2024 MotoAmerica Superbike Championship
Mid-Ohio
Images by Brian J Nelson
Superbike Race One
It might have been a difficult day with ever-changing weather conditions wreaking havoc on the schedule in road racing’s return to Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.
Warhorse HSBK Racing Ducati’s Herrin took a commanding start-to-finish victory, his fourth of the season and second in a row, to stretch his lead in the Steel Commander Superbike Championship to 33 points on a challenging day at Mid-Ohio.
The victory came after a delay in the schedule as a rainstorm moved through the area, making conditions difficult at best. The track, however, dried and the Superbike grid took to the track for a familiarisation session before everyone started the race on slicks.
Herrin dropped the hammer from the get-go and, along with his teammate Loris Baz, threw down some quick laps as the pair quickly opened a gap to the goings on behind them.
Herrin would gap Baz and those two were well clear of Tytlers Cycle Racing’s JD Beach, who would end up coming under pressure from his slow-starting teammate Cameron Beaubier. Beaubier’s woes were immediate with the five-time MotoAmerica Superbike Champion unsettled off the start and completing the first lap in sixth before picking his way through to fourth prior to catching and passing Beach on the seventh lap.
By then Herrin and Baz were long gone and it appeared as though third was going to be as good as it would get for Beaubier. Not so as Baz gifted Beaubier second place when the Frenchman crashed his Ducati Panigale V4 R out of a comfortable second and a potential Ducati one-two
Herrin crossed the line 18.8 seconds ahead of second-placed Beaubier with Beach 3.5 seconds behind his team-mate in third at the end of the 16-lap contest.
Real Steel Motorsports’ Hayden Gillim was a popular fourth on his Stock 1000-spec Honda CBR1000RR-R SP with EasyHealthPlans.com/TopPro Racing’s Sean Dylan Kelly fifth.
Next came Wrench Motorcycles’ Bobby Fong with the Californian fighting his way through to get enough points to move within striking distance of second in the championship.
Jones Honda’s Ashton Yates, FLO4LAW Racing’s Benjamin Smith, Attack Performance/Progressive/Yamaha Racing’s Jake Gagne and Aftercare Scheibe Racing’s Ezra Beaubier rounded out the top 10.
Gagne had suffered with an early off-track excursion that put him well back in the pack, but he scored enough points to stay in second place in the title chase.
Notable non-finishers were Baz and Vision Wheel M4 ECSTAR Suzuki teammates Brandon Paasch and Richie Escalante with all three crashing out of the race.
Cameron Petersen, who was forced to sit out the race after failing to pass his medical exam after his third crash of the weekend in morning warm-up.
Josh Herrin – Winner
“If you look back at least the last seven years, whenever the conditions are like that, I think subconsciously I just, almost like when you see motocross guys or (Mathew) Scholtz yelling on the grid right before, something about the fear side of it just does something to me at the beginning that allows me to just do what happened today. I couldn’t even explain why. The one big advantage that I would say that I had was this morning I had a feeling that in case the track was like it was this morning and just slippery, when I came in and got my second tire, we didn’t do the Q. We did a race tire. Then I went out and did one lap, like one lap came, sat in the pits kind of like I would on the grid. Then put my head down like it was the start of the race to see what to expect from the tire, and it just helped a ton. I never thought about doing that before, but it just I think made a huge difference. I felt a lot more confident than I think I would have if I hadn’t. I knew I had to get in front of those guys at the beginning because with that knowledge of what the tire was going to be like, I wanted to just take advantage of it and try to go. I don’t know what my gap was at the beginning. I think third was right there, but I think further back we might have had a little bit bigger gap, so I was stoked that that worked out. The guys have been working super hard all weekend. We got lucky that we got that Thursday test because we didn’t come here and test like some of the other teams earlier in the year. But it was a weird win, because there’s been wins that meant more but for some reason it was more emotional than a lot of the wins. Just not having Griffin (his son) at the track. He’s starting to talk a lot more and understand things. Right before the race, Rachel sent me a video and he now recognizes (Cameron) Beaubier. She says, ‘Who is that?’ ‘He’s like, ‘Beaubier!’ Just the things he does, it’s like a whole new motivation like it was whenever he was first born. It’s just been an amazing year and I owe it all to my family and my team. It’s a shame that Loris (Baz) went down because it would have helped us in the points, and it also just would have been nice to see him get on the podium because he’s been working hard all year. Just thank you to everybody. Thank you to the huge turnout of fans in Mid-Ohio. This was always one of my favorite tracks to come to. It’s nice seeing stacked fans out there. So, huge shout out to them. Thank you to everybody. Hopefully we have another one tomorrow.”
