Warhorse HSBK Racing Ducati’s Josh Herrin won his fifth straight MotoAmerica Superbike race on Saturday at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, taking full advantage of a miscue by his championship rival Cameron Beaubier to extend his eight-point championship lead to 23 points.
Tytlers Cycle Racing’s Beaubier led from pole position but gave way to Herrin on the third lap. From there, Herrin used his slow-the-pace strategy and led for three more laps before Beaubier went to the front again. Just when it looked like Beaubier was ready to pull the trigger, he tucked the front in turn two and crashed. The five-time MotoAmerica Superbike Champion was able to remount and finish sixth, scoring 10 points that may prove valuable at season’s end.
If Herrin thought he was going to have it easy after watching Beaubier crash out, he had another thing coming in the form of Bobby Fong. Fong hounded Herrin for the duration but failed in his attempt to take victory with a last-lap, last-corner pass that came up just .367 of-a-second short at the finish line. It was Fong’s fifth second-place finish of the season.
Fong’s teammate Jake Gagne finished third for his sixth-podium finish of the season. Gagne knew he was a bit lucky with Beaubier’s crash in turn two and Sean Dylan Kelly’s crash in the Corkscrew.
Real Steel Honda’s JD Beach turned in a solid performance to finish fourth on his Stock 1000-spec Honda CBR1000RR-R SP, which also earned him victory in the MotoAmerica Superbike Cup Championship.
A beaten and bruised Richie Escalante was fifth on the Vision Wheel M4 ECSTAR Suzuki after a second practice crash in two days. Escalante was less than a second behind Beach at the finish and well clear of Beaubier.
BPR Racing’s Bryce Kornbau was seventh, a few seconds ahead of Aftercare Scheibe Racing’s Danilo Lewis. Thrashed Bike Racing’s Max Flinders was ninth with Edge Racing’s Jason Waters rounding out the top 10.
Notable among the non-finishers was Real Steel Honda’s Hayden Gillim, who went out with a mechanical issue, and crashers Kelly, Jones Honda’s Ashton Yates, and FLO4LAW/SBU Racing’s Benjamin Smith.
After nine races, Herrin leads Beaubier, 184-161, and Gagne is third with 141 points. Fong gained some ground on his teammate and now trails him by four points. Escalante rounds out the top five in the series standings with 92 points.
Superbike Race 1
- Josh Herrin (Ducati)
- Bobby Fong (Yamaha)
- Jake Gagne (Yamaha)
- JD Beach (Honda)
- Richie Escalante (Suzuki)
- Cameron Beaubier (BMW)
- Bryce Konbau (Yamaha)
- Danilo Lewis (BMW)
- Max Flinders (Yamaha)
Quotes
Jake Gagne – Third Place
“Ridge went pretty well. We were closer to Josh (Herrin), Cam (Beaubier), Bobby (Fong), and those guys. I’ve just kind of been a little off pace here all weekend. We’ve been trying to find something to make me a little more comfortable. I was definitely hoping to be closer to those guys. Like I said, I got lucky with those guys going down. Beaubs (Beaubier) going down, and then SDK (Sean Dylan Kelly) went down in the Corkscrew. Then I was just kind of rolling around, trying to think about what we could do, how we could close the gap to these guys because they’ll be rolling. Two races tomorrow, so we’ve got a long day. I want to be in the fight with those guys, but thanks to the team. It’s always good being at Laguna. The crowd is sick. Let’s go racing tomorrow.”
Bobby Fong – Second Place
“Could have, would have, should have. You look back at the race and you’re like, ‘maybe I should have passed here, or I should have passed there.’ But Josh (Herrin) rode a good race. I couldn’t get the job done today, but tomorrow we have two more shots. I think we have a direction on what I want to work on a little bit for tomorrow. It got a little greasy out there, for sure. Once we lose our roll speed on this thing, I’m kind of a sitting duck. I think we can improve on that tomorrow and see if I could put my head down tomorrow and see what we can do. I know Beaubs (Beaubier) will be up there tomorrow. Everybody is going to take another step tomorrow and we’ve just got to do the same.”
Josh Herrin – Winner
“I knew today with my neck being as sore as it is, it was going to be a hard race for me. I knew Cam (Beaubier) had pace. It’s his home track. He’s going to push hard. Lately I’ve been approaching the races different. This guy’s (Beaubier) 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. I think I’ve figured that out. I’m just going to keep playing that as long as I can whenever I need to. We go to tracks where I’m just not as strong as him. That’s just how it is. Sometimes you’ve just got to play that mental warfare and try something a little bit different. 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. It comes with being a father and being patient, I guess. Today it worked out in our favor. It’s not going to always go like that, but today it worked out.”
