By: Jordan Szoke Racing
August 23 2016
Since 2014, the Mopar Canadian Superbike Championship has been dominated by one racer, Jordan Szoke. Winning doesn’t come easy as fans witnessed during the Mopar Canadian Superbike Championship finale this past weekend at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park.
Szoke started off the weekend by breaking a 5 year track record on Dunlop’s newly introduced “Q” (qualifying) tires introduced for the finale. Riding his Mopar Express Lane backed BMW Motorrad S1000RR Szoke turned the fastest lap around the 3.9km (2.459-mile) track at one minute, 20.778 seconds during the Dalton Timmis Insurance qualifying shootout.
Szoke then clinched his 2016 Mopar CSBK title in dramatic fashion on Saturday, finishing just 0.046 secs. ahead of leading Moto America competitor Claudio Corti of Italy who joined the series for the finale. Corti, has competed in several premier world series, including Moto GP, Moto 2 and World Superbike, most recently for the Forward Team in the premier Grand Prix category.
“To win the Championship like this means so much not only to me, but to our series as a whole. To have someone like Corti here completing with us brings credibility to our entire organization. Canadians are not only fast but able to race at a world level. Thanks to him for coming here to race with us.”
Sunday’s race was just as intense as multiple red flags lead to an 8 lap dash for cash to the checkered. Szoke pulled clear of the Italian pilot Corti by 2.725 secs. Szoke completed the final race of the season in 10 minutes, 46.517 seconds earning him, for the second year in a row, and a third in his career, a perfect season.
“This is awesome. It is such an honour to have a rider like Claudio here and to battle with him, it feels good to be able to defend our territory and say, ‘this is our house. Normally we have to travel to other tracks to showcase our talent which leads us to a bit of a disadvantage. Its awesome to have him here to be able to showcase our caliber of talent at such a beautiful facility.”
Throughout his career Szoke has claimed three perfect seasons, four Team of the Year awards, 21 National Titles and a total of 59 Superbike wins. It is no coincidence that he will be inducted into Canada’s Motorsports Hall of Fame this October.
The next challenge for Szoke is to see where he ranks against the rest of the world talent in the 2016 BMW Motorrad Race Trophy comprised of 20 championships with 27 different classes, staging 280 races on 84 circuits in 24 countries on six continents.
“I couldn't claim any more points.” says Szoke. “We won every race, every pole, earned our championship, Team of the Year, and broke track records. Here’s hoping it will earn us and our country a BMW Motorrad Race Trophy.”