Winter’s on the retreat, and that means roadracers are working hard on getting ready for the 2024 campaigns. Here in Canada, we’re still months away from the start of the Canadian Superbike season, but some of the fastest guys from our national and regional superbike series are on their way to the Daytona 200 to start the fun early (this year’s 200 runs March 7-9).
Most notably, Ben Young (the ’23 CSBK champ) and Trevor Daley are down in Florida to ride with Team BATTLAX with backing from Bridgestone Americas. While Young has been a BMW rider for years, he’s on a Suzook for this trip. As the PR says:
Team BATTLAX will compete on a pair of identical custom Suzuki Canada GSX-R750 builds featuring Bridgestone BATTLAX race tires.
The Bridgestone-backed Team BATTLAX will feature a unique partnership with Young, Canadian Superbike champion who is fresh off his third Canadian title, and Daley, who is a Suzuki Canada rider. Race and fabrication shop OneSpeedInc is building a pair of Suzuki Canada GSX-R750s with technical oversight and advice from Young’s longtime crew chief Willie Vass.
It’ll be interesting, as the Gixxer is a pretty old-school bike, with minimal electronics compared to what these guys are used to racing in CSBK. Considering how Daytona chews up tires, it’s a bold move to challenge the race on what’s basically the most powerful motorcycle available there (Ducati’s V-twins are also eligible, but there are no litrebikes in The Big Race).
Team BATTLAX aren’t the only Canadians headed to the Daytona 200 this year. Mavrick Cyr, Sebastien Tremblay, Trevor Dion, Alex Coelho, Elliot Vierira and Matt Simpson were all signed up to race weeks ago—a pretty good list of some of the fastest 600 riders in Canada, including the winner of Amateur Sport Bike (Cyr) and runner-up in Pro Sport Bike (Simpson) from CSBK’s 2023 race.
According to CSBK.ca, Alex Michel and Brad Macrae are also signed up to race in Daytona next week. Of course, all racers must get through the border, then scrutineering, then practice before they can race, and the 200 has a way of catching people somewhere along the way before the race even starts. But hopefully the Canadians all make it in, because we’re very keen to see what they can do in the strongest 200 field in a long, long time.
If you want to watch the Daytona 200 live, you can attempt to do so through MotoAmerica’s streaming service here. Otherwise, you may be able to watch it on MavTV with a one-day delay, if you have access to that channel.Â
Dan Kruger’s Three-Peat plans
Meanwhile, Dan Kruger, the most successful ex-pat Canadian roadracer in many years, is recovering from injuries suffered in the ’23 WERA campaign. Despite those issues, Kruger won a shelf-full of hardware for the second year in a row, and now he’s planning to tackle the series again in 2024. Here’s what his team shared recently:
We had several tests planned for January and the first one was cancelled due to weather. The 2nd one was cancelled due to a reoccurring injury on Dan’s elbow. He decided to have much needed surgery on it in late January by Doctor Trey Duckett. As always, the good doctor did an amazing job but with a typical 12 week recovery, 2024 was off to a rough start.
Just over 3 weeks from the surgery, Dan took to the track as he needed to see if he would be in a position to start the race season and go for a 3rd consecutive National Superbike Champion. He also needed to test a new race bike. With temperatures near freezing at night and very cold & windy during the day, Dan managed to put in some laps and immediately was up to a competitive race pace. We did not do more than 40 laps over 2 days as Dan is still focused on recovery in preparation for the season opener on March 16/17. Big year ahead with lots of racing.
Our team would not exist without our supportive sponsors: Pirelli, Dainese, KYT, Wall Street Funding, RK, EBC, Mototron, SK Support, Nature Power, Kinetik, Ktech, Hindle, and Motul.
Dan would not be riding 3 weeks after a big surgery if it wasn’t for Dr. Trey Duckett from Academy Orthopedics. See you at the races and we appreciate all of your comments and support. Best fans ever!Â
Now if only we could get Dan on a 600, to challenge Daytona…
