Young paces Dumas in unofficial Thursday test at Shannonville

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Category: CSBK News

Published on Thursday, August 29, 2024 18:52 EDT

Written by Cam Bickle

The eve of the Bridgestone CSBK finale was headlined by a familiar face on Thursday, as Ben Young unofficially led the SMP Test Day at Shannonville Motorsport Park.

With official times prohibited until Friday morning, the group of pro riders in attendance were manually scored across their final four sessions of the afternoon in what was a track-hosted lapping day.

Young would register as the fastest overall in session number two, clocking in at a blistering time of 1:44.925 aboard his Van Dolder’s Home Team BMW – the only rider to enter the 1:44 mark all day.

The championship leader was comfortable enough with his machine that he elected to sit out majority of the final two sessions, and his time attack was good enough to hold the top spot despite a late improvement from rival Alex Dumas.

The Economy Lube Ducati rider would break into the 1:45’s on the final session of the day with an unofficial lap of 1:45.912, a strong effort to jump into P2 but still nearly a full second behind Young as no one was able to flash similar pace on Thursday.

Sam Guerin began the most crucial weekend of his season in good form as he wound up third-fastest, clocking in at a time of 1:46.353 in the third timed session as he worked through a few setup kinks on his EFC Group BMW.

The current championship runner-up will need to somehow erase a 50-point deficit to Young over the weekend with just 54 points remaining, though a front-row grid spot in qualifying would at least push the title fight onto Saturday.

Photos by Colin Fraser

The rider who made the most improvement in the second half of the day was Jordan Szoke, who wound up only 0.147 seconds off Guerin unofficially aboard his CKM Kawasaki.

Szoke was reportedly stuck in the 1:47’s earlier in the day before finding a chunk of time in the final session, giving him some momentum heading into the last round of the year at Shannonville.

Local rider Eli Daccache would round out the top-five on the day, putting his Milwaukee Yamaha only 0.051 seconds behind Szoke on the unofficial timesheets at the same venue where he has clinched numerous regional Super Series titles in recent years.

Trevor Daley, the most recent winner in the pro categories, was sixth-fastest on his OneSpeed Suzuki, bouncing back and forth between his GSX-R1000 superbike and GSX-R750 sport bike and looking strong on both once again.

Tomas Casas would clock in seventh-fastest for Yamaha Motors Canada, registering a 1:47.720 in the second timed session as he looks to climb back onto the podium this weekend.

David MacKay was timed in eighth for ODH Snow City Cycle Honda, the last of the riders in the 1:47’s with an unofficial benchmark of 1:47.905, while Paul Macdonell made late progress aboard his PMR Vass Performance BMW to go ninth-fastest unofficially.

Brooklin Cycle Racing Pro Rookie of the Year leader Connor Campbell completed the top ten, putting his B&T MacFarlane/Kubota Kawasaki just marginally behind Macdonell as he tries to wrap up the award this weekend.

The first official times will begin to roll in Friday morning as the weekend gets underway at Shannonville Motorsport Park, with FP1 in the feature class scheduled for roughly 10:30 pm ET.