If there was any doubt that Ben Young was going to take the GP Bikes Pro Superbike championship down to the wire, that was quickly erased on Friday.
The three-time reigning champion earned his second BS Battery Pole Position of the season at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, leading the entirety of Q2 and nearly breaking his own lap record to put himself at the front of the field for this weekend’s Bridgestone CSBK finale.
Young paced the opening practice this morning to earn an automatic entry into Q2, but not with a lot of comfort as he was followed closely by title rivals Sam Guerin and Alex Dumas, with Dumas carrying a five-point lead into the weekend.
It was a different story this afternoon, as Young very quickly posted a time of 1:20.897 to put almost a full second between himself and the chasing pack, led by Jordan Szoke at the halfway point with Dumas third and Guerin still sitting pit-side.
That gap would close dramatically over the next few minutes, with Guerin joining the fight and Dumas jumping to second in a top-four that was covered by only 0.0387 seconds.
However, that was as close as Young would allow things to get, as he responded with a pair of blistering laps to end the day with a time of 1:20.592, only 0.223 seconds off his own outright lap record from 2022.
It was an incredible effort from the four-time Canada Cup winner, who becomes the only repeat pole-sitter of the season aboard his Van Dolder’s Home Team Honda – clinching his fifth consecutive BS Battery Pole Championship in the process.
“I’ve won a few of these now, but it always feels good to get another one,” Young said. “We made a lot of changes yesterday and today, and everything seemed to be working really well.”
Young would wind up 0.450 seconds clear of Dumas in the end, a relatively massive pole margin after the previous three rounds were decided by 0.014 seconds, 0.018 seconds, and 0.037 seconds.
While Dumas will have a bigger gap to erase than he would have hoped, the Economy Lube/Fast Company BMW star will still exit Friday in good shape as he starts alongside Young in the middle of row one.
The championship leader didn’t seem overly concerned with Young’s pole time, as the long Andretti Straightaway will make it difficult for the Honda rider to break away from the field, though Dumas will also have to worry about the threats behind him.
The biggest x-factor will be Guerin, who is still very much in championship contention himself and avoided any catastrophes on Friday as he put his EFC Group BMW third and at the end of row one.
Guerin would wind up just 0.065 seconds behind Dumas as he enters a crucial race one, a battle that could go a long way in deciding the title fight even with race two ahead on Sunday.
Narrowly settling for fourth was Szoke, who made significant progress on Friday to put himself only 0.242 seconds behind Dumas and right within the lead battle entering the weekend.
The Canadian Kawasaki Motors star needs a bit of luck to go his way to erase his 24-point deficit, though there is no one better suited for the unpredictable nature of CTMP than the 14-time Superbike champion.
Starting alongside Szoke for the second consecutive weekend will be David MacKay, who matched the improvements of the riders ahead of him in Q2 but remained 1.5 seconds off the pace aboard his ODH Snow City Cycle Honda.
MacKay will hope the lead group can beat each other up enough to limit that difference, as the former Supersport champion will be there to pounce on any opportunity as he eyes a first career Superbike podium.
Joining him on row two is Alex Michel, a sensational effort in his first ever Superbike qualifying as he fills in for the injured Connor Campbell aboard the B&T McFarlane Kawasaki.
Michel earned his way into Q2 with a strong performance in Q1 before finding even more time in the second session, leapfrogging Zoltan Frast in the final moments to wind up 0.850 seconds behind MacKay in his first weekend aboard the ZX-10R.
Frast would settle for seventh after topping Q1, missing out on the second row by a mere 0.022 seconds to Michel after his late time attack, though it was still a very impressive day for the Clare’s Cycle BMW rider.
Sebastien Tremblay would qualify eighth on his Supersport-spec S.T. Motosport Suzuki, nearly matching his time from middleweight qualifying earlier in the day as he prepares to possibly do double-duty this weekend.
Completing row three was Sebastian Hothaza, a career-best qualifying for the Ride42 Yamaha rider in his season debut as he hopes to join his teammate Frast in the midfield this weekend.
Mavrick Cyr wrapped up the Q2 order after narrowly squeaking through into the session, a strong performance on his Supersport-spec Suzuki as the former amateur champion returns to the series at CTMP.
The feature class will now prepare for the first half of their season-ending doubleheader on Saturday, before the 2025 Canada Cup winner is crowned on Sunday at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, just an hour east of Toronto.
Full Q2 Qualifying results can be found here.
