The Bridgestone Canadian Superbike Championship has announced a revised schedule of events for rounds four and five of the season, after last week’s cancellation of round three at Atlantic Motorsport Park.
Severe rain and flooding forced the immediate cancellation of round three at AMP on Saturday Morning, July 22. This was the first time in the 43-year history of the national series that an event was cancelled due to weather, in what was an unprecedented period of rain for both CSBK and the province of Nova Scotia.
A return to AMP will unfortunately not be possible in 2023, with a focus turned towards returning to the east coast in 2024.
As for the remaining 2023 schedule, CSBK officials have announced the following changes in an effort to restore as many national races as possible, while fulfilling the TSN broadcast schedule, initially set for 21 episodes covering the three pro classes.
At round four, set for Canadian Tire Motorsport Park on August 18-20, the schedule will be amended to include one Friday make-up race for Liqui Moly Pro Sport Bike and Bickle Racing Pro Twins, using the official grid set for Atlantic Motorsport Park and available only to the entrants of round three.
This will be the only official make-up race to carry over from AMP, as this was the only qualifying session to run as scheduled in dry conditions in round three, with Sebastien Tremblay (Sport Bike) and Andrew Van Winkle (Twins) on pole.
The rest of the Liqui Moly Pro Sport Bike and Bickle Racing Pro Twins schedule will remain unaffected, with the initial commitment of ten national races now becoming nine.
In the feature GP Bikes Pro Superbike category, round four at CTMP will remain as scheduled, with a completely new race scheduled at the final round at Shannonville Motorsport Park on Friday, September 15.
This will make each of the final two rounds of Pro Superbike a tripleheader, resulting in their commitment of eleven national races becoming ten.
It will be the first time two tripleheaders have been held in the same season, and the first to be held outside of CTMP after the format was debuted in 2021.
As for the amateur ranks, the final round at Shannonville will now become a full doubleheader, adding one race to each of AIM Insurance Amateur Superbike and Scorpion EXO Amateur Sport Bike.
These two categories will now go from seven national races to six, while Super Sonic Race School Amateur Lightweight and EBC Brakes Lightweight Pro/Am will drop from ten scheduled races to eight.
More details regarding entry fee changes will be provided at a later date.
These amendments will see 19 of the scheduled 21 episodes fulfilled for TSN broadcast purposes with Pro Superbike (ten episodes) and Pro Sport Bike/Pro Twins (nine episodes) races.
The remaining two episodes will show CTMP race one of the Lightweight Pro/Am class (never before shown on TSN), and a Shannonville highlight show covering Amateur Superbike race one and Amateur Sport Bike race two (not shown on TSN since 2010).
CSBK officials would again like to thank everyone for their patience and understanding during this unprecedented situation.
For more information on the Bridgestone Canadian Superbike Championship, visit www.csbk.ca.
Main picture: The top three in the Pro Superbike championship remains unchanged after the trip to Nova Scotia, with the cancellation of round three due to severe flood damage near Atlantic Motorsport Park. Defending champion Ben Young (1) currently trails Alex Dumas (23) in the standings, with Sam Guerin (2) third. Photo credit: Rob O’Brien / CSBK.
Source: Bridgestone Canadian Superbike Championship
