CSBK: Collins Wins Supersport Debut At Shannonville

Collins storms to historic win in Supersport debut at Shannonville

Torin Collins continued his stellar form in the Bridgestone Canadian Superbike Championship on Saturday, leading start-to-finish for a maiden victory in his Pro Supersport debut at Shannonville Motorsport Park.

After bursting onto the scene with a Superbike win in just his second career start last season, Collins would do one better in his switch to the Supersport category, starting from pole position and running an almost flawless race to add to his CSBK resumé.

Collins’ closest challenger in qualifying, Matt Simpson, got a terrible launch off the grid and was shunted down to third on the opening lap, with reigning champion Sebastien Tremblay moving ahead of him and Elliot Vieira settling into fourth as the lead group chased down Collins.

The group of four would run together for just a few laps before Collins made his break, stretching the lead aboard his Novalda Suzuki as Simpson looked for a way past Tremblay.

That move would eventually come on lap seven as Simpson got a great drive down the long back straightaway, slicing past Tremblay and beginning his march towards Collins, who had built up a near three-second advantage by the midway point.

Simpson would mostly match Collins’ pace before cutting it down to roughly 1.5 seconds with three laps to go, but Collins responded excellently to push that advantage back over two seconds and bring home a win in his debut.

The 19-year-old from Calgary, Alberta becomes the first rider ever to win on his Pro Supersport debut, erasing any doubt of his championship contention for 2025.

“I had never started on pole before, so I was actually pretty nervous sitting there on the grid,” Collins said. “I had a bit of a moment on the third-last lap, but thankfully I was able to recover that time and bring it home.”

The poor start limited Simpson’s challenge for a second career win, but it was an impressive performance nonetheless for the Evans Racing Yamaha rider as he returned to the podium for the first time since finishing as the championship runner-up in 2023.

Simpson’s effort on the YZF-R6 was especially notable compared to the rest of the “old-gen” runners, with Andrew Van Winkle (sixth) the only other rider inside the top-ten aboard similar machinery.

Completing the podium was defending champion Sebastien Tremblay, who was unable to fend off Simpson in the end but brought home a comfortable third for Turcotte Performance Suzuki.

Tremblay will hope to mount a better challenge for Collins in race two on Sunday, but will recognize the importance of securing as many points as possible this early in the campaign – both for himself and for Suzuki, who begin their own Constructors title defense with 41 of a possible 45 points thanks to Collins and Tremblay.

Adding a bit more insurance for Suzuki was Trevor Daley in fourth, who quietly chipped away at Vieira for majority of the race before making a beautiful last-lap move off the back straightaway.

The OneSpeed Suzuki rider showed enough late pace to compete for at least a podium in race two, hoping instead to get a better start on Sunday and chase a fifth career Supersport win.

As for Vieira, the GP Bikes Ducati rider got a great start to join the lead group but conversely was unable to maintain that pace to the end, salving a strong fifth to open the year after Daley’s last lap pass.

Van Winkle would make plenty of progress from 12th on the grid to finish sixth for FD Racing Suzuki, holding off fellow teenager Philip DeGama-Blanchet in the final few laps who was making his debut for Taylor Racing Ducati.

Notably absent from the final order was home favourite Brad Macrae and reigning championship runner-up Mavrick Cyr, who both failed to finish after Macrae crashed out of sixth in the hairpin and Cyr pitted due to suspected arm pump.

The opening round of the Supersport campaign will continue on Sunday with race two of the nine-race season, as Collins looks to sweep the weekend and open an early lead in the middleweight championship

Full results can be found on the series’ official website: www.csbk.ca

More, from another press release issued by Bridgestone CSBK:

Collins outduels Simpson for Supersport pole, Laflamme headlines support classes at SMP

A return to Canada was celebrated in style for Torin Collins on Friday, as the teenager secured his first career pole position in the Pro Supersport class at the Bridgestone CSBK opener.

After a pair of impressive Superbike showings in 2024, including a stunning victory at his home round in Edmonton, Collins announced his commitment to the more familiar Supersport class for 2025 beginning with a first-ever trip to Shannonville Motorsport Park.

