The 2021 Canadian Superbike campaign is ended, with new champions in the Pro Superbike and Pro Sport Bike categories! The September 17-18 showdown at Calabogie was action-packed, and we see the future starting to shape up, with new stars in the litrebike and 600 categories.
Pro Superbike
Alex Dumas won the Pro Superbike title, taking all three wins over the Friday-Saturday tripleheader aboard the Suzuki GSX-R1000. He finished the season with 341 points to Ben Young’s 310 (Young rode a BMW S1000RR this year). Jordan Szoke, the 2020 champion, finished third overall, with 267 points on his Kawasaki ZX-10R.
At 19, Dumas is the youngest-ever Pro Superbike champion in CSBK history, beating Jordan Szoke’s record by about half a year. It was Dumas’ first year in the series, although he’s proven his talent in MotoAmerica competition in years past, winning the Twins and the Lightweight titles down there in previous years. Already, there’s talk that he may return to MotoAmerica or even race overseas in 2022, but for now, Dumas isn’t saying he’s leaving CSBK.
“I would like to be back, but I’m not thinking too much about it now,” he said after the races.
After it was all over, Young said that he would be back to race next year. But what about Szoke? It was a tough year for the winningest guy in CSBK history, and he’s hinted at retirement for some time now. However, with Ducati entering the series next year, perhaps Szoke will switch manufacturers, and establish a program for the Italian brand? That would be a most interesting twist for the series, which has basically been dominated by BMW and Kawasaki for years. Yamaha hasn’t won a race in some time, Honda hasn’t been a significant player since Jodi Christie’s championship in 2014, and Suzuki’s been mostly a minor player until this year. Dumas’ win, followed by Trevor Daley’s success, give Suzuki the first-ever Constructor’s Championship in Canadian Superbike.
Pro Sport Bike
Finally, Sebastien Tremblay has his championship. The talented Quebecer was denied in 2019, after other racers’ woes cost him vital points. In 2020, there was no Pro Sport Bike title awarded—despite Tremblay’s success in the 600 races, he was awarded no hardware.
Now, he’s got a trophy for his wall. Tremblay won every race in the supersport series this summer, and also finished fifth overall in Pro Superbike. Will he follow Tomas Casas’ example? A few years of high-level 600 racing, and then a focus on the litrebike class? If he does, expect Pro Superbike to get even more exciting in the days to come.
Support classes
How about the support classes? Anthony Bergeron won Amateur Superbike with 164 points to Pascal Bastien’s 153 points in second, one of the closer series this summer. In Amateur Sport Bike, Brad Macrea took his Yamaha to the title with 220 points, a healthy lead over second-place Matt Simpson (135 points), who’s been working his way up since starting off in Lightweight a few years back. Speaking of Lightweight, the title went to Harvey Renaud, with 227 points. Mackenzie Weil was second overall, with 211 points. Jacob Black, former head honcho here at CMG, ended up with fifth overall in that series, in case you wondered, with 177 points. He finished second in every race he completed this season, but two DNFs kept him out of the top three.
