Our supported riders Jake Gagne, Bobby Fong and Cameron Peterson were at Ohio last weekend for the MotoAmerica 7th Superbike round. Jake suffered an off-track excursion which saw him finish further down the pack as usual and is still suffering with arm pump, but is still second in the championship. Cameron was ruled unfit for Race One but took part in Race Two to finish P8 (after 3 crashes!) and Bobby sits joint second with Jake in the championship after finishing P6 and P5…
Race One
It might have been a difficult day with ever-changing weather conditions wreaking havoc on the schedule in road racing’s return to Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, but it was definitely a banner day for Josh Herrin.
Warhorse HSBK Racing Ducati’s Herrin took a commanding start-to-finish victory, his fourth of the season and second in a row, to stretch his lead in the Steel Commander Superbike Championship to 33 points on a challenging day at Mid-Ohio.
The victory came after a delay in the schedule as a rainstorm moved through the area, making conditions difficult at best. The track, however, dried and the Superbike grid took to the track for a familiarization session before everyone started the race on slicks.
Herrin dropped the hammer from the get-go and, along with his teammate Loris Baz, threw down some quick laps as the pair quickly opened a gap to the goings on behind them.
Herrin would gap Baz and those two were well clear of Tytlers Cycle Racing’s JD Beach, who would end up coming under pressure from his slow-starting teammate Cameron Beaubier. Beaubier’s woes were immediate with the five-time MotoAmerica Superbike Champion unsettled off the start and completing the first lap in sixth before picking his way through to fourth prior to catching and passing Beach on the seventh lap.
By then Herrin and Baz were long gone and it appeared as though third was going to be as good as it would get for Beaubier. Not so as Baz gifted Beaubier second place when the Frenchman crashed his Ducati Panigale V4 R out of a comfortable second and a potential Ducati one-two
Herrin crossed the line 18.8 seconds ahead of second-placed Beaubier with Beach 3.5 seconds behind his teammate in third.
Real Steel Motorsports’ Hayden Gillim was a popular fourth on his Stock 1000-spec Honda CBR1000RR-R SP with EasyHealthPlans.com/TopPro Racing’s Sean Dylan Kelly fifth.
Next came Wrench Motorcycles’ Bobby Fong with the Californian fighting his way through to get enough points to move within striking distance of second in the championship.
Jones Honda’s Ashton Yates, FLO4LAW Racing’s Benjamin Smith, Attack Performance/Progressive/Yamaha Racing’s Jake Gagne and Aftercare Scheibe Racing’s Ezra Beaubier rounded out the top 10.
Gagne had suffered with an early off-track excursion that put him well back in the pack, but he scored enough points to stay in second place in the title chase.
Notable non-finishers were Baz and Vision Wheel M4 ECSTAR Suzuki teammates Brandon Paasch and Richie Escalante with all three crashing out of the race.
Herrin heads into tomorrow’s race two with a 30-point lead over Fong, 219-189. Gagne is third with 186 points with Beaubier moving to fourth with 168 points – one better than Gagne’s teammate Cameron Petersen, who was forced to sit out the race after failing to pass his medical exam after his third crash of the weekend in morning warm-up.
Superbike Race One
Quotes…
Josh Herrin – Winner
“If you look back at least the last seven years, whenever the conditions are like that, I think subconsciously I just, almost like when you see motocross guys or (Mathew) Scholtz yelling on the grid right before, something about the fear side of it just does something to me at the beginning that allows me to just do what happened today. I couldn’t even explain why. The one big
advantage that I would say that I had was this morning I had a feeling that in case the track was like it was this morning and just slippery, when I came in and got my second tire, we didn’t do the Q. We did a race tire. Then I went out and did one lap, like one lap came, sat in the pits kind of like I would on the grid. Then put my head down like it was the start of the race to see what to expect from the tire, and it just helped a ton. I never thought about doing that before, but it just I think made a huge difference. I felt a lot more confident than I think I would have if I hadn’t. I knew I had to get in front of those guys at the beginning because with that knowledge of what the tire was going to be like, I wanted to just take advantage of it and try to go. I don’t know what my gap was at the beginning. I think third was right there, but I think further back we might have had a little bit bigger gap, so I was stoked that that worked out. The guys have been working super hard all weekend. We got lucky that we got that Thursday test because we didn’t come here and test like some of the other teams earlier in the year. But it was a weird win, because there’s been wins that meant more but for some reason it was more emotional than a lot of the wins. Just not having Griffin (his son) at the track. He’s starting to talk a lot more and understand things. Right before the race, Rachel sent me a video and he now recognizes (Cameron) Beaubier. She says, ‘Who is that?’ ‘He’s like, “Beaubier!’ Just the things he does, it’s like a whole new motivation like it was whenever he was first born. It’s just been an amazing year and I owe it all to my family and my team. It’s a shame that Loris (Baz) went down because it would have helped us in the points, and it also just would have been nice to see him get on the podium because he’s been working hard all year. Just thank you to everybody. Thank you to the huge turnout of fans in Mid-Ohio. This was always one of my favorite tracks to come to. It’s nice seeing stacked fans out there. So, huge shout out to them. Thank you to everybody. Hopefully we have another one tomorrow.”
