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NBC Sports
15-07-2025
- Sport
- NBC Sports
Bobby Fong wins twice at Laguna Seca, Josh Herrin once
Josh Herrin grabbed his fifth consecutive MotoAmerica Superbike trophy in the first race of the tripleheader at WeatherTech Raceway, Laguna Seca, in Monterey, California, and scored more points than his principal rival, Cameron Beaubier, in all three races. The winner of both Sunday races, Bobby Fong, closed the gap on Beaubier by 28 points to make this a three-way battle for the championship. Herrin currently holds a 31-point advantage over Beaubier, with Fong another six points behind. Herrin and Fong each swept the podium with a worst result of second to make for near-perfect weekends. In Race 1, Herrin extended his points lead to 28 over Beaubier when the early-season leader crashed on Lap 7. Herrin and Beaubier swapped the lead three times in the first half of the race after Beaubier had the early advantage from the pole. After three laps of racing, Herrin secured the top spot for another three trips around the track, Beaubier retook the lead on Lap 6, and then tucked his front wheel on the next circuit. 'Lately I've been approaching the races different,' Herrin said. "(Beaubier has) been my main competition for the last two years, and I want to kind of find out what I need to do to try to beat him. Coming into this race, I knew it was going to be hard, but I know that he's all or nothing. I don't know if it's his bike or if it's just the way that he is, but he's got to be pushing to the limit the whole time. 'He can't slow the pace down and then go back. He's got to be out there charging from the back or charging from the front. My goal was to just disrupt him a little bit, slow the pace down, throw him off his game a little bit. I knew he'd come back around and try to go hard. That's when I was counting on the mistakes. As soon as he made the pass, he made the mistake. If you can't beat him straight up, you got to figure out how to beat him mentally.' Falling back to 14th, Beaubier steadily rose through the ranks and salvaged a sixth-place finish on Saturday. Herrin led the final 14 laps, but was unable to shake Fong, who was a mere 0.367 seconds behind him at the checkered flag. 'Coming into this track, this track has always treated me pretty well,' Beaubier reflected after Race 3. 'I've had some good wins here in the past. Had a lot of success. It's one of my favorite tracks in the world. So, coming here and getting my butt kicked like we did, it sucks.' For the moment, however, the momentum belonged to Herrin. 'Sometimes you've just got to play that mental warfare and try something a little bit different,' Herrin continued. 'Instead of me just taking all the risk and blowing wide all the time, I'm just trying to be smart. It comes with age.' Fong learned a few lessons on Saturday as well. And after finishing on Herrin's back wheel in the first contest, changing track conditions played in Fong's favor. "(Herrin) was better than me yesterday; he was right,' Fong said after Race 2. 'Today's race was. … It was slippery yesterday too, but it was so slippery out there, and this Yamaha likes to roll, so that's kind of using that in our advantage a little bit. This next one, I'm sure it's going to even be a little bit more slippery with the temperatures going up. So, it's definitely going to be who has a better tire. Not managing the tire, but just who can deal with the sliding the least amount out there.' Fong dealt with the warmer conditions of Race 3 best. 'Honestly, in the first few laps, I thought it was going to be a long race,' Fong said after Race 3. 'I had a few moments in the first few laps, and then battling with these guys, I thought we were just going to scrap the whole race. It was fun for a little bit. (Sean Dylan Kelly) got his nose in there, so it was good. Then I saw that Herrin kind of caught on to some of the strong sections of the track that I was doing, so he kind of learned and picked it up and gathered a few tenths in some of those sectors.' Battling the effects of a crash on Friday, Herrin tried to convince himself he would be content with a solid points day. Once a rider feels the handling and speed of race conditions, however, that resolve is hard to maintain. 'The second race (on Sunday), I just told myself, we got a first and a second,' Herrin said. 'If I can just get a third right now, we've got a good points haul for the weekend. Just take it. Be happy. Then my mind just kind of switched. I got into the mode that I was in and just wanted to battle it up and see what happened.' Herrin's pair of second-place results to Fong had another silver lining; he finished ahead of Beaubier in all three Laguna Seca races to pad his lead while losing only a handful of points to Fong. MotoAmerica's Superbikes return to action August 1 - 3 at Virginia International Raceway in Alton, Virginia. Results Race 1 Results Lap Chart Lap Analysis Fastest Segment Times Detailed Segment Times Race 2 Results Lap Chart Lap Analysis Fastest Segment Times Detailed Segment Times Race 3 Results Lap Chart Championship Points
