Press Release | June 27, 2024
Bobby Fong is riding a two-race win streak as MotoAmerica Steel Commander Superbike rolls into The Ridge Motorsports Park. And Beaubier is back.
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Bobby Fong (50) is the MotoAmerica Steel Commander Superbike Championship points leader heading to round five at Ridge Motorsports Park in Shelton, Washington, June 28-30. Josh Herrin (2) sits third in the title chase. Photo by Brian J. Nelson
This is a race preview from MotoAmerica…
Irvine, CA (June 25, 2024) – Wrench Motorcycles’ Bobby Fong and his eight-point lead in the 2024 MotoAmerica Steel Commander Superbike Championship will embark on Ridge Motorsports Park this coming weekend, June 28-30, with little doubt that he can improve upon his results from a year ago at the racetrack in Shelton, Washington.
Fong’s 2023 visit to Washington was a bust as he was disqualified from race one for ignoring a black flag, and he failed to finish race two. That’s zero points on the weekend for those of you counting at home.
But that was then and this is now and it’s highly unlikely that with his confidence level at an all-time high, and with his team operating smoothly and efficiently, things won’t be very different than they were in 2023.
Fong arrives at the track in the shadows of Mount Rainier after two resounding victories at Brainerd International Raceway two weeks ago and it has him atop the standings with the series set for two stops on the West Coast beginning with the Ridge round.
Fong’s season thus far has been one of up-and-down consistency (pardon the oxymoron) early and flat-out speed of late. He began his 2024 season with a podium in race one at Road Atlanta but followed that up with a 10th (in wet conditions) in race two. In the three races at Barber Motorsports Park, Fong was ninth, fifth and second, and at Road America he was eighth (again in the wet) and second. Fong was starting to hit his stride, and he followed up on Road America with his pole position and two victories at Brainerd.
Attack Performance/Progressive/Yamaha Racing’s Jake Gagne is the only rider in the top 10 other than Fong to score points in every round, but they haven’t come in bucketfuls like what we’ve come to expect from the three-time and defending Steel Commander Superbike Champion.
All you really need to know is that Gagne has only won one race and that came at Road Atlanta way back in April. That’s simply unheard of for Gagne. The cause? Debilitating arm-pump issues that have Gagne barely holding on (literally), and with just one podium in the past six races. It’s been difficult to watch and even his rivals feel his pain. Unlike Fong, it’s gotten to the point where Gagne longs for wet races as his last podium was a second-place finish in the wet at Road America.
Warhorse HSBK Racing Ducati’s Josh Herrin has fought his way to third in the series standings after his race-two crash at Barber put a zero in his points column. Herrin has one win and four total podiums, including his victory in race one at Road America, and his points tally features his two second-place finishes to Fong at Brainerd. Herrin sits 19 points behind Fong and 11 behind Gagne.
Also, remember that Herrin was fast last year at Ridge Motorsports Park, qualifying on pole and finishing third in both races.
Gagne’s teammate Cameron Petersen has been quick all year and, after nine races, finds himself still in the hunt for the championship. With two wins and five total podiums, Petersen is 28 points behind Fong and nine behind Herrin.
Nine points behind Petersen is Herrin’s teammate Loris Baz with the Frenchman earning his second podium of the season in the most recent round at Brainerd. Baz only has one non-score on his season when he was hit from behind by a lapped rider in race three at Barber.
EasyHealthPlans.com/TopPro Racing’s Sean Dylan Kelly started his season on a tear as he raced to two podiums in the first five races of his rookie campaign in the Steel Commander Superbike class. Kelly has slipped down the order a bit with crashes in the two of the past four races and he is now sixth in the championship—42 points behind Fong and five behind Baz.
Tytlers Cycle Racing’s Cameron Beaubier is seventh, despite the non-score from his crash in the rain at Road America and the three subsequent races of zero points while he recovered from his surgically repaired broken heel. But wait. The five-time MotoAmerica Superbike Champion’s team announced this week that Beaubier will return to action at Ridge Motorsports Park this coming weekend.
Let’s not forget that Beaubier won three of the first five races to start the season prior to his injury and he’s won 62 of these Superbike races in his career. So, in looking at the point standings, Beaubier is 43 points behind. With a five-point difference between first and second, and 11 races left to run… okay, it’s too early for that.