Cameron Beaubier – Second Place
“What happened on the start… I had a little issue with my launch control. Honestly, after that happened, I kind of rolled and then kind of backed up. I was pressing my buttons, trying to figure out what was going on. Got shuffled back. Was struggling to get going there. It seems like (Josh) Herrin and (Loris) Baz, they were able to put their heads down right away and ride off into the sunset. I was struggling for the rear tire to come in. I could see other guys were too. Whatever they did today was working. Herrin rode awesome. He was three corners ahead of me or four corners ahead of me there at the end. Just hats off to the Tytlers guys. Obviously, I want to win. I want to close that championship gap up, but the best we could do today was second. It’s awesome having JD (Beach) up here on the podium, too. Go do our homework for tomorrow and come out swinging.”
JD Beach – Third Place
“Thursday at the end of the day we found something with the bike, and I was really starting to feel good on it again. Then, yesterday I was feeling good on the race tire, and then when we went to put the soft tire on, we had a bike malfunction. So, I didn’t get to put in a lap, but I had good pace. The race today, it might sound kind of weird, but this feels better than the last two weeks. I love dirt track, but road racing is where I want to be at right now. I’ve put the team through hell, pulled them back out a little bit, and then I put them right back in there. It’s been a struggle. But to get this third place feels amazing. It’s not going to be this easy every race, but we’ll keep working at it.”
Race Two
Warhorse HSBK Racing Ducati’s Josh Herrin had a near-perfect weekend in Superbike racing’s return to Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course after a 10-year hiatus as he stormed to a clean sweep of the two MotoAmerica Steel Commander Superbike races for the first Superbike doubleheader sweep of the 34-year-old’s career.
A day after running away from the pack in the first of two Superbike races, things were a bit different for Herrin on Sunday. Instead of charging to the front from the get-go, Herrin had to come from behind and when he got there, he didn’t find it to be a walk in the park. Instead, he got all he could handle for the entire distance from a pair of BMWs in the capable hands of EasyHealthPlans.com/TopPro Racing’s Sean Dylan Kelly and Tytlers Cycle Racing’s Cameron Beaubier.
The trio ran in formation for the entire distance with Herrin hounding Kelly from behind while Beaubier was doing all he could to stay on Herrin’s tail as he struggled with rear grip issues.
With two laps to go, Herrin made his move – diving under Kelly going into turn one.
Kelly stuck with the Ducati to the finish, ending up just .384 of a second behind Herrin when the pair crossed the finish line. Beaubier was a disappointed third, 1.3 seconds behind after finishing second to Herrin the day prior.
The win was the 15th of Herrin’s Superbike career, which moves him into a tie with Eric Bostrom and Freddie Spencer on the all-time AMA Superbike win list.
Herrin’s teammate Loris Baz was a rather lonely fourth, a day after crashing out of second place. He was 8.3 seconds adrift of Beaubier and 2.9 seconds ahead of fifth-placed Bobby Fong on the Wrench Motorcycles Yamaha YZF-R1.
Beaubier’s Tytlers Cycle Racing’s teammate JD Beach followed up on his third-place finish on Saturday to finish sixth on Sunday, some five seconds clear of Vision Wheel M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Richie Escalante, who in turn barely beat Attack Performance/Progressive/Yamaha Racing’s Cameron Petersen to the line. Petersen was back in action after being ruled medically unfit to race in yesterday’s race one and this weekend’s two races were Escalante’s return to racing after his injuries from round one at Road Atlanta.
Jones Honda’s Ashton Yates was ninth with Petersen’s three-time MotoAmerica Superbike Champion Jake Gagne ending up 10th as his season long arm-pump continue to slow him.
With two rounds and five races left to run, Herrin’s lead in the championship has been stretched to 52 points over the tied pairing of Gagne and Fong, 244-192. Beaubier moves to fourth with 184 points, nine better than Petersen’s tally.
