The Liqui Moly Pro Sport Bike class will line up in a bit of a surprising order at Shannonville Motorsport Park this weekend, as Brad Macrae took his first career pro pole position for the Colron Excavating Yamaha team on Friday.
Macrae was believed to be one of the weekend contenders after his regional win last weekend, but any doubt was erased just moments into the session as he leapt straight to the top of the leaderboard behind a time of 1:07.781.
His time was threatened late on by fellow Yamaha rider Matt Simpson, who put his Blackstock Motorsports machine next to him on the front row, albeit a distant half-second to Macrae in a Yamaha one-two.
Macrae’s case for pole position was helped by a dramatic turn of events for preseason favourite David MacKay, however, who crashed chasing the top time and was left to watch the session unfold without him.
The Snow City Cycle Kawasaki rider will now line up 13th in both Sport Bike races this weekend, meaning he’ll have to make quick work of the grid in front of him if he hopes to keep Macrae and Simpson in sight.
Kawasaki’s chances were salvaged by a late front-row charge for Connor Campbell, who put his B&T MacFarlane/Kubota effort a half-second behind Simpson in his return to the national tour following a scary round four crash last season.
Finishing off row one will be another Kawasaki in the form of Cochrane, Alberta native John Laing, who put his Vass Performance machine fourth in his debut Bridgestone CSBK appearance.
Rookie Zoltan Frast was fifth and will lead off row two on another Kawasaki, an excellent debut for the Eurorace team, with fellow rookie Nathan Playford one spot back in sixth for the Playford Company Inc. Ducati program.
Notably absent from the top-five was MacKay’s biggest preseason challenger, Elliot Vieira. The GP Bikes Ducati rider will line up only eighth as he continues to come to grips with his new machine, almost two seconds off the pace at the front.
Jeff Williams will start from pole for the inaugural Bickle Racing Pro Twins race on Saturday, having captured the top spot on his Williams Paving Aprilia. The former Pro Superbike race-winner dominated the first qualifying session in the category’s history, taking the top spot by over three seconds.
Veteran Hans Van Sleuwen will line up on the middle of round one for Suzuki, with fellow Suzuki-mounted rider Andrew Van Winkle from Chilliwack, BC on the end of round one for both races this weekend.
In the other qualifying action from Friday, it was Jack Beaudry who came out of nowhere to capture pole position in the Super Sonic Race School Amateur Lightweight class, dethroning preseason favourite Vincent Lalande.
The Lorette, Manitoba product of Beaudry nearly managed a new lap record in his national debut, bumping the 15-year-old Lalande to second and over a half-second behind, with 2022 race winner Vincent Wilson another half-second behind in third.
Local rider Ryan Vanderputten was the outright fastest in the EBC Brakes Lighweight Pro/Am qualifying session, pacing the pro division for Yamaha by a whopping two seconds over top amateur Beaudry, with Stacey Nesbitt next in line for the pro class and fourth overall in her return to the CSBK paddock.
Lalande would settle for second to Beaudry in the amateur split and third on the combined grid, finishing only 0.084 seconds off the top amateur spot.
As for the two remaining amateur classes, it was Andrew Cooney who set the pace in both as the preseason title favourite quickly reminded the paddock of his raw pace aboard the Fast Company Honda project.
His margin was small in both running’s, however, with Mavrick Cyr trailing him by just 0.009 seconds at the conclusion of the AIM Insurance Amateur Superbike session.
Cooney later topped the Scorpion EXO Amateur Sport Bike class, beating Cyr to the top spot by a slightly larger 0.311 seconds as the Rizzin Racing Triumph rider cemented himself as the top challenger to Cooney this weekend.
Full results from Saturday’s qualifying and practice sessions can be found on the series’ official website.