No stopping Szoke in superbike return

By Darryl G. Smart

It may have almost been a year since the last Canadian Superbike race, but you couldn’t tell from the way Jordan Szoke dominated in Ottawa over the weekend.

During Round 1 of CSBK action, the 13-time Canadian superbike champion from Brantford not only won the pole, but went wire-to-wire in both races to earn maximum points at Calabogie Motorsports Park.

“I got a really good start. I was actually a little shocked at the start I got, to be honest. But that just allowed me to chip away at the pace and stay consistent,” Szoke said. “I’ve always enjoyed the heat, but it’s almost Suzuka hot out here. We’re running very little traction control, so that might be something we look at for race two later on.”

After taking the checkered flag by four seconds in the first race, he beat the heat in the air conditioned trailer while his crew prepared his General Warranty Kawasaki ZX-10R for the second race of the day.

Szoke again went wire-to-wire, narrowly defeating veteran rider Jeff Williams in dramatic fashion.

“I did my best lap of the weekend and the gap still went to plus-zero, so I knew Jeff was flying back there,” Szoke said. “I just tried to run a consistent race and keep the lead, and my last lap ended up being my fastest which just shows you the level of the bike.”

With the dominant performance, Szoke earned 104 points to lead the overall CSBK standings. As for returning to the track after the Covid-19 delay, Szoke couldn’t be happier to be racing again.

 “I felt it was very important for us as racers to participate.” Szoke said. “We played smart, and safe. The organizers did their best last minute to provide us something to compete in and our Canadian Motorsports fans something to watch. We need to support that to keep our sport alive. Thank you to everyone who supported this weekend.”