Cameron Beaubier – Second Place
“What happened on the start… I had a little issue with my launch control. Honestly, after that happened, I kind of rolled and then kind of backed up. I was pressing my buttons, trying to figure out what was going on. Got shuffled back. Was struggling to get going there. It seems like (Josh) Herrin and (Loris) Baz, they were able to put their heads down right away and ride off into the sunset. I was struggling for the rear tire to come in. I could see other guys were too. Whatever they did today was working. Herrin rode awesome. He was three corners ahead of me or four corners ahead of me there at the end. Just hats off to the Tytlers guys. Obviously, I want to win. I want to close that championship gap up, but the best we could do today was second. It’s awesome having JD (Beach) up here on the podium, too. Go do our homework for tomorrow and come out swinging.”
JD Beach – Third Place
“Thursday at the end of the day we found something with the bike, and I was really starting to feel good on it again. Then, yesterday I was feeling good on the race tire, and then when we went to put the soft tire on, we had a bike malfunction. So, I didn’t get to put in a lap, but I had good pace. The race today, it might sound kind of weird, but this feels better than the last two weeks. I love dirt track, but road racing is where I want to be at right now. I’ve put the team through hell, pulled them back out a little bit, and then I put them right back in there. It’s been a struggle. But to get this third place feels amazing. It’s not going to be this easy every race, but we’ll keep working at it.”
Superbike Race One Top Ten Results
- Josh Herrin (Ducati)
- Cameron Beaubier (BMW) +18.878s
- JD Beach (BMW) +22.379s
- Hayden Gillim (Honda) +30.149s
- Sean Dylan Kelly (BMW) +31.289
- Bobby Fong (Yamaha) +43.103
- Ashton Yates (Honda) +46.420
- Benjamin Smith (Yamaha) +48.778
- Jake Gagne (Yamaha) +54.110
- Ezra Beaubier (BMW) +54.264
Superbike Race Two
Warhorse HSBK Racing Ducati’s Josh Herrin had a near-perfect weekend in Superbike racing’s return to Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course after a 10-year hiatus as he stormed to a clean sweep of the two MotoAmerica Steel Commander Superbike races for the first Superbike doubleheader sweep of the 34-year-old’s career.
A day after running away from the pack in the first of two Superbike races, things were a bit different for Herrin on Sunday. Instead of charging to the front from the get-go, Herrin had to come from behind and when he got there, he didn’t find it to be a walk in the park. Instead, he got all he could handle for the entire distance from a pair of BMWs in the capable hands of EasyHealthPlans.com/TopPro Racing’s Sean Dylan Kelly and Tytlers Cycle Racing’s Cameron Beaubier.
The trio ran in formation for the entire distance with Herrin hounding Kelly from behind while Beaubier was doing all he could to stay on Herrin’s tail as he struggled with rear grip issues.
With two laps to go, Herrin made his move – diving under Kelly going into turn one.
Kelly stuck with the Ducati to the finish, ending up just .384 of a second behind Herrin when the pair crossed the finish line. Beaubier was a disappointed third, 1.3 seconds behind after finishing second to Herrin the day prior.
The win was the 15th of Herrin’s Superbike career, which moves him into a tie with Eric Bostrom and Freddie Spencer on the all-time AMA Superbike win list.
Herrin’s teammate Loris Baz was a rather lonely fourth, a day after crashing out of second place. He was 8.3 seconds adrift of Beaubier and 2.9 seconds ahead of fifth-placed Bobby Fong on the Wrench Motorcycles Yamaha YZF-R1.
Beaubier’s Tytlers Cycle Racing’s teammate JD Beach followed up on his third-place finish on Saturday to finish sixth on Sunday, some five seconds clear of Vision Wheel M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Richie Escalante, who in turn barely beat Attack Performance/Progressive/Yamaha Racing’s Cameron Petersen to the line. Petersen was back in action after being ruled medically unfit to race in yesterday’s race one and this weekend’s two races were Escalante’s return to racing after his injuries from round one at Road Atlanta.
Jones Honda’s Ashton Yates was ninth with Petersen’s three-time MotoAmerica Superbike Champion Jake Gagne ending up 10th as his season long arm-pump continue to slow him.
With two rounds and five races left to run, Herrin’s lead in the championship has been stretched to 52 points over the tied pairing of Gagne and Fong, 244-192. Beaubier moves to fourth with 184 points, nine better than Petersen’s tally.