Superbike Race 2
Quotes…
Josh Herrin – Winner
“During the race, I got a terrible start. I almost stalled the bike on the line. I don’t know what happened. I went back to sixth I think, or something like that. The years of watching Cam (Beaubier), whenever he has something kind of ruffle his feathers, he just stays calm and just kind of picks through the guys. I tried to take one from his book and just be calm and kind of pick my way through the pack. Got back up there. Eventually I made a move on Sean (Dylan Kelly) and made an aggressive pass in the Keyhole that at first during the race I was thinking, this guy is trying to help his BMW boy out or something. But now that I’ve calmed down, I’m like, actually on the first lap he did the same thing to Cam in the same spot. So it wasn’t that at all. I was like, maybe I should just be a little careful. I sat back and just decided that if I can stay in front of Cam and just see what Sean’s doing, because I have a pretty big lead over Sean in the championship, I’ll just wait until Cam makes a move and if I need to, go around Sean then. So, just tried my hardest to save my tires for an attack at the end and save my energy. I was going to go for it on the last lap, and then I was thinking about it. I’m like, if Cam is doing the same thing I am, maybe he’s going to attack with two laps to go. So, I’m going to try to stir things up a little bit and go a little earlier. That’s what we did. I just put my head down. The Ducati, since I’ve been on it, I feel like I have an advantage when there’s less grip on the track, which is funny because on Richard’s (Stanboli) podcast he does, he says it’s the opposite when the track has a lot of grip. But I feel like when there’s not a lot of grip, our bike does pretty good. Then, I feel like I let my tires cool down too much during the race by not being aggressive like I normally would be exiting the corners. It was just sliding all over when it hadn’t moved at all during the whole race. So, I had a couple big moments in my best part of the track where I was really trying to attack, and it scared me. Luckily, we were able to hold him off. It’s crazy. I don’t know how many years I’ve tried, but it’s been 12 years since my first Superbike season, and I’ve never had a double. So, it just goes to show I think, obviously I’ve put in a lot more work than I ever have in my career, but also just being with the same team on the same bike for two years in a row is the biggest thing ever for me to really up my game. So, I don’t know what the future holds, but I’ll always be grateful for the opportunity that Bobby and the De Naples gave me to do two years on this bike and let me show… Maybe I’m different than some guys. I just needed a little bit longer to ripen up. I’m hoping that these last years of my career are better than the beginning years. I’m just stoked to end the weekend like this and go into our best track of the year at COTA. The goal is to just have a really good weekend there and then be able to clinch it before Jersey because Jersey, if it rains, that’s what will definitely scare us. I want to get ahead as much as I can before then.”
Sean Dylan Kelly – Second Place
“To be honest, I was really confused up until the grid today. I even did the sighting lap with an old tire. I was sliding as if I was on ice with the rear tire. I went into the race pretty pissed off, to be honest. I was frustrated with the race yesterday. I again felt like I was ice skating out there, and obviously I was really nowhere, especially the first three laps. Finished fifth yesterday which was disappointing after being pretty much up there all weekend. This morning, I was two and a half seconds off. I had no idea what was going on. It was really strange. But as soon as I got that new tire, that was obviously the race tire prepped for the race, and I’m glad that the rain stayed away. Conditions were a lot better. As soon as I started the race, I’m like, I feel like I’ve got my bike back. I got a good start. I was up front. I did some good pass there to (Cameron) Beaubier when he got past me. I wanted to be up front, and I felt good. Once I was clicking away, I actually felt like I was getting better and better, getting more comfortable even being at the front. So, I knew that Josh (Herrin) got by me at one point, and I attacked right back. So, I knew that he had something on me. I just tried to keep my rhythm, and with three laps to go I really did everything I could to just do the best I can. Whether he could follow me or not, I obviously had no idea. But I did a 24.8 with a few laps to go. I’m just happy I did that, regardless of getting second or not. I’m just happy that I was able to do that pace on my own up front. This guy had a little extra, but I tried to get him back at the end and it was just too tight. I really got to be happy, especially with how I was feeling only a few minutes before the race. So, super pumped. Super happy with my whole team, everything that they’re working on and just helping me become a better Superbike rider. Still learning a lot on this thing, but I think I’m definitely getting there. I think the win is coming soon.”
Cameron Beaubier – Third Place “I don’t want to take anything away from these guys because they rode incredible – not just today but all weekend. I’m just frustrated. I feel like we can’t catch a break. I don’t know what was going on with my rear tire, but I had zero grip from the start, on the entry, mid-corner, exit. I was struggling so hard just to hang with these guys. I was trying to make it up all on the brakes, and then the rear end was coming around. It just felt like the tire never came in. Yesterday, we had that little electric problem in the race and it’s just frustrating. I feel like we just can’t catch a break right now, and it’s not a good time to be dealing with this stuff. Like I said, I’m not taking anything away from these guys because they’re riding incredible right now. We win as a team, and we lose as a team. The Tytlers guys have been working their butts off all year, been giving me an incredible bike. We just need everything to line up for these last couple rounds. I rode as hard as I could and third was the best we had today.”
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