Two MotoAmerica Superbike riders—one former and one current—wrapped up their penultimate weekend in the 2025 FIM Superbike World Championship at the Circuito do Estoril in Portugal. Kawasaki WorldSBK Team’s Lone Star official factory rider Garrett Gerloff, a former MotoAmerica Superbike race winner, was joined on the grid by his countryman and good friend Bobby Fong, who is racing for Attack Performance Strack Yamaha Racing as a wild-card entry at the final two WorldSBK weekends after finishing third in the 2025 MotoAmerica Superbike Championship.
For Gerloff and Fong, they both achieved their goals in Estoril. Gerloff was looking to finish in the points in each of the races, while Fong’s primary mission was to progressively improve his lap times throughout the weekend.
Aboard his #31 Kawasaki Ninja ZX-10RR, Texan Gerloff was 12th-fastest in Friday morning’s Free Practice 1 and 13th-fastest in the afternoon’s Free Practice 2. He was again 13th-fastest in Saturday morning’s Free Practice 3, and then, he qualified 13th in Superpole. Saturday’s Race 1 was the highlight of the weekend for the Double-G as he notched a 10th-place result. In Sunday morning Warm Up, Gerloff once again was 13th-fastest heading into the Superpole Race and the weekend-concluding Race 2. He got the dozen with a P12 in the 10-lap Superpole Race, and then, he rounded out his weekend with an 11th-place result in Race 2.
Gerloff’s Race 2 result rewarded his team and him with five valuable championship points, which were stacked onto the six points he hauled in with his top-10 result in Race 1. It was a decent weekend for GG31, and he is ranked 15th overall in the points standings, just four points out of 14th position. As expected, Gerloff is not quite satisfied.
“All in all, I am not super-happy with the weekend,” he said. “But, we had no crashes, which is good, and we were really close to being inside the top 10 in the long races. Those are the two positives that we can take away. We are just missing something, and we will keep trying to find it. It seemed like things were getting better in the middle of the season, and we were getting faster, but now, it just seems like it’s a bit of a struggle. We have one more race weekend left for the year, and we will try our best to end the season on a high note.”
Californian Fong had never been on track at the Circuito do Estoril before, so he had a lot to learn, and he needed to do it quickly. Aboard his #50 Yamaha YZF-R1, the Fonger was 22nd in Friday’s FP1 and 21st in FP2. On Satuday morning, he was 22nd in FP3, and then he qualified 20th on the starting grid. In Saturday afternoon’s Race 1, he improved to 17th place at the finish line. In Sunday morning’s Warm Up, he eased into the final day at Estoril with the 20th-fastest lap time. In the 10-lap Superpole Race, Fong improved three positions from his 21st-place starting grid, and he took the checkered flag in 18th position. The 21-lap Race 2 concluded his Portugal weekend, and he matched his result from the Superpole Race with another P18.
More notable for Fong and his team, from his fastest lap of 1:39.255 in Friday’s FP1 to his Superpole qualifying lap of 1:37.426, he dropped nearly two full seconds from his lap times during the weekend. All of this will serve him and his Attack Performance Strack Yamaha Racing team well going into the final round of the 2025 FIM Superbike World Championship at Circuito de Jerez – Angel Nieto in Jerez, Spain, next weekend.
“It was a positive weekend because we dropped our lap times in almost every session and race, and that was the goal,” commented Fong. “My finishing positions weren’t great, but I improved each lap out there, so that was a plus. We are happy to be racing (in WorldSBK), and every time out is like a test session for us. We keep working to make the bike better. I’m looking forward to continuing next weekend in Jerez.”