NBC Sports
30-06-2025
- Sport
- NBC Sports
Josh Herrin secures Superbike championship lead with Ridge Motorsports sweep
Josh Herrin kept his momentum alive at Ridge Motorsports Park in Shelton, Washington, with his second sweep of a weekend. Prior to Round 4, Herrin had never won three consecutive races, but with a dominant performance on Sunday, July 29, he left the Pacific Northwest with four. Herrin was heavily challenged in Saturday's race, giving up the lead for three laps in the closing stages of the event. Herrin rallied and won that race by 0.194 seconds over his closest championship rival, Cameron Beaubier. Sunday was a different story. Herrin led flag-to-flag and crossed under the checkers more than five seconds ahead of Beaubier. With this victory, Herrin moved from second in the standings — a slim two points behind Beaubier — to eight points ahead and will have the red plate when the series heads to Laguna Seca in Monterey, California, July 11 - 13. Dan Beaver, 'It was weird yesterday,' Herrin said in a news release, referencing his Saturday victory. 'I don't know what was going on after that win. I just was feeling down in the dumps. The only thing I can think of is I wasn't feeling great, but then today it was like the same point in the race. I saw the exact same number, plus 1.2 [seconds]. As soon as I saw that yesterday, I just lost focus and slowed down too much. I thought I had a good cushion, and I just over-slowed and Cam caught up. 'It was weird. I was obviously happy for the win, but not anything like today. Today I felt like I rode good. The team did a lot of work last night to try and think of anything we could get to just help me feel more comfortable on the brakes because Cam obviously was catching me a lot on the brakes. I'm stoked. Four wins in a row is huge. I'm going into Laguna with more momentum than I've ever had on a Superbike and more confidence than I've ever had.' Herrin's 20th career win in the Superbike division ties him for eighth on the all time wins list with Fred Merkel. Beaubier was relieved by his Saturday effort since it came after he earned only 16 (of a possible 50) points the previous week at Road America. Losing an addition five seconds of pace on Sunday at The Ridge did not dull that feeling. 'Coming in, I knew this was going to be one of the tougher tracks we are going to come to this year,' Beaubier commented. 'All said and done, two second places … I'm stoked with. Especially being able to even fight for the win yesterday.' But Beaubier did not accumulate his early-season points lead by accepting defeat, however. With The Ridge serving as a reset, he turned his thoughts to the next round. And Laguna Seca is his home track. 'Honestly, after yesterday I was hoping for a little more out of myself today,' Beaubier added. 'But I can say I rode as hard as I could. I didn't have anything for Josh. I was taking a lot of risks on the front, just trying to stay with him. There came a point he was probably seven-tenths up the road, and I just stopped lunging forward on the brakes. I was like, 'I need to bring this thing home.' He was on another level today.' The podium was the same on Sunday as it had been on Saturday with Jake Gagne taking the final spot on the box. 'It was good progress for me, just like my riding,' Gagne said. 'Obviously, Bobby [Fong] has been showing that the bike is capable of running up there. He's been smoking me. I feel like I kind of am getting closer to trying to remember how to ride after farting around all last year.' Richie Escalante improved his performance by one position to narrowly miss the podium by one position and two seconds. He finished fifth in Saturday's race. Hayden Gillim rounded out the top five to score his best finish of 2025. As for Fong, he struggled with mechanical issues and finished eighth. Go around the podium and hear what Superbike riders had to say following Ridge Motorsports Park, the fourth round of MotoAmerica's premier race class.