Beaubier’s teammate JD Beach is eighth in the title chase and still trying to recover from the hit his points tally took with two non-finishes in the three races at Barber. Beach, however, showed podium speed with his third in race two at Road America.
Vision Wheel M4 Ecstar Suzuki’s Brandon Paasch had a rocky start to his season but has turned things around with four strong outings in a row at Road America and Brainerd. Paasch is ninth in the championship heading to Washington.
Despite not competing in the past four Superbike races, Real Steel Motorsports’ Hayden Gillim still finds himself in the top 10 after a solid start to his season on his Stock 1000-spec Honda CBR1000RR-R SP.
With Beaubier set to return, Xavi Forés will be the only Superbike fill-in rider as he will continue to replace the injured Richie Escalante on the second Vision Wheel M4 Ecstar Suzuki.
Pre-Race Ridge Notes…
The Superbike men failed to top Jake Gagne’s lap record of 1:39.145 from Q2 in 2022 last year on the 2.47-mile Ridge Motorsports Park, though Cameron Beaubier did set a race-record lap of 1:39.633 in the second of two races in 2023.
Jake Gagne beat Mathew Scholtz and Josh Herrin to win race one a season ago at Ridge Motorsports Park for what was his fifth win in a row. On Sunday, however, Cameron Beaubier broke Gagne’s win streak by topping Gagne and Herrin to win race two.
Three-time MotoAmerica Medallia Superbike Champion Jake Gagne is the winningest rider in the four-year (eight-race) history of MotoAmerica holding a round of its championship at Ridge Motorsports Park. Gagne has won five of the eight races with Cameron Beaubier winning the first two races in 2020 and a third in race two last year.
With his two victories at Brainerd International Raceway two weeks ago, Bobby Fong has now won five AMA Superbike races in his career. That puts him in a tie for 26th on the all-time Superbike win list with Larry Pegram, Jake Zemke, Mathew Scholtz and Danilo Petrucci.
With its five wins thus far in 2024, Yamaha is closing in on the 125-win mark in the MotoAmerica Superbike era. Yamaha has 122 wins in MotoAmerica Superbike and 195 total AMA Superbike wins, which places them second to Suzuki’s 216 AMA Superbike victories.
MotoAmerica Support Classes Preview: The Ridge
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Just two points separate Jacobsen and Scholtz in the Supersport battle as MotoAmerica heads into this weekend’s round at The Ridge Motorsports Park In Washington.
Only two points separate the top two in the 2024 MotoAmerica Supersport Championship as the series heads to Ridge Motorsports Park in Shelton, Washington, June 28-30, for round five. And those two are the two most experienced racers in the field – PJ Jacobsen and Mathew Scholtz.
Only two points separate Mathew Scholtz (11) and PJ Jacobsen (15) in the Supersport title chase heading into Ridge Motorsports Park, June 28-30. Tyler Scott (70) is fifth in the point standings and is the only rider other than Scholtz and Jacobsen to win a Supersport race so far in 2024. Photo by Brian J. Nelson
The Supersport class will be one of four support classes racing this weekend with Stock 1000, Mission Super Hooligan National Championship and Royal Enfield Build. Train. Race. in addition to the two Steel Commander Superbike races.
Supersport – A Battle Of Veterans
Although it seems odd referring to Rahal Ducati Moto’s Jacobsen and Strack Racing’s Scholtz as veterans, they are. At least based on experience and not necessarily age.
Jacobsen, 30, and Scholtz, 32, have been at the game a long time and were both racing in the Superbike class a year ago. It’s hard to imagine one of them not winning this championship as they have combined to win seven of the eight races held so far as the series holds its fifth round this weekend in Washington.
Although Jacobsen leads the title chase by two points, Scholtz has won the most races – four to three – over Jacobsen. The difference in the point standings is in the non-podium finishes. Scholtz has one – a fourth – while Jacobsen has stood on the podium in all eight races.
The only other rider to win a race in 2024 is Vision Wheel M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Tyler Scott, but he has three non-finishes to go with his win and he’s mired back in fifth in the point standings.
