Ben Young: Strong comeback to clinch the title again.
Munich. When the 2023 season in the Canadian Superbike Championship (CSBK) kicked off in May at Shannonville, BMW racer Ben Young lined up on his Van Dolder’s Home Team BMW M 1000 RR as the defending champion. When the season ended in September, also at Shannonville, Young was crowned champion again, celebrating his third title win in the series. In between, there has been an exciting season with some setbacks but most of all a fantastic comeback. At one point, Young was trailing in the championship by 36 points, but he mounted a comeback with his BMW M 1000 RR, winning five consecutive races. Two of those victories came in the first two races of the Shannonville finale. That was sufficient to secure the title before the final race of the year. Furthermore, Young, along with fellow BMW rider Sam Guerin and others, secured the manufacturer’s title for BMW. In an interview, we talk to Young about this stunning year.
Image above © Damian Pereira
Image right © Rob O'Brien
Ben Young
© Damian Pereira
Ben, congrats on your third title win in CSBK. What a season! How would you describe it in three words?
Ben Young: “Up and down rollercoaster. That’s four words, but…(laughs).”
You started with P2 on the podium in the first race, then things became more difficult. But you had this great comeback with five consecutive wins. What were the keys to this success?
Young: “I feel like the biggest thing was that we knew we could do it, we just never had the opportunity to show our potential. The first race, as you’ve said, we’ve finished second in the rain and then we had a mechanical issue in the dry race. But we knew we could win those races if things went our way but they didn’t. That was our first time with the new BMW M 1000 RR as well. The biggest thing was knowing that we can do it. I knew that we could go to Canadian Tire Motorsports Park and win all three races. Thankfully Sam Guerin on the BMW secured second place in those three races, which helped us massively on our championship chase because it put my rival to three third places. That helped us gain a lot of points that weekend. So yeah, the biggest thing was not giving up and still knowing what we could do and to finally being able to show everybody what pace the BMW M 1000 RR really had.”
Ben Young
© Damian Pereira
So there has never been a moment in the season when you started to doubt that the title would be possible?
Young: “I guess I did a little bit after the fourth race of the season, where I had a crash and managed to regain the race and finished in eleventh place. There was a lot of doubt after that weekend. Because with the season being very short, it’s really hard to come back if you had one bad race. And I had two bad races. But anyways, I felt that I had nothing to prove. I was carrying the number one from the years before. So I already proved that I could be a champion. So I just could go out there, ride my bike and have fun. And that was the biggest thing – we had always a lot of fun as a team. I looked at my competitors in the paddock and they seemed to be always very serious, whereas we always are having fun. My crew chief, my mechanic, we all are joking around. And you need to have fun in life to enjoy it, right? Having fun also kept us believing. And it was very satisfying to come back. Because in my previous two championships I led it from start to finish. So this is the first one I’ve won after chasing the competitors. I did not lead the championship until I’ve won it. That was really nice to do as well. And again, it proved to some people, like doubters, that I can do it and that I can put on these top class performances when it counts.”
Ben Young
© Damian Pereira
Was it a key to success having those good vibes in the team all the time?
Young: “Yes, I feel so. Nobody puts any pressure on me but myself. My parents are there to have fun, my mom cooks the meals for the team, my dad helps run tyres, and stuff. I’ve worked with my mechanic Scott and my crew chief Willie and my data guy Steve since 2016. So we are not just colleagues, we have become friends as the years went on. It‘s always nice to have friends around you, it gives the fun side of it. Absolutely, I feel it as a key to success, rather than being under a pressure environment all the time.”
The move to victory at Shannonville
© Damian Pereira
What was the feeling after your win in the second race at Shannonville when you knew you did it?
Young: “It was really great, because I could have finished in second place and still could have a big points gap and win it on the Sunday. But the last two championships I won, I always just did enough, I finished the second place and wrapped up the conservative way but this time it was like, no, I had to do it differently. My competitor Alex led the whole race up until the last lap. That‘s when I made the move, put my head down and won it. That was a huge relief. And winning the championship by winning the race, rather than finishing just second or third place, was really cool. And again, I think it opened a lot of people’s eyes. At that track, you can see more than half of the track from the grandstand, and everybody erupted and it was really cool. It was really awesome to win the championship by winning the race with that move.”
It must have been also cool for the fans to witness it…
Young: “Yes. Me being a racing fan, those are moments that I remember, watching guys through the years being at the race track as a kid. And you hope you inspire some people and that’s a memory you can give to people. They can remember that race because that happened. Nobody would have remembered if I had finished second to win the championship. You remember the last lap pass. That’s important and it’s also a cool memory for myself – and hopefully for a lot of people.”
Ben Young
© Damian Pereira
How would you describe the advantages of the BMW M 1000 RR that makes the difference for a rider?
Young: “I feel like the biggest thing for the BMW in general is the advanced electronics that the BMW Motorrad Motorsports programme has. And of course the M is just having that little bit more power than the S 1000 RR that we have used in previous years. We’ve also made a lot of chassis changes but kept the set up pretty similar to the S 1000 RR, so there is not a drastic change in that. One thing I really noticed this year compared to 2022 would be the aerodynamics. We don’t have many tracks that we can take advantage of the aero on, but the ones we do, you can really notice it. We have some spots like at the Canadian Tire Motorsports Park where you are in sixth gear over a hill and it helps to keep the bike planted a lot more. I feel for us, it’s just such a great platform to go racing with. Like I said the electronics are very advanced and luckily, I surround myself with great people that are knowledgeable of all that, so they can constantly improve and make things better.”
Ben Young & Sam Guerin
© Damian Pereira
You BMW riders also secured the manufacturer’s title for BMW. What does that mean to you?
Young: “It’s definitely nice. It’s a relatively new ranking that the Canadian Superbike Championship introduced. It was in favour of Suzuki for quite a bit but in the end we managed to pull it back. A rider’s championship is important for the manufacturer but being able to do the constructor’s championship also shows the effort that BMW is putting in to racing everywhere and the development of the bike. It shows not only one guy is doing well on it but multiple people are. It’s important for myself and it’s a nice way to reward the brand as much as possible for the effort that they give to us.”
What are your plans for next season?
Young: “Next season, we’re putting together the Superbike programme again. We had a meeting with BMW Motorrad Canada to discuss what we can put together so it looks like we’re going to continue with the same programme. And maybe there will be something more if possible.”