NBC Sports
29-06-2025
- Sport
- NBC Sports
Josh Herrin scores third consecutive victory at The Ridge's in Saturday's race
Josh Herrin narrowly beat Cameron Beaubier by 0.194 seconds at Ridge Motorsports Park in Shelton, Washington, in the first race of the doubleheader that makes up Round 4 of the MotoAmerica Superbike Series. This is the first time Herrin has won three races consecutively during his career and comes while he is embroiled in a tight championship battle with Cameron Beaubier. These two riders entered the weekend with a two-point separation. They ended it with a change of leader and three points between them. But one race remains on Sunday before the series heads to Monterey on July 12. In the first half of the race, Herrin built a 1.5-second lead over Beaubier before his rival battled back. Beaubier took the lead away from Herrin on Lap 11, held it for three circuits, before losing it again with two laps remaining. With the victory the defending champion, Herrin, took the championship lead from Beaubier by three points. 'It was fun,' Herrin said in a news release. 'Like you guys talked about there, in the middle of the race I saw a plus 1.1 and I think I let it get to my head a little bit. I honestly thought about it a little bit too much. I didn't know if he (Beaubier) made a little mistake and I got that gap, or if I earned it. I kind of let off that little bit and you're not supposed to do that. Just keep looking forward. I felt good.' This was the 19th career victory, which places Herrin ninth on the AMA Superbike wins list. Despite losing the lead with three laps remaining, Beaubier felt some relief after crashing out of the second race of Round 3 at Road America. 'Honestly, just to be in the race for the win was a win in itself,' Beaubier said. 'Yesterday it was a pretty tough day. We were struggling pretty bad with the bike, mainly on the front end. The guys stayed really late last night kind of looking everything over. They had to rebuild me a bike after I threw it into the fence at Road America. So, a completely new bike. We had a couple things that we were struggling with that we don't normally struggle with. With eight rounds remaining and one week after losing a sizeable points advantage, Beaubier's priorities shifted for Round 4. 'I went into this race, and I was like, 'I need to get some points,' ' Beaubier continued. ' 'I need to keep this thing on two wheels.' I knew how fast Jake (Gagne) was going and Josh this weekend. That was the main target. When Josh started riding away from me, I was like, 'let's just be patient.' Then he started coming back a little bit. I got a sniff and kept going. We had a little battle at the end, but I couldn't get close enough. He was really good off all the short corners getting that thing hooked up onto the straights. I just wasn't close enough to make any kind of move.' A little more than two seconds further back, Jake Gagne took the final spot on the podium. 'Just foreign territory up there going into Turn 1 not behind a bunch of guys,' Gagne said. 'Compared to how slow I've been this year, it's just good to be up there and finish a few seconds off those guys, and at least that first half kind of be sniffing them. ... It had been a long time, besides the rain stuff, that I've ran even close to these guys. So, it's just good to be up there. ' Fourth-place Bobby Fong and Richie Escalante rounded out the top five. The Ridge, Race 1 Results Lap Chart Lap Analysis
NBC Sports
02-06-2025
- Sport
- NBC Sports
Josh Herrin sweeps Road America, Cameron Beaubier crashes in Race 2
Josh Herrin followed up on his Saturday victory at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, with another Superbike win on Sunday to complete a sweep of the weekend. Herrin led wire-to-wire in Saturday's race on his Ducati despite pressure from Bobby Fong and Cameron Beaubier, but Sunday had a different plotline. Under pressure from Beaubier, Herrin rode off course in the chicane after leading Lap 1 and handed the top spot to the current points leader, but Herrin recovered quickly and was back up front on Lap 4, where he remained until the checkers. 'The guys gave me a perfect bike this weekend,' Herrin said in a news release. 