Fast Times At CTMP: The Mosport Round Sees CSBK Titles Decided, And A Lot Of Great Racing

The Canadian Tire Motorsport Park race weekend is in the books for 2024, and while this weekend is always the highlight of the summer’s racing, it was even better this year thanks to an all-new event: The debut of professional bagger racing in Canada.

The Bagger Racing League ran a doubleheader at Mosport this weekend, and eight racers, including riders from all over the U.S. and even an Aussie, faced off to flog their heavyweight V-twins. Both race victories went to Sam Guerin, with Cody Gilmore of Texas and Michael Wells of Idaho rounding out the platform in Race 1. Race 2 saw Gilmore and Wells once again finish second and third respectively.

Guerin had the advantage at Mosport, having plenty of experience, but Race 2 was closer than Race 1 and if CSBK can talk the Bagger Racing League into keeping this on the schedule, we can probably look forward to some cutthroat battles here in the future. On Guerin’s part, he said “I really hope this is just the start of things in Canada and we can continue this event in the future.”

But how did Guerin make out over in the Pro Superbike series, his real competition for this season? Guerin was unable to make up any points against series leader Ben Young; Young was second in Race 1, behind Alex Dumas and just ahead of Guerin. In Race 2, Young took second again, with Trevor Daley in first and Tomas Casas earning a banged-up third-place in his CSBK debut weekend for 2024 (Casas crashed in practice). That means Young is up 50 points on Guerin in the championship now, with only 54 points left to grab in the remaining race weekend. Translation: Young looks like a cinch.

Oh yes, and that was Daley’s second win of the weekend. Daley also won Race 2 in Pro Sport Bike, a race shortened by rain. It’s his second 1-and-1 race weekend of the season, as Tremblay won Race 1 in Pro Sport Bike and clinched his title. The Pro Sport Bike series was perhaps the sharpest competition of the weekend, with former champion Jodi Christie also returning and John Laing, Andrew Van Winkle and Elliot Vieira all putting in strong efforts. Tomas Casas also ran on-track on an R6, but was a DNS in both races. One wonders if he might return to the series in 2025; he has had plenty of success on 600s over the years, and his comments after the Pro Superbike podium show that he wants to return for a full CSBK campaign.

Tremblay wasn’t the only rider to clinch a championship this weekend. Gary Mckinnon cinched his title in the  Pro-AM Lightweight series, and Goran Radisic won the Amateur Superbike title. In the Amateur Sport Bike series, though, we might be about to see a flip on the leaderboard. Laurent Laliberté-Girard came into the weekend 45 points down on leader Serge Boyer, and is now only 14 points down, after some hard racing including a fifth in the rain on Sunday.

So, even though a lot of the racing titles are more-or-less decided, we still have some battling to look forward to at Shannonville on the August 30-September 1 weekend.

For an in-depth look at all the racing last weekend, head to Canadian Superbike’s website here.