Local favourites Spencer, Ives amongst support class pole sitters at AMP

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Category: CSBK News

Published on Friday, July 12, 2024 18:52 EDT

Written by Cam Bickle

The home talent was on full display at Atlantic Motorsport Park on Friday, as a number of east coast riders topped the support class qualifying sessions in round four of the Bridgestone Canadian Superbike Championship, presented by Pro Cycle and Canadian Kawasaki.

Leading the charge will be Springhill, Nova Scotia native Nick Spencer, who earned his first career CSBK pole position in the EBC Brakes Amateur Sport Bike class and later doubled down on his feat in the AIM Insurance Amateur Superbike category.

Spencer faced stiffer competition in Superbike, putting his Catch & Crimp Suzuki just a quarter-second clear of championship frontrunner Tyler Brewer with only 0.259 seconds covering the top three, as Zaim Laflamme completed the front row.

Only 0.992 seconds would blanket the top six riders heading into race one, a group that included five different provinces with Brewer and points leader Goran Radisic (fourth) of Ontario, fifth-place Carson Gray of PEI, and New Brunswick’s Vincent Wilson in sixth.

It was a much wider margin for Spencer in Sport Bike, as he topped the qualifying session by almost double the previous gap with 0.557 seconds separating him from Laflamme.

Fellow Nova Scotia native Greg Murray would complete the front row, shunting Wilson to fourth and the second row as the Twins championship leader makes his debut in the intermediate classes.

Sport Bike title leader Serge Boyer would have to settle for fifth and the middle of row two, though with the silver lining that championship rival Laurent Laliberté-Girard was recovering from a Thursday crash and could only manage 12th on the grid.

The trend of local pole-sitters continued into the junior classes as Baillie Ives carved his way to the honour for the first time in his CSBK career, beating veteran Gary McKinnon in the Super Sonic Road Race School Pro-AM Lightweight class.

Ives finished 0.428 seconds ahead of top pro McKinnon but more importantly was a comfortable 1.8 seconds clear of the next amateur in Cole Alexander, as he eyes a potential debut victory at his home track this weekend.

McKinnon will be second on the combined grid but fastest amongst the pros, beating Corey Miller by roughly a half-second as he looks to do the same on Saturday and extend his championship lead.

The run of local pole-sitters was stopped in the Importations Thibault Pro-AM class, as J.P. Tache secured his second pole position of the year by a half-second from Dallas Reynolds.

The pro duo of Tache and Reynolds were slightly faster than top amateur Vincent Wilson, who will challenge for yet another outright victory at his home track as he paced fellow amateur Julia Krans on Friday.

Mack Weil continued his perfect qualifying run in the Niagara Race Crafters Ninja ZX-4RR Cup, storming to pole position as the top pro ahead of amateurs Jean-Pascal Schroeder and Rob Lepp, with Schroeder beating Lepp by only 0.138 seconds.

The support classes will now begin the first half of their doubleheaders on Saturday, with racing scheduled to begin at approximately 1:10 pm local time (12:10 pm ET) at AMP.

Full results can be found on the series’ official website.