Jordan Szoke’s dominance is almost unparalleled in any national superbike series. When the Canadian Superbike racing season ends this weekend at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, he’ll win yet another championship and he’ll probably complete yet another unbeaten season.
A couple of other Canadians are close to him in the record books: Steve Crevier has almost as many titles in Canada (and an AMA championship, too!), and Miguel Duhamel’s records in AMA Supersport will likely never be equalled.
A few other racers have put together impressive winning streaks in American, Japanese, or European roadracing series. But right now, Szoke has 10 Superbike and five Sport Bike titles, combined with four Observed Trials championships and two undefeated seasons; currently, he has more than twice as many Superbike wins as Crevier, his closest competitor in CSBK. At this point, nobody can catch him.
How does he do it, and what will it take to beat him?
Hey Jordan, what’s your secret?
Does Jordan Szoke have a secret weapon that keeps him at the front? No, says Warren Milner, who’s been hanging around Canadian tracks for decades as a racer, executive for Honda Canada, and now as CSBK support staff.
What keeps Szoke at the front is his brain – people underestimate him.
“People think of him as a bit of a jock, a bit of a goof,” says Milner. “He’s actually a lot smarter than people give him credit for … They don’t understand a lot of Jordan’s success comes from Jordan’s own intelligence, experience, and his ability to translate that into speed on the track.
“It’s not just that he’s a natural talent, and he’s incredibly fast, and he can ride anything, and he can go fast on anything, and it just works out. That’s all true too, but he is actually a very intelligent guy.”
As a result of that mental strength, Szoke is able to work his way through tough race scenarios. When it looks as if he’s struggling, Milner says that isn’t the case. Szoke is not worried, not stressed – he’s just waiting patiently for his chance to pass.
Szoke’s other big strength is that he has his motorcycle tuned in where he wants it, Milner says. While other CSBK riders possess plenty of talent and know how to ride a bike to its limit, they’re limited by their motorcycles not being at peak performance – traction control and wheelie control help, but they’re still fighting the bike. On the other hand, on Szoke’s bike, Milner says the settings are finer and more precise: “His bike never gets completely out of shape, no matter what he’s doing with it.”
Former CSBK champ Brett McCormick (now working on an engineering degree at University of Saskatchewan) agrees, and he would know. McCormick broke into the CSBK pro ranks in 2007 as Szoke’s teammate on the Canadian Kawasaki factory squad. Back then, he was the last CSBK rider to win the championship by beating him all season long, in 2011 (Szoke lost the 2013 championship when he missed two races due to injury).
Lots of racers are fast, but not that sharp,” McCormick says. “Jordan’s a mentally stable racer.”
For example, when McCormick started riding as Szoke’s teammate, he says he was ready to go home at the end of the day’s riding. Then he’d look over and see Szoke sitting down with his crew to go over the session’s telemetry feedback, figuring out what he needed to do to go faster in every corner. Then he’d go out on the track and do it. That ability to execute his plan when he’s on the bike is what puts Szoke in front, McCormick says.
Szoke’s well-tuned bike, his years of experiences on Canada’s challenging tracks, his ability to hang back and pick his time to make a pass, and his raw speed all combine to make him the top dog in Canadian Superbike.
Ben Young, currently sitting in third place in his rookie season of Pro Superbike, sums it up: “He has everything clicked right now.”
What next?
Szoke has dominated CSBK for almost two decades now. So what’s next for him? Is he going to take his career overseas or back to the AMA?
Young spent 2014 racing Superstock in the British Superbike series. If Szoke was in that series, Young figures there’s no reason he wouldn’t be up front.
But McCormick feels a move like that is unlikely, saying he doesn’t have anything to gain, and everything to lose. It’s hard to tell how Szoke would do if he was in a series like World Supersport, where McCormick raced in 2012 – with the right bike at the right track, he thinks Szoke would be competitive. But McCormick points out he had a good edge on Szoke the last time they raced together, and in the years since, Szoke still hasn’t broken McCormick’s lap records.
McCormick still holds the Pro Superbike lap record at every track CSBK visited this year, except St-Eustache; Szoke holds that record, and the Pro Sport Bike lap record at CTMP (a.k.a. Mosport), set back in 2009.
Milner says although Szoke is still winning races by decent margins (only Kenny Riedmann has been close this year), he’s not riding as hard as he can, because most of the pack isn’t pushing him.
“He has everybody so intimidated that they don’t expect to beat him. They kind of ride to whatever level he’s riding to – he’s set the bar as to what the target is. Because they’re not pushing him tremendously, he has been able to scale that back a little bit, and he’ll stay ahead of them.”
To change that, Milner says, someone has to get mad. Now, except for Riedmann and maybe Young, he says nobody’s angry they’re losing to Szoke every race.
