tire Motorsport Park may not be hosting the final round of the Bridgestone Canadian Superbike Championship like usual, but that doesn’t mean champions can’t still be crowned there when the support classes return next weekend, August 18-20.
Teenage stars Mavrick Cyr and Vincent Lalande (both of Quebec) have taken their respective seasons by storm thus far in 2023, and will have their first opportunity to bring home national titles when the series shifts to “Old Mosport” for round four of five, as round three’s cancellation now leaves just four races left in each amateur class.
That’s left a bit of a varying state atop each standings table, where Cyr leads rival Andrew Cooney by 24 points in Scorpion EXO Amateur Sport Bike, and only 12 points separates them in AIM Insurance Amateur Superbike. As for Lalande, he leads Vincent Wilson by 28 points in Super Sonic Race School Amateur Lightweight, but it’s Stacey Nesbitt who holds the outright lead in the EBC Brakes Lightweight Pro/Am by ten points.
That makes it extremely unlikely that Cyr could walk away an Amateur Superbike champion at CTMP, but taking one title off the board in Amateur Sport Bike would still be impressive enough for the Rizzin Racing Triumph star ahead of the final round in September.
If there was ever a place for Cooney to turn the tides, however, it’s CTMP. The Fast Company Honda rider won both of his appearances there in the Lightweight class one year ago, breaking away in race two by 16 seconds in one of the most dominant performances the junior category has ever seen.
The super-fast, flowing circuit is a favourite of Cooney’s, but the same likely won’t be said of Cyr, who has struggled mightily in his brief career there. Eighth would be the best he could manage in his own Lightweight stint in 2021, before slumping to finishes of ninth, 12th, and 15th in his three starts across Superbike and Sport Bike in 2022.
That said, Cyr has a much-improved Triumph machine and is clearly a much different rider in 2023, making it unclear just how much of an advantage – if any – Cooney will have entering the penultimate round.
If neither of them prove to be the frontrunner, it may be at the expense of Mack Weil, who seemed to be turning a corner in his career prior to the cancelled round three. Like Cooney, Weil was a double-winner at CTMP in his last Lightweight appearance and fared better than Cyr a year ago, finishing inside the top-eight in three of four races (with six of the names ahead of him having since turned pro).
Weil was expected to switch to Kawasaki prior to AMP but remained on his MotorcycleCourse.com Yamaha, finding a spot on the front row prior to the weekend being cancelled, though he may have his new ZX-6R Ninja prepared for his home race.
Another young star in need of an updated machine is Philip Degama-Blanchet, who is also expected to join the Kawasaki ranks from Yamaha at CTMP. The 15-year-old had positioned himself third in the Amateur Superbike championship and fourth in Sport Bike, but was set to miss AMP after running into a series of mechanical gremlins, a bullet he seemingly dodged in his title hopes.
Bryce DeBoer will be another teenager eyeing a podium spot at CTMP, after finishing second to Cooney in both Lightweight races a year ago. The reigning Lightweight champion has gradually improved as his debut Superbike and Sport Bike seasons have rolled on, moving to third in the Amateur Sport Bike standings after round two.
Shifting to the current slate of the Lightweight class also leaves a murky picture, as Lalande could enter as the favourite in the amateur ranks despite having never raced at CTMP before.
The 15-year-old SpeedFactory67 Kawasaki star has quickly set the pace at every round in his first CSBK season, but the long Andretti straightaway will prove to be a dogfight on the lesser-horsepower machines, a tough test for a national rookie to manage.
As for his principle title rival, Vincent Wilson, it was a mixed bag in his last appearance at CTMP one year ago. The New Brunswick native finished fourth in race one before crashing out of race two, echoing the same set of results in the Lightweight Pro/Am.
That may open the door for Jack Beaudry to claim his first national win, as the 16-year-old has settled for three podiums in four races to sit third in the title standings, often right in the mix with Lalande and Wilson at the front.
The most unpredictable battle may be in the aforementioned EBC Brakes Lightweight Pro/Am, where Nesbitt leads Ryan Vanderputten in both the pro division and the overall charts, while Wilson leads the amateur split.
Nesbitt has won twice at CTMP before – en route to her first national title in the Honda CBR125R Challenge in 2011 – and should be the favourite to extend her championship advantage, but she will have a family of contenders to deal with as the Walkers make their return to the penultimate round.
It was Jared Walker who claimed the inaugural Lightweight Pro crown and overall points lead a year ago, winning the first four races and six of eight total, but one of his two losses notably came against older brother Cameron Walker in race one at CTMP.
Both brothers are expected to return to the front, throwing a massive wrench in the series points battle, while father Dave Walker also returns after finishing fifth in the pro division standings last season.
The overall amateur battle for the Surron Electric Rider Award will rage on, where Cyr currently leads from Wilson and Vanderputten.
All three riders have scored a pair of fastest laps in 2023, but Cyr – having one less race on his Amateur Superbike season slate – owns a slightly higher percentage at 33% of his available fastest laps (Wilson and Vanderputten at 25%), with the champion earning a Surron Light Bee electric bike at the end of the season.
The full schedule for CTMP’s amateur action can be found on the series’ official website at CSBK.ca.