'Like Bobby said, the track didn't have the grip that it had yesterday, but it seems like when the grip is down, our bikes, the V2 and the V4, always seems to be better for us. I ran off in the chicane, and I just knew I had to put in a solid two laps to catch back up to Cam, or my race is over. I was able to do that 9.4, which I was shocked by. I don't know what my best time was this weekend, but I don't think it was anywhere close to that.' Dan Beaver, The decisive moment of the race occurred on Lap 8, when Beaubier laid his bike down in the carousel and retired with the crash damage. The accident effectively erased Beaubier's points lead, which was 23 points ahead of Jake Gagne after two rounds. Third-place Herrin was in even more dire straits at 36 points behind entering Road America, but he left in second with only a two-point gap. 'Like we talked about yesterday, just getting through those first two rounds is important for us,' Herrin said. 'I think for me mentally, I got to get through them. It's like A1 for Supercross. I've just got to do it. Luckily, we had two really good races this weekend. We don't want to catch Cam because of crashes, but that's part of the game. Making mistakes is part of it. You've got to try to minimize them.' For the second consecutive race, Herrin beat Fong to the line, this time by 8.6 seconds. 'I was kind of doing the same thing as yesterday,' Fong said. 'We always try 100 percent, but I felt like the track was a little greasy today. Either that or I just couldn't carry the momentum like I did yesterday. I was actually dumbfounded at the end of the race. I was going pretty slow with the times. ... 'I was a little more disappointed with myself that I couldn't do the same pace. I lost the draft after the first lap and was just kind of a sitting duck. The crew has been working hard. It's cool to get two second-place points. I was a little far down in the points leading up to this round. It's good to move up in the points and to keep the Yamaha on the podium is good.' Richie Escalante improved on his fourth-place finish on Saturday to take the final podium spot despite his Suzuki losing power on the final lap. 'For some reason, this year I haven't had the best feeling with the bike, so I take time every day to feel a little bit better,' Escalante said. 'I think today I was maybe a little bit lucky, to be honest, but it's part of racing. I'm super happy to finish on the podium. In the last lap, I think I had no fuel. So almost did not finished the race. Super happy. I tried to stay close with Bob, but I made a mistake in the chicane. After that, I just maintained my pace.' Fourth-place Benjamin Smith and JD Beach rounded out the top five. This was a career-best finish for Smith. A pair of riders accustomed to riding up front saw their race hope evaporate early as Sean Dylan Kelly and Jake Gagne made contact early in the race. Both finished, but the incident relegated Gagne to eighth and Kelly to 14th, the last bike on the lead lap. Gagne fell from second in the championship standings at the start of the race to fourth. Bobby Fong's back-to-back second-place results elevated him to third in points. Race 2 Results Race 2 Lap Chart Superbike Rider Points
NBC Sports
01-06-2025
- Sport
- NBC Sports
Josh Herrin wins MotoAmerica Superbike Race 1 at Elkhart Lake, leading wire-to-wire
Josh Herrin led wire-to-wire in the first race of Round 3 at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, to score his first MotoAmerica Superbike race of the season and the 17th of his career. With this win, Herrin interrupted the momentum of championship leader Cameron Beaubier, who was victorious in three of the first four races of 2025. 'I don't think it's just a fast track,' Herrin told Hannah Lopa on Peacock following the race. 'It's the first two rounds, I'm always a little scared and riding a little bad. I need the first two out of the way to get going.' Herrin had added incentive at Road America after welcoming twin girls to the world earlier in the week. 'If you look back the last couple years, we've ran at the front in some races, but I don't think we've won any of the first two rounds for '23 or '24,' Herrin said in a news release. 'I hear the guys on the broadcast saying, 'When they can let the Ducati loose…' I'm not saying the Ducati is not a fast bike, but I think this track suits me well. I've won on the Yamaha, the Ducati, the Suzuki, and got a podium on the BMW here. 