Tavares, Boyer take maiden wins in support classes at SMP

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Category: CSBK News

Published on Sunday, May 19, 2024 18:00 EDT

Written by Cam Bickle

The Bridgestone Canadian Superbike Championship season opener wrapped up with a trio of first-time national winners on Sunday, as the five support classes completed their doubleheaders at Shannonville Motorsport Park, presented by the Fallen Rider Support Team sponsored by Pace Law.

Tyrone Tavares evened up his rivalry with Goran Radisic in the AIM Insurance Amateur Superbike class, winning a thrilling duel with the race one victor after coming up just short on Saturday.

Radisic looked poised to exit SMP with a pair of victories early in the race before Tavares put the pressure on, fighting for the lead at the midway point before seizing the front in the esses with three laps to go.

One last attempt from Radisic into the penultimate corner put the two briefly side-by-side for the win, but it came up just short as Tavares held on for his first career national victory just a day after Radisic’s maiden triumph, with Tyler Brewer rounding out the podium for the second day in a row.

Tavares will thus exit round one with a slim two-point advantage thanks to his pole position effort, though clearly very little will separate the duo heading into round two at the Grand Bend Motorplex next month. 

As for EBC Brakes Amateur Sport Bike, another sensational last-lap comeback fell just short for race one winner Laurent Laliberte-Girard, as Serge Boyer hung on to score his first career national victory.

Boyer led for nearly the entirety of the race after settling for third on Saturday, a race in which Laliberte-Girard overcame a slow start to carve his way through the field, and the debutant nearly did it again on Sunday before winding up 0.2 seconds shy of Boyer at the line.

Race one runner-up Scott Szollos would return to the podium in third, outlasting a hectic four-rider battle in the early stages before squeaking out a late advantage over Denis Giguere and Alexis Beaudoin. 

Vincent Wilson capped off a perfect weekend in the Importations Thibault Pro-Am Twins class, dominating another contest for the Atlantic Mini Suzuki team as he scored both the amateur and outright victory.

Wilson was followed by pro riders Craig Atkinson and Justin Marshall, who matched their Saturday finishes with Atkinson taking the pro win aboard his Yamaha, this time putting a late charge on to leapfrog Marshall with Dallas Reynolds claiming third.

Sebastian Silva would wind up just behind Reynolds on-track and once again as the amateur runner-up, keeping himself within eleven points of Wilson heading to round two at Grand Bend.

Mack Weil completed his perfect weekend in the Niagara Race Crafters Ninja ZX-4RR Cup race, dominating once again to launch the new Kawasaki-spec class aboard his MotorcycleCourse machine.

Dave Walker would settle for second in the pro split while Adolfo Silva scored a debut national win in the amateur ranks.

Cameron Walker doubled up the Super Sonic Road Race School Pro-Am Lightweight class with another outright victory on Sunday, sweeping the weekend after another nail-biter with Ryan Beattie and Zaim Laflamme.

The pro Walker was well clear of division runner-up Johann Plancque, but had his work cut out for him in the fight for the overall race win as amateurs Beattie and Laflamme went to war at the front of their split, with Beattie claiming another victory while Baillie Ives took third in the amateur ranks.

Each of the seven national classes will now await the second round from Grand Bend Motorplex next month, June 7-9, before returning west to the much-anticipated third round in Edmonton, Alberta.

Full results from the weekend’s racing can be found here.