Josh Herrin – Winner
“During the race, I got a terrible start. I almost stalled the bike on the line. I don’t know what happened. I went back to sixth I think, or something like that. The years of watching Cam (Beaubier), whenever he has something kind of ruffle his feathers, he just stays calm and just kind of picks through the guys. I tried to take one from his book and just be calm and kind of pick my way through the pack. Got back up there. Eventually I made a move on Sean (Dylan Kelly) and made an aggressive pass in the Keyhole that at first during the race I was thinking, this guy is trying to help his BMW boy out or something. But now that I’ve calmed down, I’m like, actually on the first lap he did the same thing to Cam in the same spot. So it wasn’t that at all. I was like, maybe I should just be a little careful. I sat back and just decided that if I can stay in front of Cam and just see what Sean’s doing, because I have a pretty big lead over Sean in the championship, I’ll just wait until Cam makes a move and if I need to, go around Sean then. So, just tried my hardest to save my tires for an attack at the end and save my energy. I was going to go for it on the last lap, and then I was thinking about it. I’m like, if Cam is doing the same thing I am, maybe he’s going to attack with two laps to go. So, I’m going to try to stir things up a little bit and go a little earlier. That’s what we did. I just put my head down. The Ducati, since I’ve been on it, I feel like I have an advantage when there’s less grip on the track, which is funny because on Richard’s (Stanboli) podcast he does, he says it’s the opposite when the track has a lot of grip. But I feel like when there’s not a lot of grip, our bike does pretty good. Then, I feel like I let my tires cool down too much during the race by not being aggressive like I normally would be exiting the corners. It was just sliding all over when it hadn’t moved at all during the whole race. So, I had a couple big moments in my best part of the track where I was really trying to attack, and it scared me. Luckily, we were able to hold him off. It’s crazy. I don’t know how many years I’ve tried, but it’s been 12 years since my first Superbike season, and I’ve never had a double. So, it just goes to show I think, obviously I’ve put in a lot more work than I ever have in my career, but also just being with the same team on the same bike for two years in a row is the biggest thing ever for me to really up my game. So, I don’t know what the future holds, but I’ll always be grateful for the opportunity that Bobby and the De Naples gave me to do two years on this bike and let me show… Maybe I’m different than some guys. I just needed a little bit longer to ripen up. I’m hoping that these last years of my career are better than the beginning years. I’m just stoked to end the weekend like this and go into our best track of the year at COTA. The goal is to just have a really good weekend there and then be able to clinch it before Jersey because Jersey, if it rains, that’s what will definitely scare us. I want to get ahead as much as I can before then.”
Sean Dylan Kelly – Second Place
“To be honest, I was really confused up until the grid today. I even did the sighting lap with an old tire. I was sliding as if I was on ice with the rear tire. I went into the race pretty pissed off, to be honest. I was frustrated with the race yesterday. I again felt like I was ice skating out there, and obviously I was really nowhere, especially the first three laps. Finished fifth yesterday which was disappointing after being pretty much up there all weekend. This morning, I was two and a half seconds off. I had no idea what was going on. It was really strange. But as soon as I got that new tire, that was obviously the race tire prepped for the race, and I’m glad that the rain stayed away. Conditions were a lot better. As soon as I started the race, I’m like, I feel like I’ve got my bike back. I got a good start. I was up front. I did some good pass there to (Cameron) Beaubier when he got past me. I wanted to be up front, and I felt good. Once I was clicking away, I actually felt like I was getting better and better, getting more comfortable even being at the front. So, I knew that Josh (Herrin) got by me at one point, and I attacked right back. So, I knew that he had something on me. I just tried to keep my rhythm, and with three laps to go I really did everything I could to just do the best I can. Whether he could follow me or not, I obviously had no idea. But I did a 24.8 with a few laps to go. I’m just happy I did that, regardless of getting second or not. I’m just happy that I was able to do that pace on my own up front. This guy had a little extra, but I tried to get him back at the end and it was just too tight. I really got to be happy, especially with how I was feeling only a few minutes before the race. So, super pumped. Super happy with my whole team, everything that they’re working on and just helping me become a better Superbike rider. Still learning a lot on this thing, but I think I’m definitely getting there. I think the win is coming soon.”
Cameron Beaubier – Third Place
“I don’t want to take anything away from these guys because they rode incredible – not just today but all weekend. I’m just frustrated. I feel like we can’t catch a break. I don’t know what was going on with my rear tire, but I had zero grip from the start, on the entry, mid-corner, exit. I was struggling so hard just to hang with these guys. I was trying to make it up all on the brakes, and then the rear end was coming around. It just felt like the tire never came in. Yesterday, we had that little electric problem in the race and it’s just frustrating. I feel like we just can’t catch a break right now, and it’s not a good time to be dealing with this stuff. Like I said, I’m not taking anything away from these guys because they’re riding incredible right now. We win as a team, and we lose as a team. The Tytlers guys have been working their butts off all year, been giving me an incredible bike. We just need everything to line up for these last couple rounds. I rode as hard as I could and third was the best we had today.”