'So, I've had a lot of success just around this track. I like the vibes here. My first pro race was at this track in 2006. So, it's been a long time. I just feel good here. I do think that this is kind of like our reset, I guess. Obviously, I want to win at the first two rounds. It's not like I'm not trying. But I'm also just trying to collect some points because I know that we just need to keep our head up and get out of there.' The defending champion, Herrin, entered the round third in the standings on the strength of three podiums in four starts. But with Beaubier winning three races and finishing second in the outlier, Herrin faced a 36-point deficit and needed to eat away at that lead. 'So, to get three podiums in the first two rounds out of four, I was stoked with,' Herrin continued. 'Then, to top it off with a win here, it's good. I'm happy to win. I always love to win. But for some reason, right now, this doesn't feel like I thought it would. Maybe it's just because all the stuff that's been going on this week. I'm tired. Got a lot on my mind. I was like, I want to say something about the babies on the podium, and it was like hard to remember all of the names now. I'm like, 'I'm going to mess this up.' But I'm excited. I look at it, but I've got so much going on in my mind right now it's insane. Hats off to the team for working hard and pushing me this weekend.' Herrin led all 12 laps, but he was never able to create a sizeable gap on the field, being pressured first by Bobby Fong and then by Beaubier. 'I was riding so hard to try to keep up with them,' Fong said. 'I think it was the second-to-last lap, I had a big one. I thought I was going down for sure in Turn 1. Nearly fell off the thing. I thought Cam was going to blast me. My pit board was saying 'G2,' so I thought that there were two people behind me the whole time. So, I'm like, this is it. I'm getting fourth place. I thought there [were] more people than Cam. So, I just kept pushing and pushing and pushing. 'Once I had that moment, Cam went by. I'm like, 'I think my race is over. I have to settle in.' Then he went wide. He just went super wide into Turn 1. I thought, here's my second chance. Got in second, and I thought he was going to get me again. But it was good. This guy kept me on my toes. Both these guys kept me on my toes the whole time. Definitely had a lot of moments out there. I was ready to just send it to the grass for sure plenty of times. But it was good to get some points and move forward to tomorrow.' Beaubier got the jump on the field but rode wide in Turn 1, and after handing the lead to Herrin, he struggled for the next couple of laps to reclaim his momentum. In fact, Beaubier regained his speed and caught Fong in the closing laps. He passed Fong on Lap 9, held that advantage for another lap, and then rode wide one more time. 'I got a good jump, and then I missed a shift slightly going second to third,' Beaubier said. 'Then I sent it off in there a little deeper than I should have in turn one. I felt like I was okay. Then I was going to be about mid-track, then I got a big front-end push that sent me off the track. Just kind of blended in as safe as I could. Then, after that, I just did not have the same feeling I did in qualifying and practice. But these guys were putting up a great pace.' In the final two laps, Beaubier pressured Herrin, but the pace of the leader forced a mistake by the second-place rider. 'Josh at the front had to be going 2:10s the whole race. I was in there too and I was slowly crawling back. But, for me, it was just kind of a race of mistakes. I was struggling pretty bad getting the bike stopped. Man, when this BMW is working, it feels so good. But when it's not quite in its window, it's a beast to ride. But I'm glad we collected some points, especially after a couple mistakes I had and a couple close calls. I'm glad that we were able to at least salvage some points today.' Mounting a charge once more, Beaubier set his sights the four-point differential between third and second. He finished 0.009 seconds behind Fong. Beaubier finished third, keeping a perfect streak of podiums alive. This was the 115th MotoAmerica Superbike podium of his career. Fourth-place Jake Gagne and Richie Escalante rounded out the top five. Sean Dylan Kelly crashed on Lap 3 and was the first rider to be eliminated from the race. JD Beach experienced clutch problems and also retired. Race 1 Results Superbike Rider Points
