Dumas paces Young through Friday test at Calabogie
Calabogie, ON – A return to familiar territory brought early results for Alex Dumas on Friday, as the defending CSBK Pro Superbike champion topped the unofficial timesheets at the Pro 6 Cycle trackday at Calabogie Motorsports Park.
Official CSBK timing was unavailable ahead of their round two doubleheader this weekend, July 9-10, but that didn’t stop the Pro frontrunners from setting a blistering pace in the afternoon sessions, with Dumas clocking in at an unofficial 2:01.478 in the final moments of the day.
That lap was already on par with the early practice pace from a year ago, where Dumas went on to set a weekend-best time of 2:00.640, though conditions are looking far more favourable this weekend for the Liqui Moly/Fast School Suzuki rider.
While Dumas’ place atop the times is hardly surprising given his success at Calabogie last season, it admittedly does not show the full picture as rival Ben Young did not register a flying lap in the final session. Young was credited as going faster than Dumas in the second afternoon session, but his unofficial time of 2:02.270 was unable to match up with the better track conditions later in the day.
Young’s pace mostly matched Dumas’ whenever the duo shared the track, which is an especially good sight for the 2019 champion as he finally debuted his brand new 2022 Van Dolder’s Home Team BMW M1000RR machine.
Trailing the duo in the combined unofficial times was Trevor Daley, who fought through the traffic to clock in at a 2:03.397 in the final session. The OneSpeed Suzuki rider has perhaps the best shot of joining the regular duo up front this weekend, and Friday’s fast start will only boost those odds as he looks for his first career Pro Superbike victory.
Michael Leon had the most consistent day of anyone in the Superbike field, running inside the top-four in all three afternoon sessions as he wound up with the fourth-best unofficial time in the combined results at a 2:04.366.
The Royal Distributing BMW rider is looking to put a tough opening round behind him as he returns to Calabogie, the track where he won his Pro 6 GP regional championship last season, and is on the right track to do so after an excellent Friday.
Just narrowly behind Leon was another local talent in Sebastien Tremblay, who clocked in just 0.022 seconds slower in fifth. Tremblay went third-fastest in the first two afternoon sessions but didn’t get a clean lap in under the best conditions in session three, though the Turcotte Performance Kawasaki rider remains one of the strongest threats for a podium this weekend.
Another Turcotte Performance rider got off to a strong start on Friday, though Christian Allard did so on a brand-new machine as he clocked the sixth-fastest unofficial time aboard his Ducati, a big boost for the Italian manufacturer as he makes his 2022 debut this weekend.
Narrowly losing out to Allard was fellow local star Samuel Guerin, who ramped up his times over the course of the day but still wound up 0.128 seconds off the sixth-fastest mark aboard his EFC Group BMW.
A number of top Liqui Moly Pro Sport Bike riders also got their weekends underway on Friday, though they did not register any times ahead of the first official CSBK action on Saturday.
Championship leader Trevor Dion got acquainted with the Calabogie circuit as he makes his Pro debut there this weekend, though he looked like he had some ground to make up on Saturday as rival David MacKay and local standout Phillippe Masse both pushed the limits in the afternoon sessions.
The full schedule of weekend action can be found on the series’ official website at csbk.ca, while tickets are still available for the round two doubleheader online.
