Five-time and reigning Canadian overall National Superbike Champion Ben Young of Thornbury, ON, returned to his winning ways in the second race of the double header third round of the 2026 Bridgestone Canadian Superbike Championship, a feature race in the traditional Vintage Road Racing Association Summer Classic, presented by the Canadian Motorcycle Hall of Fame. CSBK last ran a National event at Calabogie in 2022.
Aboard the Van Dolder’s Home Team Honda Canada CBR1000RR-R SP, Young started from pole position for the 14-lap main event courtesy of his record-breaking tour of 1:59.85 set in Saturday morning’s sole BS Battery Qualifying session.
Second quickest Jordan Szoke, from Lynden, ON, the winner of yesterday’s National, unfortunately Did Not Start (DNS) due to technical issues with his AIM Insurance backed Kawasaki ZX-10RR Ninja in the morning warm-up session.
In the race, Young jumped into a solid lead on the opening lap, as a dice developed for second between the Hondas of Stoney Creek, ON based David MacKay (Snow City sponsored) and Chilliwack, BC’s Andrew Van Winkle (Mountain View Motorsports backed). Young sprinted clear, turning a best lap on his third tour of 2:00.548, close to his just-set outright record of 1:59.85.
Eventually Van Winkle got close enough to consider a pass on second best MacKay, the two both looking to earn a best career finish of second overall. But MacKay held his pace, and Van Winkle settled for third. At the finish, a slowing Young scored his fifth win of the 2026 campaign, almost three seconds clear of the fight for runner-up honours, with MacKay just .2 of a second up on Van Winkle.
“I had a good start, but right away I was going easy on the bike,” explained Young from the podium. “There was no need to push things, I was playing it safe, I wanted to ensure a solid finish.” Young had encountered a shift linkage issue on Saturday that set up a wild fight with Szoke and Van Winkle, as MacKay crashed, unhurt, from the lead late in the Saturday National race.
“I was getting really good feedback, I had a comfortable pace,” started MacKay, contemplating his best career Feature race performance. “But I think maybe we had the traction control turned up too much, I was a little down on drive.”
“It was hotter today, and that had an effect; things got squishy earlier in this race,” continued MacKay.
The team guessed that a control switch might have been bumped inadvertently on MacKay’s CBR1000RR-RR. The next double header on the series schedule is at Grand Bend Motorplex in two weeks time, MacKay’s home track.
The sweep of the podium by Honda machinery is the first time for such an overall success since the early 2000’s, the era of the legendary Honda RC-51 twin.
Completing Honda’s domination at Calabogie, Van Winkle commented that with Szoke not competing, his third-place finish increased his chance to wind up second in the championship. Currently, Young leads the standings with 145 points followed by Szoke at 105, then third overall Van Winkle (90 Pts) and MacKay at 73 in total.
‘When I was chasing David, I was overheating the front tire, so I had to cool it- then with three laps to go I pushed to pass. I was looking in turn eight and also 13, but I didn’t have enough feel for the front end to make it happen.” MacKay admitted that a missed downshift helped Van Winkle during the period when the two were closest on the track.
Superbike rookie Alex Michel of Montreal had a strong weekend venue debut, working quickly to take fifth on his Mathias Sport Kawasaki ZX-10R, 13 seconds behind Van Winkle.
After a rough start to the season, Michel has now moved up to fifth overall in the championship standings with 66 points, just seven points back from fourth overall MacKay.
Early on Michel shadowed the Nelson International 50th Anniversary-backed Suzuki GSX-R750 of Seb Tremblay of Deux Montages, QC. “The Shaker” is the current points leader in the OPP Racing Pro Supersport middleweight category, a class that did not run at Calabogie.
Tremblay earned fifth, matching his result of the previous day, lapping in a personal best range of mid 2:02 second laps, similar to Michel’s improving pace. Sixth belonged to Mavrick Cyr, a third-generation Pro racer, from Quebec City on a Suzuki GSX-R750.
Nicolet, QC based BMW racer Julien Lafortune was next up in a somewhat processional race, earning seventh after a good dice with the Yamaha YZF-R9 of Kingston, ON’s Brad Macrae. Behind Macrae’s eight place Colron Excavating backed triple, Ernest Bernhard paced this group to end up ninth overall on his Farnham Brewing backed Yamaha YZF-R1.
Tenth was MacKenzie Weil of Keene, ON, aboard a Kawasaki ZX-6R with Laurent Lalibert-Girard on a similar Ninja completed the eleven finishers.
Sunday’s Super Sonic Road Race School Lightweight Sportbike round allowed Lachlan Alexander to further build his series points lead aboard a Kawasaki, winning by half a second from Sebastien Silva’s Aprilia. Third went to MiniMOTO Series star Stefan Tanasic on a Snow City Kawasaki, making a successful transition to big bikes. Super Sonic proprietor and famed coach and Team Canada Captain Toni Sharpless was fourth on a Yamaha YZF-R3.
