New classes, plenty of wildcards, and another “Daley Double” headlined the action at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park this past weekend, but there were plenty of records broken or extended during the round five chaos.
Below are just a few of the key numbers from CTMP.
It’s been 2,622 days since Yamaha last won a Superbike race in 2017, while Honda has been waiting 3,651 days (ten years) since their last victory. Aprilia, the longest active drought, took their lone win just one day before Honda in 2014. The rest have all won in 2024, with BMW, Suzuki, and Kawasaki taking victories prior to round five.
Alex Dumas’ win on Saturday at CTMP added Ducati to that list, but you’d forgive the Italian brand for being more relieved than excited – given it was a CSBK record 10,597 days since a Panigale rider had stood on the top step of a feature class podium.
Jeff Sneyd’s lone Superbike victory at Mosport (now CTMP) in 1995 would stand as Ducati’s most recent win for almost 30 years, a longer period of time than the 22-year-old Dumas has been alive for.
That shifts the aforementioned longest active drought onto Aprilia, who took their only pro CSBK victory with Frank Trombino at CTMP just over a decade ago.
It seems like every round BMW is making more history in the GP Bikes Pro Superbike class, and this time it was a tag-team effort from stars Sam Guerin and Ben Young to make it happen.
Guerin would earn a first career BS Battery pole position in the feature class on Saturday, crushing the field by 1.655 seconds – the largest margin of pole in history – to nab BMW’s 50th all-time pole position, most of the timed qualifying era.
Their success wouldn’t end there, however, as Young made up for a crash in Q2 to take podiums in both races, extending a run of 16 consecutive podiums for both Young and BMW. That’s one away from tying Young’s own personal best of 17 in a row, the third longest stretch of all time, while BMW’s run is two away from tying Suzuki for the third-best mark – though they will have lots of work to do to catch their record of 88 consecutive.
Very few riders have compiled the accolades Sebastien Tremblay has in the Economy Lube Pro Sport Bike class, and even fewer have done so for multiple manufacturers.
Only six riders have ever won pro titles for multiple manufacturers, and it is hardly an uninspiring list – Jordan Szoke, Steve Crevier, Michel Mercier, Francis Martin, Kenny Riedmann, and now Sebastien Tremblay.
Even more impressively, Tremblay becomes just the 13th rider to ever win multiple pro CSBK championships in any fashion, and the ninth rider to win more than one middleweight title.
It was an equally historic day for Suzuki on Sunday, as Tremblay’s championship put the #1 plate back on the front of a GSX-R for the first time since Clint McBain in 2002 – ending the longest drought of any Sport Bike manufacturer.
Tremblay was far from their only bright spot, however, as Sunday’s podium lockout of Trevor Daley, Jodi Christie, and Andrew Van Winkle was their first since Mosport (now CTMP) of that same 2002 season, when Craig Connell won ahead of Lee Acree and eventual champion McBain.
In fact, that lockout extended a run of 13 consecutive podiums for the brand – Suzuki’s longest run in history – and scored their eighth victory of the season, a new record for the factory.
Never in the modern era have four or more different manufacturers won national championships in a season, but there’s a good chance that may get beaten in 2024.
BMW will win it’s eleventh Pro Superbike title, though it is yet to be decided between Ben Young and Sam Guerin, and already wrapped up the Amateur Superbike crown with Goran Radisic.
Suzuki has already clinched the Pro Sport Bike championship with Sebastien Tremblay and may add another title with Vincent Wilson in Amateur Twins. Kawasaki will win the spec-Ninja ZX-4RR Cup by de facto, but may add two more Lightweight titles (pro and amateur) for good measure.
The races to watch will be in Amateur Sport Bike and Pro-Am Twins, where Yamaha and Aprilia will try to share in the success. Laurent Laliberté-Girard will need to leapfrog Serge Boyer to add Yamaha to the list, while Aprilia could win either/both the pro and amateur split of Twins with Dallas Reynolds (pro) and Sebastian Silva (amateur).
Only Honda, Ducati, and Triumph will exit 2024 with no hopes of a national champion, an unfortunate blow for those manufacturers but a sign that parity is at an all-time high in the national series after just two brands won titles in 2022 (BMW and Kawasaki).