Team News: Szoke Claims 14th Canadian National Superbike Title

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Category: Team News

Published on Thursday, September 10, 2020 16:38 EDT

The Canadian Superbike Championship faced many challenges, along with the rest of the planet, attempting to salvage a season amongst the COVID-19 pandemic crisis. As restrictions lifted at the provincial and federal levels CSBK organizers Professional Motorsports Productions aligned with Pro 6 to host two double header weekends, with four races, to crown a new 2020 Champion.

Szoke swept the premier championship by claiming all four victories aboard his Canada General Warranty-backed Kawasaki ZX-10R Ninja.

The 2020 season was meaningful for the series as this would be the 40th season of superbike racing here in Canada. The very first Canadian National Champion, Canadian Motorcycle Hall of fame inductee George Morin, was awarded the Canada Cup after winning the two race Championship in 1980 abroad his Kawasaki KZ1000.

History appeared to repeat itself 40 years later as Szoke also won both weekends of racing, albeit double the races and points possibilities in 2020. Jordan was also aboard a green machine, and he too is a motorsports icon having been inducted into the Canadian Motorsport Hall of Fame in 2015.

Disappointingly CSBK has decided NOT to award the Canada Cup for this season and only award the Champion of the premier class.

“I’m disheartened that CSBK has decided not to hand out the special awards we all work very hard for. Particularly during this season, the entire paddock (teams, tracks and organizers alike) had to commit during these uncertain times to make it happen. I can appreciate that this summer was rough on everyone, and huge kudos to Pro 6 and the series organizers for doing everything they could to salvage the season. All of the paddock’s sponsors, manufacturers and competitors worked together to conduct these National-level events to provide enough coverage for TV.” says Szoke. “Thank you to everyone involved, we all made this happen together."

Highlights of the 2020 campaign will also be presented by the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) and broadcast in per-race format on TSN next month, and later available on-line.

Spectators were not permitted in 2020 although you can catch the races also on Canadian Superbike Championship You Tube Channel.

This championship means that Szoke has won a championship in four decades of Superbike Racing starting in 1999, also in the 2000 year, 2010 and 2020 seasons alike.

“I’ve won 14 of the 40 possible championships here in Canada.” says Szoke. “I was perhaps planning on maybe stepping back after this season, but with the promise of a brighter future as motorcycle sales increase and more and more people are getting back on two-wheels, I feel that maybe my time isn’t quite done yet. And perhaps it is even more important to follow up with another season promoting the sport and showing our manufacturers here in Canada that racing is a huge marketing asset for them.”

As for what 2021 holds for the CSBK series founder Colin Fraser states “It will be difficult to come up with a CSBK Schedule for 2021, given the unknowns with the ongoing Pandemic, however, with the help of Pro 6 and our competitor base, we have laid the groundwork this year to put together a viable plan for next season. Unfortunately, we still expect there will be some challenges and last-minute changes, but we are working toward a more-traditional plan for CSBK in 2021.

From a press release