Support Preview: Amateur Sport Bike, Twins, Lightweight all up for grabs at Shannonville finale

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Category: CSBK News

Published on Sunday, August 25, 2024 11:12 EDT

Written by Cam Bickle

The final round of the Bridgestone Canadian Superbike Championship will still have plenty of hardware on offer, with five of the eight support class titles still on the table entering the last two races at Shannonville Motorsport Park, August 30-September 1.

The largest prize of the support classes is already wrapped up, with Goran Radisic having clinched the AIM Insurance Amateur Superbike crown last time out at CTMP, but there is still a significant chunk of history left for Radisic to chase.

The PMR BMW rider has finished either first or second in every single race this year, something no one has ever done across an entire season of Amateur Superbike racing, while only two riders have ever completed a perfect run of podiums – albeit in much shorter calendars.

Radisic will try to accomplish that feat at Shannonville, the same venue (but a different layout) that he won the opening race of the year at almost four months ago. However, it won’t be easy for him as he deals with a loaded field that includes title runner-up Tyler Brewer and the expected return of local rider Tyrone Tavares.

Brewer has already locked himself into second overall and will be turning pro alongside Radisic in 2025, but he will try to spoil the celebrations for his rival and steal a little momentum prior to the offseason. Tavares, meanwhile, hasn’t raced since round two but took a pair of top-two finishes himself in the SMP opener, including a victory in the second race of the season.

The EBC Brakes Amateur Sport Bike championship is far from clinched, as points leader Serge Boyer will carry a slim 14-point advantage into the finale over rival Laurent Laliberté-Girard – though the latter holds all the momentum.

The pair were tied atop the standings when they left Shannonville in May, but Boyer would rattle off six consecutive top-two finishes over the next three rounds while Laliberté-Girard – affectionally called “LLG” – could only do so once over that span.

That all changed dramatically at CTMP, however, as Laliberté-Girard would finish second and fifth while Boyer was disqualified from race one and didn’t return for race two, ripping Boyer’s one hand off the trophy and making it a proper fight for the finale.

The wildest race of round five was easily in the pro split of the Importations Thibault Pro-AM Twins class, where four of the top six in the championship all crashed out to allow winner J.P. Tache into the title mix.

It will still be an uphill battle for Tache, who trails points leader Dallas Reynolds by 39 points with just 54 remaining, though clearly anything is possible in the pro division with Craig Atkinson also trying to eliminate his 22-point deficit to Reynolds.

Atkinson and the Acme Yamaha team won both pro splits at the SMP opener over Justin Marshall, who is just marginally eliminated from championship contention, while Reynolds took a pair of third-place finishes and Tache wouldn’t make his debut until round two.

As for the amateur half of the bracket, Vincent Wilson’s once comfortable lead atop the Amateur Twins standings evaporated with an ankle injury at CTMP, crashing out of race one and missing race two as Sebastian Silva cut the gap to 17 points.

Wilson has proven to be one of the tougher competitors in the paddock and will try to race at SMP, having swept the opener over Silva in May aboard his One Wipe Suzuki. 

However, should he be unable to participate or feel the effects of the injury, it would open the door for Silva to snatch a maiden national championship despite pressure from most recent winner Julia Krans.

Mack Weil will pilot the #1 in the pro division of the Niagara Race Crafters Ninja ZX-4RR Cup, having clinched the championship two rounds ago at AMP. Weil elected not to sport the title-winning number at CTMP but will do so at the finale, having won nine of the ten races thus far for Snow City Cycle Kawasaki.

The amateur crown is still undecided, though, with Jean-Pascal Schroeder having won four races in a row to leapfrog the injured Adolfo Silva – father of amateur Twins frontrunner Sebastian.

The older Silva will try to hop back aboard his ZX-4RR and accomplish a rare feat next to his son, but will need to overcome a 36-point deficit as well as his shoulder injury to try and secure the title.

The last national champion to be crowned already is Gary McKinnon, who has wrapped up the pro split of the Super Sonic Road Race School Pro-AM Lightweight class with an insurmountable 85-point lead over Toni Sharpless.

The amateur division is anything but certain, though, with season-long leader Ryan Beattie pacing Baillie Ives by just 20 points entering the last two races.

Beattie dominated the first half of the year with five victories in the first six races and 157 of a possible 162 points, but Ives has mounted an incredible second-half comeback to make it a legitimate title fight at Shannonville.

However, that momentum was halted last time out when Beattie took win number six at CTMP and Ives crashed out of the lead group, remounting to salvage seventh but seeing the odds swing back in Beattie’s favour ahead of the finale.