ELKHART LAKE, Wis. — 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.
