Grand Bend was the scene of some grand upsets over the weekend, with two first-time winners in Canadian Superbike’s literbike series, as well as some shuffling in the ranks of Pro Sport Bike.
First off, the man of the hour was Trevor Daley. After 16 podiums without a win in Pro Superbike—16 podiums!!—Daley finally bagged that first-place finish in the weekend’s second race, on Sunday. The rain helped him, as is often the case with these scenarios, but Daley still had to do all the hard work of getting through traffic and holding off the competition. Second place went to Ben Young and third place went to Sam Guerin, who was having a weekend of his own (more in that in a minute).
This was Daley’s second win on Sunday, as he was also champ in the Pro Sport Bike race! He’d got a podium in Saturday’s race, in his first 600-series event in years—he won that title in 2014—and looked like he had the pace needed. But in Race 2 on Sunday, he ran off-track early and got behind five other riders who battled for the lead. But Daley managed to cut through them all and take that win, making a tough pass on series leader Sebastien Tremblay in the second-last corner of the final lap for the win. With those results, Daley is now third overall in the Pro Sport Bike title championship, despite not even running the first weekend in Shannonville. Talk about a successful weekend!
And it was also a good weekend for Sam Guerin, with his first-ever win in the premiere class. Rewinding the tape to Saturday, Guerin was the winner of a hard-fought Pro Superbike Race 1, battling with local ace Steven Nickerson for the lead—but unfortunately for Nickerson, he ran off-track in the second-last lap, while he was in the lead. Guerin was able to hold his newly-acquired lead until the end of the race, with Ben Young in second behind him (Young got jammed up in lapped traffic) and Jordan Szoke in third. Young still leads Pro Superbike by 11 points over Guerin.
Finally, Sebastien Tremblay also had a good weekend. While he might have liked the win in both Pro Sport Bike races, his victory in the Saturday race coupled with his second in the Sunday race were enough to give him a healthy 45-point lead over Zoltan Frast in the 600 series. That’s going to be hard for anyone to overcome if Tremblay stays healthy and his luck holds!
However, note that things are gonna get tricky for the next couple of races. On June 21-23, CSBK heads to Edmonton; not all racers will go there, and the only Pro rider in either series with success there is Jordan Szoke. Szoke won the two Pro Superbike races out there in their last visit in 2015; Kenny Riedmann won the two Pro Sport Bike races. For the guys from eastern Canada, this is mostly unfamiliar territory, and the home racers in Edmonton will have a huge advantage as a result. That was even noticeable in the past weekend, with SOAR-series racers from Grand Bend putting massive pressure on the CSBK’s come-from-away crowd.
Then, they’re off to Shubenacadie in mid-July. While all the CSBK front-runners have experience here, the Nova Scotia track is very tricky, and weather often works against the racers here as well. Often, the east coast trip is a make-it-or-break-it deal for championship hopes.
For full details on the past weekend’s racing, including results from the support classes, check out CSBK.ca. Remember that this year’s races are once again being broadcast on TSN, so if you missed the Grand Bend action, you should be able to enjoy it soon on cable TV.
