Season Openers of Days-Gone-By: A 10-year CSBK History Review

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Category: CSBK News

Published on Friday, May 3, 2024 15:57 EDT

Written by Colin Fraser

With the initial round of the Bridgestone CSBK Championship scheduled for Victoria Day Weekend at Shannonville Motorsport Park, May 16-19, we decided to have a look back at the recent history of opening events for the National Championship tour – in ten year increments.

1984 Sanair International, Quebec - Castrol XLR Challenge Series

MacMillan Launches Title Campaign

Forty years ago, the structure of CSBK was still evolving, and the Pro Superbike category was still really Formula One, with an open rules structure that still permitted various pure race bikes including a range of Yamaha TZs in 250cc, 350cc, 373 and 750cc displacements.  The premier series was based at Shannonville, but the RACE-sanctioned Castrol Eastern Canada Challenge also travelled to Quebec and Nova Scotia and would host their first stand alone National later in the season.

The Feature race at Sanair went to Brooklin Cycle Racing’s legendary Suzuki GS1100 Katana, a machine that had first appeared three years earlier at the same dragstrip-based venue southeast of Montreal.  At that time, the bike was piloted by Castrol’s Steve Gervais, who wasn’t fond of the big bruiser.  Gervais put the bike in a gravel-filled ditch, and the team soon turned to rising start MacMillan (a Ducati pilot for distributor Keith Harte Racing at the time) to develop the eventually potent “can-of-tuna.”

At Sanair, MacMillan battled early with the supposedly superior Yamaha TZ750s of Miles Baldwin and reigning RACE Champion Art Robbins, a recent convert from Superbikes to the legendary but aging two-stroke. Baldwin fell and Robbins experienced mechanical issues, and MacMillan’s win was crucial in his eventual journey to the 1984 overall Championship and number one plate.

Missing from action was Canadian Kawasaki’s Rueben McMurter, who was also a top privateer in the Untied States on a International Motorcycle SuperShow-backed HRC kitted Honda VF750 Interceptor.

Second went to Colin Gibb, the former Superbike front runner moving to the Production ranks with Kawasaki support on the brand new 900 Ninja.  Gibb was racing in the F1 feature with his just-arrived Ninja in Open Production class specification, meaning DOT treaded tires and the stock mufflers.  Third was respected veteran Don-Gray Wheeler, Robbin’s only Amateur rival in 1981, also mounted on the brand-new liquid-cooled 900cc Ninja “R.”

In the actual Open Production race, the precursor to Sport Bike, CAM2-backed Suzuki star Michel Mercier used the big air-cooled GS1150 he nick-named “the bus” to hold off the Ninjas of second-placed Gray-Wheeler and Gibb.  These Open Production class fights during the 1984 season between Gibb and Mercier were legendary. 

Mercier went on to be a three-time overall number one for Suzuki (the GSX-R launched in 1985) and Yamaha, while Gibb would quit competition to focus on his new shop, Two Wheeled Motorsports near Guelph.  Gibb is no longer the owner, but the store is still there.

In the middleweight division, rookie Pro Al Royer won Pro 600 Production on his Yamaha RZ350, followed by the similar machine of James Pletsch and Honda pilot James Kutschke.

Amateur competitors attracting attention included father-of-MX-stars Derrick Medaglia, Amateur Open and Superbike winner on a Suzuki. Hall of Famer Mario Duhamel was sixth in Open on a Production BCR Honda VF750, and then won Amateur 750 Production on the same machine.

1994 Mosport International, ON – Castrol ASM National Victoria Day Opener

Clarke on top of deep field at C.T.M.P.

The Mosport opener thirty years ago was the first National hosted by Alan Labrosse’s new Association of Sports Motorcyclists (ASM), with backing from Castrol.  Labrosse had left RACE at S.M.P. to organize events at the newly revamped Autodrome St-Eustache northwest of Montreal, a track he would eventually own, a venue the racers called “Twin Peaks” due to its location near Deux Montagnes.

In 1994, Mosport International (now Canadian Tire Motorsport Park) had not been used for a motorcycle event since the boycotted World Superbike round in June of 1991.  Labrosse, currently the General Manager of NASCAR in Canada, was a former top bike and auto racer who was also managing rising start Miguel Duhamel’s Grand Prix career at the time.

The Mosport National opener was a one-day event on the Monday of the long weekend and attracted the biggest field of top Canadian racers seen in several years – most of the established Pro racers were eager to return to the 4 kilometer long, daunting ten turns of Mosport, still a favourite with the fast guys.

Fortunately, the weather was good, by no means a given at “old Mosport” on Victoria Day weekend!  Kawasaki’s new top duo of Michael Taylor and Don Munroe were expected to feature, having doubled up to replace Steve Crevier as the focus of Canadian Kawasaki’s successful Superbike program with the very popular ZX-7R Ninja. Crevier had headed to the U.S. to ride for the works Muzzy Kawasaki program.

Privateers running near the front on Kawasaki equipment included Canadian Tire backed Kevin Graham and Glenn Barrett, who had won the opening RACE event of the season at a cold Shannonville on his Tony Russell built Ninja.