Superbike Race Two Top Ten Results
- Josh Herrin (Ducati)
- Sean Dylan Kelly (BMW) +0.384s
- Cameron Beaubier (BMW) +1.336s
- Loris Baz (Ducati) +9.710s
- Bobby Fong (Yamaha) +12.671s
- JD Beach (BMW) +27.097s
- Richie Escalante (Suzuki) +32.192s
- Cameron Petersen (Yamaha) +32.667s
- Ashton Yates (Honda) +37.106s
- Jake Gagne (Yamaha) +43.434s
Superbike Championship Standings
- Josh Herrin 244
- Bobby Fong 192
- Jake Gagne 192
- Cameron Beaubier 184
- Cameron Petersen 175
- Sean Dylan Kelly 167
- Loris Baz 155
- JD Beach 124
- Brandon Paasch 86
- Hayden Gillim 80
Supersport Race One
It’s not often that the two riders in the championship fight get overlooked from their first-and-second place finishes, but that’s what happened in the Supersport race on Saturday afternoon at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. Why? Two words: Larry Pegram.
Always a fan favorite at his local racetrack and a popular figure in the paddock, 51-year-old Pegram couldn’t pass up the opportunity to race at his home track 10 years after the series stopped coming to Mid-Ohio. But Pegram didn’t decide to drive the hour from his home in Hebron, Ohio, just for a trip down memory lane. He came to race.
And race he did. Pegram stormed off from the start and jumped into the lead with his full-rain tyres in the iffy conditions. From there he held tough until PJ Jacobsen came past on his slick-shod Rahal Ducati Moto Panigale V2. And then came championship leader Mathew Scholtz on the Strack Racing Yamaha YZF-R6. But that was it. No other racers came past and Pegram had a podium finish for the first time since 2014 when he earned a Superbike podium at New Jersey Motorsports Park.
At the finish of a long day that featured mixed weather conditions and delays, Jacobsen had his sixth win of the season and his third in a row to claw back five valuable points on second-place finisher Scholtz.
Then came Pegram on his EasyHealthPlans.com/TopPro Racing Suzuki GSX-R750, some eight seconds after Scholtz who in turn was 25.4 seconds behind Jacobsen.
Pegram’s team-mate Maxi Gerardo was fourth with Vision Wheel M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Teagg Hobbs rounding out the top five.
“It’s been a pretty long day,” Jacobsen. “We’ve run into everyone’s dinnertime here, pretty much. It was a very long day, and it was unfortunate that me and (Mathew) Scholtz crashed in that corner, but I definitely think there was oil down or something that happened because it was very strange. I think we could have had a really good battle in the dry race. I think tomorrow, hopefully, if it’s like that we’ll have a great battle like that tomorrow. I think in the race today, I made a pretty smart move, just going back from BSB days and trying to have experience. It looked like it was just going to be for slicks for sure by the end of the race. Then when Larry (Pegram) got out front, I was kind of laughing for a second because I was like, ‘There goes Pegram. He’s out front, but I’m going to reel him back in.’ Ended up catching him. I had a pretty big gap I guess behind me. So, I just kept on getting in a rhythm and it was good. I felt pretty comfortable. Happy with my team and stuff, because they deserve it so much. Kayla (Yaakov), Cory (Alexander), and my side, they were all on my bike fixing t to make it work for this race. They really deserve it all.”
Supersport Race One Top Ten
- PJ Jacobsen – Ducati
- Mathew Scholtz – Yamaha +25.473s
- Larry Pegram – Suzuki +30.445s
- Maxi Gerardo – Suzuki +38.489s
- Teagg Hobbs – Suzuki +38.593s
- Tyler Scott – Suzuki +39.051s
- Stefano Mesa – Kawasaki +40.193s
- Jake Lewis – Suzuki +45.793s
- David Anthony – Suzuki +56.845s
- Kayla Yaakov – Ducati +62.977s
Supersport Race Two
With PJ Jacobsen winning three races in a row, including Saturday’s Supersport victory at Mid-Ohio, Strack Racing’s Mathew Scholtz admits he was getting a little worried about his championship points lead. On Sunday, the South African changed all that with his seventh win of the year to extend his points lead to 25 over the Rahal Ducati Moto rider.
Scholtz’s win was of the come-from-behind variety as his rival Jacobsen was at the front but busy defending that lead from Vision Wheel M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Tyler Scott. Scholtz, meanwhile, worked his way through to third, bringing Altus Motorsports’ Jake Lewis with him.
