Young displaces Dumas to lead FP3 ahead of Shannonville finale

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Category: CSBK News
Published on Sunday, September 1, 2024 11:20 EDT
Written by Cam Bickle

Alex Dumas’ near-perfect run at the Bridgestone CSBK finale was halted on Sunday morning, as Ben Young snatched the top spot from his rival in FP3 ahead of the last race of the year at Shannonville Motorsport Park.

After topping FP1, FP2, taking pole position, and winning race one earlier this weekend, Dumas looked poised to continue his run at the front as he led majority of the final FP3 practice session.

However, Young would save his best lap for last, dislodging Dumas as he took the chequered flag with a time of 1:44.715 despite a very windy morning at SMP.

That put the Van Dolder’s Home Team BMW rider only 0.040 seconds clear of Dumas, though he importantly seemed to fix whatever issues plagued him in qualifying and forced the four-time champion onto his “B-bike” for race one.

Dumas will still remain firmly on the pace for Economy Lube Ducati as he chases a third win on the season, with the squad making more and more progress aboard the V4 Panigale as they build towards a 2025 title challenge.

Third and fourth was the familiar duo of Sam Guerin and Jordan Szoke, though Guerin drifted slightly closer to the rest of the pack in FP3 after he was the closest challenger to Dumas on Saturday.

Guerin will hope to replicate more of his race one pace when the season comes to a close this afternoon for the EFC Group BMW team, while Szoke will instead try to cut the deficit even further and end the year on the podium.

Szoke remains a comfortable 1.1 seconds behind Guerin but has been consistent throughout 2024, putting his CKM Kawasaki in the perfect spot to capitalize on any chaos in front of him.

The biggest riser in FP3 was Tomas Casas, who seemed to make a positive step with the Yamaha Motors Canada program after a setup mistake in Q2 left him tenth on the grid.

Casas made another costly error early in race one to leave him seventh but proved he has the pace to run inside the top-five on Sunday, with the former two-time Sport Bike champion eyeing a return to the podium at the last round of the year.