Dumas fends off early attack to win first Superbike race at Shannonville

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Category: CSBK News

Posted Sat Aug 31 2024 5:27 PM EDT

Written by Cam Bickle

A near-perfect weekend continued for Alex Dumas on Saturday, leading from start to finish despite plenty of pressure along the way to take his second Bridgestone CSBK win of the season at the final round at Shannonville Motorsport Park.

Dumas took the holeshot from pole position despite an equally good start from Sam Guerin and the pair quickly stretched away from the field and raced nose to tail for more than half the race as Guerin sought despair a way.

However, an obvious breakthrough never materialized as Dumas completed one of the best defensive efforts of his career to escape with a dramatic win in the penultimate race of the GP Bikes Pro Superbike season.

The victory – his second since joining Economy Lube Ducati – is just the latest part of what has been a dominant weekend from Dumas so far, having led FP1, FP2 and taking the BS Battery Pole award to go now along with the 14th Superbike of his career. win.

“We won our first at CTMP and led from start to finish and into the one, but it was a lot harder today,” admitted Dumas. “I made some mistakes, I didn’t take it easy. But it was a great fight and a lot of fun, so hopefully we can do it again tomorrow.”

The victory also gives Dumas his sixth podium since joining Economy Lube, equaling Pascal Picotte for the most by a Ducati rider in the history of the feature class, as he continues to look like a 2025 title contender on the V4 Panigale.

Guerin’s early charge wasn’t enough to dislodge Dumas, nor was it enough to hold onto second place as newly crowned champion Ben Young began to find his rhythm in the second half of the race and clawed his way back to two with four laps remaining.

Young would actually close the gap on Dumas significantly in the closing moments, setting the fastest lap of the race on the final lap, but eventually running out of time. Still, the four-time Canada Cup winner was happy to salvage a strong result after a bittersweet Friday in which he won his third championship in a row despite mechanical problems on his M1000RR main machine.

“I didn’t have the best start, so I tried to settle in with this ‘B bike’ after I had a few problems yesterday, but I just couldn’t get there,” said Young. “But the team worked really hard overnight while I was celebrating, so I owe them a big thank you. The Van Dolder BMW home team is such an amazing package to be a part of and one hell of a bike, so I know we’ll get there tomorrow.”

Guerin would have to settle for third, a disappointing result after it looked like he might challenge for his third win of the campaign, but still a strong indicator of how far Guerin and the BMW EFC Group team have come since the start of the season, conquering the ranking. second place in the 2024 ranking.

“I had a few moments there, I almost lost the front a couple of times so I tried to bring it home for second, but once I got back a bit, Ben was able to pass me,” Guerin said . “I was able to put a lot of pressure on Alex and although I really wanted the win, I was happy to see the progress I made last time here in the first round.”

Completing the top four once again was Jordan Szoke, who continued his own bittersweet streak of finishing in the top four in every race this season. The 14-time champion is the only rider other than Young to do so and continues to look strong aboard the CKM Kawasaki, albeit by a comfortable margin from the podium before him.

Completing the top five after a late push was David MacKay who found himself locked in a tight battle with Trevor Daley for much of race one. MacKay was able to make a great move into the penultimate corner and had the pace to chase down Szoke, albeit with just a couple of laps remaining as he settled for a strong fifth.

Daley’s run of ‘Daley Double’s’ came to an end after winning the Sport Bike race earlier in the afternoon, although he still managed an impressive sixth for OneSpeed ​​Suzuki as he battles a wrist injury and made some last minute repairs to his GSX. -R1000 following an accident on Friday.

Rewarding an early error was seventh-placed Tomas Casas, who had the pace to fight in the top-5 but ran from the back on the first lap. The Yamaha Motors Canada rider admitted it was his fault as he was absorbed by the front pack, but his comeback effort to finish seventh was enough to secure his third career FAST Hard Charger award.

Casas’ late push came at the expense of Connor Campbell, who had an excellent charge of his own, climbing from 15th on the grid to finish eighth and at one point as high as six for B&T MacFarlane/Kubota Kawasaki.

The strong finish will move Campbell 16 points ahead in the Brooklin Cycle Racing Pro Rookie of the Year battle going into the final day of the season as he looks poised to become the first Kawasaki winner of the award since Nico Meunier in 2019.

Eli Daccache salvaged ninth after running from the back on two occasions, blazing the pace to fight in the top six but suffering from his costly mistakes aboard the Milwaukee Yamaha.

Completing the top ten on his professional debut was Goran Radisic, who won the AIM Insurance Amateur Superbike crown last time out at CTMP and decided to end the year by moving up early in the professional standings for PMR BMW.

The feature class will now prepare for their final race of the 2024 campaign when the series returns to Shannonville on Sunday, with the trio of Dumas, Young and Guerin each looking to make a statement heading into the off-season.