Fridays aren’t Saturdays and Fridays aren’t Sundays, but being fastest on Friday isn’t a bad way to go.
Attack Performance Progressive Yamaha Racing’s Bobby Fong fired the first shot of championship weekend at New Jersey Motorsports Park, with the Californian earning provisional pole on Friday afternoon. Fong was fourth fastest on Friday morning but went 1.3 seconds quicker on Q1 to lead the way into tomorrow’s Q2 and race one with his lap of 1:19.912.
Fong’s combatants in the battle for the 2025 MotoAmerica Superbike Championship – Cameron Beaubier and Josh Herrin – were 12th and third, respectively, in Q1. Beaubier’s day was the worst of the three as he crashed twice on Friday.
Coincidentally, Fong crashed twice on Friday at Circuit of The Americas two weeks ago but rebounded to finish on the podium in both races. He knows what tough days are like and feels for Beaubier.
“Yeah, especially after COTA, having two crashes on a Friday, it always just sets you back,” Fong said. “We’ve done good about crashing and getting back up and going again. We’re definitely not going to get too excited because we know that with the talent of my competitors, we’ve just got to keep plugging away and fine tuning. We did really good today. I’m still a little bit uncomfortable in some places. We need to just fine tune some stuff.”
Fong was also happy for his teammate Jake Gagne, with the three-time MotoAmerica Superbike Champion ending the day second fastest. “It’s good to see my teammate up here, and to try to finish the season with a Yamaha one-two would be nice. It would be very nice to have a wing man. Honestly, he’s going good here, even on used tires. I’m stoked for him. He was struggling the last few rounds, but it would be good for the both of us.”