Yamaha didn’t have the same resources as Kawasaki, but still supported a selection of top racers, most on the new five valve YZF750 model.  Linnley Clarke lead the FAST program when new Champ Michel Mercier retired at the end of 1990 and was now running his own program with the tuning of Scott Miller and Fast Company.

Also piloting Yamahas were popular veteran Benoit Pilon, and rising start Neil Jenkins. Mark Kowalski was also a threat with a Yamaha 1000cc engine in his well-travelled OW01 Delta box alloy chassis.

In the race, Pilon lead early with Clarke close behind, while Don Munroe was getting use to his ex-Crevier Kawasaki, pressured by Jeff Sneyd on a similar ZX-7R.  Clarke eventually got clear for the win, Munroe making his way to take second while Taylor rod through the pack for third.  Munroe also won the 600 Super Sport race after a dice with Graham.

Clarke would turn out to be possibly the best Canadian racer in 1994, winning the RACE Super Series and running at the front in ASM – but Taylor would clinch his first National Superbike crown and overall number one plate for Kawasaki at September’s final ASM National of the season at the Alma Street circuit.

2004 Shannonville Motorsport Park, Parts Canada Superbike Championship Round One

Veteran Stars Crevier and Picotte Battle

Shannonville Motorsport Park frequently hosted the opening National of the CSBK season, and in 2004 it was the third straight season that started at S.M.P, on the perimeter Pro track.  Reigning Champion Pascal Picotte grabbed the lead from the front row on his Yamaha YZF-R1, chased by the Blackfoot Suzuki of Clint McBain, the Brooklin Cycle Racing Yamaha of former Picotte protege Kevin Lacombe, BCR Yamaha’s Frank Trombino and the slow starting Diablo Suzuki GSX-R1000 of Steve Crevier.

Top gun of the era Picotte controlled much of the race, but as Crevier moved up to second, he picked up tail gunner McBain, and this pair mounted a serious late race charge.

Crevier caught Picotte on the last lap, jamming past between Allen’s corner and the final right hander, McBain also making a late move for second. Patrice Goyette was the tuner of the winning GSX-R1000 and looked after the similar machine of former number one Alex Dumas for the past three current seasons. 

An angry Picotte was forced to settle for third in the first Feature race of 2004’s nine Nationals.  Lacombe netted fourth, while early race front runner Trombino, the “war lord of Shannonville” as named by announcer Frank C. Wood, faded to fifth.

Honda Canda’s Andrew Nelson was the pace setter in Hindle Exhaust Pro Sport Bike with his CBR600RR, building a lead and hanging on for the win.  Suzuki GSX-R600 pilot McBain, a former class Champ, worked up to a close second.  Picotte was third aboard a Yamaha YZF-R6 from Trombino (R6) and the GSX-R600 of Diablo’s Crevier.

2014 Mopar CSBK Nationals Round One, Shannonville Motorsport Park

Szoke Edges Christie in initial War

Once again, the 2014 opening race for the Mopar CSBK National Championships was at S.M.P.’s Pro Circuit, again for the third time in a row.  BMW’s Jordan Szoke was riding a winning streak:  “Jordan of the Jungle” had won the final race of 2013 at Le Circuit Mount Tremblant in Quebec to clinch his 43rd career National feature success and eight overall number one plate.

However, there would be some changes to CSBK in 2014, as the National tour switched to spec Dunlop rubber after nine years with Pirelli, a circumstance that would repeat in 2023 when the series moved to the current title support agreement from Bridgestone, starting at Shannonville.

In the Superbike race, Szoke tussled early with Jodi Christie’s Accelerated Technology Honda Canada CBR1000RR and the unique v-4 Aprilia of Frank Trombino.  Christie would go all out in the late running, setting the fastest lap, but Szoke would hold on to win by just .2 of a second.

Over the season, Szoke and Christie often exchanged the lead in Superbike, with Szoke looking the likely Champ until he was injured riding his low-speed Trails bike just before the final at C.T.M.P. – Christie would earn the crown with a run-away Sunday win after a wet Saturday National.

Meanwhile, back at the former Nelson International Raceway, Trevor Daley on his OneSpeed Suzuki GSX-R1000 picked off Trombino and net a solid third, 15 seconds back from the winning duo.  Trombino earned fourth, with Sebastien Tremblay riding through the field to grab fifth on a Kawaski ZX-10R.

In Hindle Exhaust Pro Sport Bike, it was a fight between several eventual middleweight class National Championships. Reigning number one Christie again came up just short in a battle for the win, finishing just over .4 of a second behind the Triumph 675 Daytona triple of Sturgis Cycle backed Kenny Riedmann.  These two are good friends to this day and attended the Canadian Motorcycle Hall of Fame event in Toronto together last November.

A rising rookie at the time Will Hornblower would place third on his R6, making for a Triumph/Honda/Yamaha final podium.  Current Shannonville specialist Elie Daccache earned fourth on another Yamaha.

In Amateur action, Stacey Nesbitt made headlines by earning the Bell Amateur Sport Bike win for Honda, followed home by James Moore (Tri) and current front superbike runner Tomas Casas (Yam).  In Magnetti Marelli Amateur Superbike, Tim Toldnes won on a Kawasaki ZX-10R Ninja from Pedro Sousa’s Honda and the Yamaha R6 of Steve Hamer, with Nesbitt fifth aboard the same CBR600RR, top middleweight.