And just like that, Scholtz was on top of the Jacobsen/Scott battle and suddenly was in front of both. Jacobsen was visibly struggling with front-end grip, and he started to go backwards and ultimately finished fourth.
Scholtz sped to the finish line, .160 of a second ahead of Scott with Lewis 3.1 seconds adrift.
Jacobsen finished fourth with EasyHealthPlans.com/TopPro Racing’s Maxi Gerardo rounding out the top five.
Supersport Race Two Top Ten
- Mathew Scholtz – Yamaha
- Tyler Scott – Suzuki +0.160s
- Jake Lewis – Suzuki +3.166s
- PJ Jacobsen – Ducati +6.318s
- Maxi Gerardo – Suzuki +10.724s
- Stefano Mesa – Kawasaki +16.616s
- Blake Davis – Yamaha +17.520s
- David Anthony – Suzuki +18.374s
- Max VanDenBrouck – Suzuki +19.539s
- Kayla Yaakov – Ducati +19.818s
Supersport Championship Points
- Mathew Scholtz 304
- PJ Jacobsen 279
- Jake Lewis 152
- Blake Davis 140
- Tyler Scott 135
- Kayla Yaakov 120
- Stefano Mesa 120
- Maxi Gerardo 116
- Corey Alexander 111
- Teagg Hobbs 100
Royal Enfield Build. Train. Race
Race One
Mikayla Moore wrapped up her second Royal Enfield Build. Train. Race. Championship with another runaway victory in the first of two races at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. The win was her fifth of the season and she earned the title a race early with what was her 12th career win in the class.
Moore topped Kira Knebel, who raced to her second podium of the year, by 14.5 seconds with Holly Varey earning her first-career podium in the class. Varey was in a battle to the bitter end and was just a few tenths ahead of Aubrey Credaroli, who in turn was less than a second ahead of fifth-placed Miranda Cain.
“It feels wonderful because I knew coming to this race, looking at the lap times, I knew it was probably going to be a close battle,” Moore said. “Kira (Knebel) was pretty close to me and so were the other ladies. I knew I just had to put my head down and just start charging away from the beginning. So, to be able to do it and to show how fast this Royal Enfield could go all season means a lot to me. Huge thanks to the Royal Enfield team, Dunlop tires, Arai helmets, Bison. Just everyone that helps put this program together. I’m super happy to be crowned number two.”
Royal Enfield Build. Train. Race Race One Results
- Mikayla Moore
- Kira Knebel +14.568s
- Holly Varey +26.623s
- Aubrey Credaroli +26.979s
- Miranda Cain +27.652s
- Camille Conrad +28.056s
- Shea MacGregor +29.664s
- Cassie Creer +37.083s
- Kate West +40.184s
- Lucy Bondel +82.982s
Royal Enfield Build. Train. Race Race Two
Mikayla Moore put a nice little bow on the top of her second Royal Enfield Build. Train. Race. Championship with her seventh win of the season coming a day after she wrapped up that second title. As always, Moore made the race her own, winning by a tick over 20 seconds ahead of Kira Knebel, who was also second in yesterday’s race.
The only race Moore didn’t win this season was the only race she didn’t take part in when an injury took her out of race one in the season-opener at Road America.
Third place went to first-time podium finisher Miranda Cain with Cain improving from her fifth-place finish in Saturday’s race. Emma Betters and Holly Varey rounded out the top five in the season-ender for the class.
“The Royal Enfield 650 GT today went on rails,” Moore said. “I knew yesterday the race started off pretty close. I knew as long as I did what I did yesterday and put my head down and focus and hit my marks I could get to where I am at now, which is the number-one spot, just by hard work throughout the season. Thanks to my dad, my family, just for all the support, even the Royal Enfield team’s support. It means a lot. To do this two years in a row, I’m super happy with how my season went.”
Royal Enfield Build. Train. Race Race Two Results
- Mikayla Moore
- Kira Knebel +20.253s
- Miranda Cain +21.052s
- Emma Betters +35.070s
- Holly Varey +35.388s
- Shea MacGregor +35.964s
- Camille Conrad +36.219s
- Cassie Creer +36.484s
- Kate West +43.058s
- Lucy Blondel +73.313s
Royal Enfield Build. Train. Race Points
- Mikayla Moore 175
- Camille Conrad 104
- Kira Knebel 102
- Emma Betters 102
- Cassie Creer 94
- Miranda Cain 84
- Shea MacGregor 73
- Aubrey Credaroli 72
- Kate West 56
- Holly Varey 51