It didn’t take long for the 19-year-old to adjust to the circuit, however, getting up to speed quickly during Thursday’s test and carrying the momentum into qualifying on Friday afternoon aboard his Novalda Suzuki GSX-R750.

The debut pole position didn’t come easy for Collins, however, as he battled throughout the session with Matt Simpson, who was also chasing his first career pole despite finishing as the championship runner-up in 2023.

Simpson would set the early marker aboard his old-gen Evans Racing Yamaha, before Collins initially displaced him at the halfway point. Simpson would then take the top spot back with five minutes to go, besting Collins by only 0.031 seconds, before the Calgary native reclaimed pole for the final time with under three minutes remaining.

The historic effort will make Collins the first rider ever to start from pole position in their Supersport debut, and the fifth-youngest pole sitter in class history.

Despite falling just 0.099 seconds short of a maiden pole himself, Simpson’s strong pace will put the Evans Racing Yamaha rider firmly in contention for a second career victory this weekend, nearly two years after Yamaha’s last win in the category.

Completing the front row will be reigning champion Sebastien Tremblay, who found himself outside the top five for much of the session but found a late improvement when he needed it.

The Turcotte Performance Suzuki rider would move into third just moments after Philip DeGama-Blanchet had taken the position, though a distant half-second behind Collins and Simpson at the front.

That late improvement will shunt DeGama-Blanchet to the head of the second row, an excellent performance for the 17-year-old in his first weekend aboard the Taylor Racing Ducati.

Home favourite Brad Macrae would find himself just 0.010 seconds behind DeGama-Blanchet in fifth aboard his Colron Excavating Yamaha, while Elliot Vieira rounds out the second row for GP Bikes Ducati.

Zaim Laflamme stole the show in the support classes to kick off 2025 on Friday, taking pole position in Amateur Supersport and falling just short of the same in Amateur Superbike.

Alexis Beaudoin would wind up as the rider to beat in AIM Insurance Amateur Superbike, dislodging Laflamme from the top spot in the final few minutes to take his first career CSBK pole position behind a time of 1:08.857.

That would only narrow outpace Laflamme, who will line up second on the grid and only 0.159 seconds off Beaudoin, with Martin Perreault completing the front row.

Laflamme would get the better of Beaudoin in EBC Brakes Amateur Supersport qualifying, however, blitzing the field to earn his first pole since graduating to the intermediate ranks with a lap of 1:08.769, better than Beaudoin’s Superbike benchmark and 0.716 seconds clear of the rest of the field.

Fellow Lightweight graduate Cole Alexander would take an impressive second on the grid for his Supersport debut, splitting Laflamme and Beaudoin as the 18-year-old looks to build upon his strong finale in 2024.

The first qualifying session of the revamped Importations Thibault Pro-Am Twins class was decimated by J.P. Tache, who will lead off the combined grid from pole position after winding up over a second clear of Louie Raffa.

The gap was actually much larger for most of the session, with Tache leading by over 2.5 seconds at one point for Aprilia, before Raffa cut the deficit dramatically in the final moments in his first weekend aboard an Aprilia of his own.

Reigning Amateur Twins champion Sebastian Silva will line up third for his first weekend as a pro, moving up one spot after a late penalty demoted Justin Marshall to the back of the grid for __

Jean-Pascal Schroeder kicked off his national championship defence by taking the top spot in the Kawasaki Ninja ZX-4RR Cup, putting in a number of strong laps late in the session to fend off returnee Jared Walker.

Local star Scott Szollos earned pole in the Pro-Am Lightweight Sport Bike class, beating out reigning Pro Lightweight champion Gary McKinnon in second.

Dante Bucek will complete the front row as he chases the amateur crown in the combined Pro-Am category, while MiniGP graduate Mason Archer turned in an impressive fifth in his CSBK debut behind Ryan Vanderputten.

The full slate of CSBK classes will begin their round one doubleheader on Saturday as racing gets underway at 1 pm ET, with race one of the feature Pro Superbike class kicking off at roughly 3 pm ET.

The full schedule and results can be found on the series’ official website.

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