CSBK – Round 3 – Castrol Raceway

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Photo: Rob O'Brien

Photo: Rob O’Brien

Four races into the 2015 CSBK season, Jordan Szoke is still undefeated after last weekend’s doubleheader in Edmonton.

In Race 1 on Saturday, Szoke started on pole. Jodi Christie held the lead for a while, but on Lap 4, Szoke got past and won by an impressive 10.094-second margin. Christie never regained the lead after Lap 4, and finished second. Kenny Riedmann was third, working his way up from a fourth-place start behind Michael Leon. Leon finished fourth, and Trevor Daley rounded out the top five.

In Race 2, Christie once again rocketed ahead at the start to take the lead, but once again lost it in the early laps – he lost his front end on Lap 3 and ended up heading to the pits for some emergency maintenance before rejoining the pack. At that point, Szoke was well in control, ahead of Kenny Riedmann and Trevor Daley. He won by 6.997 seconds over Riedmann.

The second win gave Szoke 49 CSBK first-place finishes in his career. He now has 219 points to Christie’s 142, and unless disaster strikes as it did last year, it’s hard to see Szoke not handily winning the 2015 championship, as well as surpassing the 50-win mark, far outstripping any other CSBK racers in history. After the race, Szoke said “Our big goal this year has been to win the championship back,” and he’s doing just that.

Christie crashed one of his CBR1000 racebikes heavily in practice, which might have affected his performance over the weekend. He also crashed his CBR600 in the first Pro Sport Bike race, managing to still finish in third.

Riedmann took that race, with Trevor Daley second. In Pro Sport Bike’s Race 2, Riedmann won again, with Christie second and rookie Tomas Casas finishing third – the best result this season for the former CBR250 champ.

Casas now sits in sixth in Pro Sport Bike, while his former teammate Stacey Nesbitt sits in fifth. Both are a little farther back in Pro Superbike (10th and seventh respectively), but both are consistently finishing ahead of experienced pros.

They’re proving they belong, and if Jodi Christie and the rest of the veterans of the CSBK pack continue to prove unable to catch Jordan Szoke most weekends, perhaps Casas or Nesbitt will prove up to the task after some time in the Pro ranks. But at the rate 35-year-old Szoke is going, he’ll be sucking back Geritol before he slows down; he’s still spanking riders far younger. He dominated at the Edmonton round, on what was basically a new track to him. Never say you can’t teach an old dog new tricks.

Both races took place under hot, sticky conditions. Going into the weekend’s racing, there was an expectation local racers might disrupt the standings a bit, but none of the westerners managed a podium in the Pro races, although they did manage a couple fourths and fifths.

You can check out video highlights of the race below, followed by the standings.

2015 CSBK Pro Superbike Standings

Pos No. Rider Motorcycle Total Points
1 101 Jordan Szoke BMW 219
2 1 Jodi Christie Honda 142
3 42 Kenny Riedmann Kawasaki 140
4 24 Sebastien Tremblay Kawasaki 130
5 116 Trevor Daley Suzuki 102
6 316 Stacey Nesbitt Honda 69
7 74 Michael Leon BMW 67
8 46 Tomas Casas Yamaha 65
9 9 Justin Knapik Kawasaki 55
10 3 Mike Zottmann Kawasaki 54
11 711 Franklyn Dominguez Kawasaki 31
12 39 Ross Millson Suzuki 46
13 90 Shane Caravan Yamaha 44
14 111 Bez Cajee Suzuki 40
15 113 Reiner Griese BMW 33

2015 CSBK Pro Sport Bike Standings

Pos No. Rider Motorcycle Total
1 20 Jodi Christie Honda 185
2 1 Kenny Riedmann Triumph 183
3 229 Darren James Yamaha 128
4 76 Louie Raffa Honda 124
5 316 Stacey Nesbitt Honda 94
6 46 Tomas Casas Yamaha 93
7 33 Mike Yurko Yamaha 61
8 53 Brian Worsdall Honda 54
9 18 Rob Darlington Yamaha 54
10 2 Trevor Bernhardt Kawasaki 42
11 18 Philippe Masse Kawasaki 33
12 53 Elie Daccache Yamaha 32
13 56 Robert Guy Suzuki 32
14 57 Spero Benias Suzuki 32
15 47 Will Hornblower Yamaha 32

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6 COMMENTS

    • I didn’t see anything unsafe about it.

      Riders liked it, but did say that it was technical and with that many turns, there’s not much time to “rest”, so they were tired when they came of the track. One of the local riders mentioned he’d developed a serious arm pump while out there. A bit more conditioning might have been in order.

      The only place with limited run off was at corner 2. One of the amateur riders low sided there and the bike didn’t even slide to the tire barrier.

  4. Great inaugural CSBK race at the new Castrol road circuit! Szoke pretty much ruled. Hot, muggy and lots of forest fire smoke in the air.

    Enjoyed reading about the last Superbike races in Edmonton, at the old Speedway Park. I was there!

    Looks like more bleachers in the works and they do need to expand the PA system to provide some audio to the south bleachers.

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