Third in the championship is held by a third veteran – Jake Lewis. The Altus Motorsports-backed Kentuckian has earned points in every round, including two podium finishes. Thanks to the pace of the two ahead of him, however, he is 86 points behind.
N2 Racing/BobbleHeadMoto’s Blake Davis is fourth in the series standings, seven behind Lewis and 93 behind Jacobsen.
Stock 1000 – The Gillim Runaway Train
Real Steel Motorsports’ Hayden Gillim looked to be headed to his fourth Stock 1000 win of the season two weeks ago at Brainerd when it all went wrong. Gillim crashed out of the lead and with that went any hope of a perfect season for the defending Stock 1000 Champion. Up to that point, Gillim looked like a shoo-in to at least take victory number four.
Gillim later admitted he wanted to see just how fast he could go at a circuit that he’s fond of. He wanted to see how his times would match up against the Superbikes. In retrospect, he said it was a silly thing to be doing.
Even with that miscue, Gillim holds down a 16-point lead on OrangeCat Racing’s Jayson Uribe with Uribe taking advantage of Gillim’s error to win his first-career MotoAmerica race on Sunday at Brainerd. The win marked Uribe’s first podium of the season and it vaulted him to second in the point standings.
The man he passed was BPR Racing’s Bryce Prince with the Californian failing to match his two-podium start to the season at Barber. Still, Prince has finished all four races and that puts him three points clear of fifth-placed Benjamin Smith and his FLO4LAW Racing Yamaha YZF-R1.
Mission Super Hooligan National Championship – The Hooligans Are Back
March is a long time ago and Daytona is a distant memory, but the Mission Super Hooligan National Championship makes its return this weekend at Ridge Motorsports Park after a near-five-month hiatus.
With just the two races at Daytona in the books, it’s Saddlemen Racing/Harley-Davidson’s Cory West who sits atop the championship standings by five points over S&S/Indian Motorcycle’s Troy Herfoss by five points and Herfoss’s teammate Tyler O’Hara by eight points.
Indian FTR1200-mounted Herfoss and Harley-Davidson Pan America-mounted West came out of Daytona with a victory apiece in the two races.
With the top six covered by 21 points, there are still plenty of chances to move up the leaderboard and that’s exactly what KWR/Harley-Davidson’s Cody Wyman, Saddlemen Racing/Harley-Davidson’s Jake Lewis and Roland Sands Design’s Hawk Mazzotta are aiming for from their fourth, fifth and sixth spots in the title chase.
Royal Enfield Build. Train. Race. – Three Give Chase
With Mikayla Moore opting to sit out race one of the Royal Enfield Build. Train. Race. at Road America after suffering some bumps and bruises in her Twins Cup practice crash, everybody else in the class was given a glimmer of hope.
That lasted for a race. After Cassie Creer won race one in Moore’s absence, Moore struck back with a win in race two that gives her three victories in the first four races of the 2024 season.
But thanks to her sitting out race one, there are three racers within 12 points of Moore in the title chase. Emma Betters and Camille Conrad are tied for second, 10 points adrift, with Creer holding down fourth and 12 points behind Moore.
Aubrey Credaroli is fifth in the standings and working to make up for a non-finish in the first race of the season at Barber.
Pre-Ridge Support Notes…
Xavi Forés swept both of the Supersport races at Ridge Motorsports Park last year en route to the Spaniard ultimately winning the championship. Forés beat Josh Hayes and Teagg Hobbs in race one with Tyler Scott and Hobbs finishing second and third, respectively, in race two.
In Mission Super Hooligan National Championship action a year ago, Tyler O’Hara won both races on the track but was later disqualified after race two for an illegal handlebar modification. O’Hara’s teammate Jeremy McWilliams was second in both races but was also DQ’d from race two. The pair’s DQ gifted the win to Andy DiBrino with Mark Price second and Bobby Fong third. DiBrino was third in Saturday’s race one.
Mikayla Moore came away from Ridge with a clean sweep of the two Royal Enfield Build. Train. Race battles. Moore topped Kayleigh Buyck in both races with Sonya Lloyd scoring a pair of third-place finishes.
MotoAmerica How To Watch: MotoAmerica Superbikes at Ridge Motorsports Park