“Somebody needs to get pissed off and say, ‘All right – Enough!’ you know? ‘His time has come and gone, it’s time he was beat, and I’m going to be the man to do it, and I’m going to do whatever it takes.’ ”
Ben Young figures the tipping point will be when somebody manages to finally wrest a win away from Szoke. “I think the biggest thing is to get into his head mentally,” Young says. “I think once you beat him once, he’ll have that hesitation in his mind, and carry that on to the next race.”
A win by someone other than Szoke might be a boost to CSBK fans, who’ve basically seen the same rider win races for the past two years. Milner figures fans don’t have anything against Szoke; they don’t want him gone, but they do want to see who’s going to be the next hotshot, and they’re not seeing that right now.
But of course, none of that is Szoke’s fault. His job is to win races, and he’s been doing it well for a long time now. Show up at the CSBK double-header and you might seem him do it once or twice more – and further cement his place in the history books as he does so.
[…] down on the weekend. Not the Moto GP in Brno. Not the Canadian Superbike Championship that gave Jordan Szoke his crown again. No – we’re talking about the Kawasaki Ninja 300 series, where CMG […]
Nice to see some RC51 history in this article. Article correction needed though. Jordan Szoke never won the superbike title on a RC51 as described in the related photo caption. Szoke rode the RC51 in 2000 with along Steve Crevier for Honda Canada. Steve won the superbike title that year (and the next).
I have a nice picture of Szoke dragging his elbow on the Corona Suzuki GSXR 1000 back in the day. Let me know if interested.
Sure, happy to have it, as long as you don’t mind us using it.
argh. Let me be the jerk here http://www.csbk.ca/index.php/news/news/955-superbike-pole-and-lap-record-for-szoke-at-st-eustache sorry guys ?
Thanks, Amy. I went off the numbers on CSBK’s site linked below, which don’t have Jordan’s name on them. Obviously that 2015 number beats Brett’s 2011 number — could there be a reason why it’s not on the “official” listings, or just an error?
And are there other tracks where this is the case? Because I went through them all.
http://www.csbk.ca/index.php/2016-schedule/autodrome-st-eustache
And not a jerk at all. Please don’t send Jordan to beat me up, though. 🙂
Zac Kurylyk well there are a few – pending how long you want to go back. Long track at shanny used to be the season opener which is pascal (I think) and calabogie is held by (hmmmmm) Edmonton castrol raceway is Jordab obv, and Circut ICAR used to be on the docket. Holding all the records of the national Canadian tracks isn’t entirely accurate, but I suppose it’s how you may want to look at it?
Amy Szoke I wasn’t sure who held the records at Edmonton and Calabogie — that’s why the article only said “every track CSBK visited this year,” as I didn’t know either way for the ones not listed on the CSBK website. Maybe bug Colin if you see him this weekend and tell him to update the site? Not sure if the inner workings of schedule selection might make that tricky.
Or will you be busy racing the 300 again this weekend?
BTW, was disappointed you weren’t at Shubenacadie, as I’d wanted a photo of the whole family for this piece, but as Bob pointed out, it’s a long drive for a little kid.
Zac Kurylyk wolf and I will be riding the trials demo hosted by the BMW Motorrad days – so riding yes! Just a wee bit slower this time. If there’s a 300 here I just may jump on one for a few laps to help out a few of my 300 buddies. Nothin better than helpin others go fast ??✊? perhaps AMP next season, with a few air miles tho. ✈️
dont take anything away from the guy,no one supports the series for younger kids to move up, the only crowd is at mosport , christ there was more people at flambough last weekend for the dirt track races than the first race at shannoville
, time for a hole new group of people to take over
The question must be raised, what is the state of CSBK in general ?
Szoke has the ability, no question, but with CTMP (aka Mosport) being the only really fast track on the schedule and a season only 4 weekends long its tough to convince possible sponsors of the value.
Younger racers are having a tougher time coming up with the necessary funding to mount a serious challenge.
The farm system isn’t working – regional racers are content to stay there, knowing they can’t run at the front nationally.
The major manufacturers have no incentive, the format has stagnated, and there is no outside money any more to prop it up.
What’s next ? I don’t know, but MotoAmerica isn’t showing much better in the U.S. even with companies like Red Bull and Monster Energy behind them.
Roadracing in North America isn’t growing, flat track seems to be seeing a resurgence- where do we go from here….?
The CSBK series does have more work to do but with TSN broadcasting the Series again and new sponsors like Dalton Timmis Insurance and Liqui Moly Canada coming onboard this season I saw it as a positive step forward and this helped me decide to race in Canada this season.
Ben, its great that you’re here taking a run at it, no its fantastic !
BUT TSN is using the series as filler.
When its on in prime time, not somewhere between snooker and celebrity poker we can talk.
There is talent out there that could compete with him, but the sport won’t pay them properly to risk life and limb to do it.
When you dominate a series for so long with not much competition it should be a sign that it`s time to move to a upper level.