Josh Herrin charged to his second MotoAmerica Superbike victory on Sunday, with the Warhorse HSBK Racing Ducati rider completing a doubleheader sweep of the two races at Road America.
Herrin won Saturday’s Superbike race over Attack Performance Progressive Yamaha Racing’s Bobby Fong and Tytlers Cycle Racing’s Cameron Beaubier, beating those two by almost three seconds. Beaubier had made a few errors along the way, and Herrin felt a bit lucky in nabbing the 17th AMA Superbike win of his career.
On Sunday, Herrin was under pressure from Beaubier at the front when he made the first error of the race with an off-track excursion in the chicane on the second lap. But Herrin fought back and didn’t waste any time in repassing Beaubier for fear of the five-time MotoAmerica Superbike Champion pulling away at the front.
From there the two circulated in formation, with Herrin doing the leading, Beaubier the following. With four laps to go, the much-anticipated final-lap battle was over when Beaubier crashed at speed in the Carousel, ending his day and allowing Herrin to cruise to his 18th career Superbike victory.
With Beaubier’s crash, Fong inherited second place, finishing 8.6 seconds behind Herrin.
Vision Wheel M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Richie Escalante was a popular third with the Mexican milking everything he had out of his dying Suzuki on the final lap. He made it to the finish, just three seconds ahead of Benjamin Smith.
For Smith it was another strong finish with the FLO4LAW/SBU Racing rider again showing speed in racing to a career-best fourth.
Real Steel Honda’s JD Beach was fifth, a little less than a second ahead of his teammate Hayden Gillim. Beach’s fifth also earned him the win in the MotoAmerica Superbike Cup for those racing Stock 1000-spec motorcycles in the Superbike class.
Gillim crossed the line just a fraction of a second in front of Jones Honda’s Ashton Yates with the three Hondas flying in formation in the final laps.
Fong’s teammate Jake Gagne had an eventful start to his race as he came together with Vision Wheel M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Sean Dylan Kelly, with the incident ruining the race for both. Gagne ended up eighth and Kelly was 14th, ending a miserable weekend for the Floridian.
BPR Racing’s Bryce Kornbau and Aftercare Scheibe Racing’s Danilo Lewis rounded out the top 10.
Beaubier’s points lead evaporated with his crash, and he now leads Herrin by just two points, 111-109. Fong is third with 96 points while Gagne drops to fourth with 93.
Superbike Race 2
- Josh Herrin (Ducati)
- Bobby Fong (Yamaha)
- Richie Escalanate (Suzuki)
- Benjamin Smith (Yamaha)
- JD Beach (Honda)
- Hayden Gillim (Honda)
- Ashton Yates (Honda)
- Jake Gagne (Yamaha)
- Bryce Kornbau (Yamaha)
- Danilo Lewis (BMW)
Quotes..
Josh Herrin – Winner
“Like we talked about yesterday, just getting through those first two rounds is important for us. 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 (Beaubier) because of crashes, but that’s part of the game. Making mistakes is part of it. You’ve got to try to minimize them. The guys gave me a perfect bike this weekend. Like Bobby (Fong) 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. So, super happy with how the week went. I got two babies and two wins, so can’t ask for anything more than that. Go race at the Ridge in a couple weeks. Got to say a big thank you to my crew chief, Simone. I think he was the only guy I forgot to say on the podium, and he made sure to tell me about it whenever I got back. Big thanks to Simone for making improvements to the bike today to make it even better than it was yesterday.”
Bobby Fong – Second Place
“I was kind of doing the same thing as yesterday. 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 asking Richie (Escalante), but I can’t ask this guy (Herrin) because he did a 9.4, so I can’t ask him if it felt slick. Obviously, it wasn’t that slick. 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. Bummer for my teammate. I don’t know exactly what happened, but hopefully he’s good. I know Jake (Gagne) would have been up here as well if he had a good start.”
Richie Escalante – Third Place
“I’m really happy to be on this. 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. 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 (Fong), but I made a mistake in the chicane. After that, I just maintained my pace. To compare Friday to today, I’m super happy. Big thanks to my team, Vision Wheel M4 ECSTAR Suzuki. To my personal sponsor, Mission Foods. Can’t wait for the Ridge and Laguna. I think it’s special tracks for us. I think the Suzuki is working very good there.”
https://www.motoamericaregistration.com/Results/2025/RDAMER/25_7_RDAMER_SBK_R2_res.pdf
