Herrin And Ducati Closing In On MotoAmerica Superbike Title As The Finale Beckons In New Jersey
Josh Herrin Has A Big Points Lead As He Tries To Win AMA Superbike Title #2 At NJMP, September 27-29
IRVINE, CA (September 24, 2024) – If all goes according to plan for the Warhorse HSBK Racing Ducati team in the MotoAmerica series finale at New Jersey Motorsports Park, September 27-29, Josh Herrin will win his second AMA Superbike Championship – 11 years after winning his first – and Ducati will win its third AMA Superbike title as a manufacturer – 30 years after its last.
And all that will add up to an historic and memorable season for those wearing red.
But before we get too far ahead of ourselves, there are still two races remaining in the Steel Commander Superbike Championship chase and it’s not over until it is.
Herrin heads to the Garden State with a whopping 46-point lead in the Steel Commander Superbike Championship. If he finishes race one at NJMP with a lead of 25 points or more, the title will be his. If that doesn’t happen in race one, he has it to do all over again in race two. Unless he somehow trips over himself, the title will be Herrin’s and he will join MotoAmerica President Wayne Rainey, four-time World Champion Eddie Lawson and the late Wes Cooley as two-time winners of the title. Twenty-two different riders have won AMA Superbike Championships in the 48 years of the series.
One thing that’s certain, Herrin won’t be tiptoeing around in eighth or ninth place to win this championship. He’ll fight at the front, much like he did two weeks earlier at Circuit of The Americas, and that’s going to make it entertaining for those of us who get to sit back and watch.
Herrin got to the comfortable position he’s in by winning five races and finishing on the podium in seven races that he didn’t win. He was off the podium a total of six times in 18 races. He also took full advantage of the races his title rival Cameron Beaubier was forced to miss due to injury, winning race two at Road Atlanta and finishing second twice at Brainerd International Raceway in Beaubier’s absence. He also didn’t allow himself to give up early in the season when he had just one podium finish in the first three rounds (six races) with Beaubier winning three of those. Herrin plugged away and it all came together with four wins in the final eight races with the other four resulting in podium finishes.
The bottom line: Herrin had a really good season and even his rivals will tell you that he deserves the championship.
Beaubier, meanwhile, can only think back with a big “what-if.” Lots of the top men crashed out of Superbike race one at Road America in the pouring rain, but only Beaubier suffered injury. His broken heel required surgery with a screw going up through the bottom of his foot to hold things in place. He missed three races, came back a bit too early at Ridge Motorsports Park, but then finished with a flurry of three wins, three seconds and a third on his Tytlers Cycle Racing BMW M 1000 RR. But it likely won’t be enough.
If it’s any consolation (and it’s not), Beaubier is on tap to finish second in the championship as he leads Wrench Motorcycles’ Bobby Fong by 41 points heading to NJMP.
Fong’s early and mid-season were strong, highlighted by his two victories at Brainerd International Raceway, but things have gone sour of late, and Fong hasn’t been on the podium since race two at Ridge Motorsports Park at the end of June. Case in point: Fong scored 21 points in the three races at COTA while Beaubier earned 70 points to take over the runner-up spot in the points chase.
Fong will need two strong races at NJMP to hold off EasyHealthPlans.com/TopPro Racing’s Sean Dylan Kelly for third in the championship with Kelly coming off his career-best weekend of racing with his first-ever MotoAmerica Superbike win coming in race two at COTA. The Floridian is only five points behind Fong.
Surprisingly, you have to go back to fifth and sixth before you find any Attack Performance/Progressive/Yamaha Racing YZF-R1s with Cameron Petersen and Jake Gagne in those spots heading into the finale. Even though there has been a myriad of struggles of late, this is still Petersen’s best season of Superbike racing as he does have a career high of three wins on the year.
Three-time MotoAmerica Superbike Champion Jake Gagne has had a season of disappointments with arm-pump issues basically ruining his year. He somehow soldiered on through most of the season before finally calling it quits the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course round. At COTA, Xavi Forés filled in for Gagne, and the Spaniard will do the same at NJMP.
Gagne is in a tie for sixth with Warhorse HSBK Racing Ducati’s Loris Baz so the Frenchman will surely move up with a chance to also catch Petersen. Baz has two podiums on the season and is still chasing a first-career MotoAmerica Superbike victory.
Beaubier’s teammate JD Beach will likely finish where he is now – eighth in the championship – in his first season back in MotoAmerica and his first season on the team and its BMW M1000 RR. Beach is coming off a strong weekend at COTA with two fourth-place finishes and a fifth.
Vision Wheel M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Brandon Paasch will also likely wrap up his season in ninth in the championship, 29 points ahead of what promises to be a real battle in the season finale for 10th and the MotoAmerica Superbike Cup title which pays the winner $25,000.
Jones Honda’s Ashton Yates and Team Brazil’s Danilo Lewis are just four points apart in the fight for 10th in the Superbike standings, but Lewis holds a 10-point lead over Yates in the battle for the money and the Superbike Cup title. Yates has put on a charge with five Superbike Cup wins in a row heading into NJMP.
Pre-NJMP Notes…
Unless he somehow trips over himself, Josh Herrin will join MotoAmerica President Wayne Rainey, four-time World Champion Eddie Lawson and the late Wes Cooley as two-time winners of the title. Twenty-two different riders have won AMA Superbike Championships in the 48 years of the series.
The man who owns the most AMA Superbike titles is Mat Mladin with seven and the Australian will be on hand at New Jersey Motorsports Park as MotoAmerica’s Grand Marshal. Coincidentally, Mladin had his last race 15 years ago… at NJMP.
The active MotoAmerica rider with the most AMA Superbike titles is Cameron Beaubier with five championships. With his two wins at COTA two weeks ago, Beaubier now has 65 career AMA Superbike wins, which puts him second and 17 victories behind Mladin’s leading 82 wins.
Jake Gagne was already crowned as the 2023 MotoAmerica Superbike Champion when the series rolled into NJMP for the finale a season ago. Gagne went out and won the first race on Saturday in the rain for his 40th career AMA Superbike victory. and rode to a cautious fourth in the wet race two. Gagne beat JD Beach and Corey Alexander in race one with Beach winning race two over PJ Jacobsen and Alexander.
PJ Jacobsen earned pole position for the two Steel Commander Superbike races last year with his lap of 1:20.647. Jake Gagne and Mathew Scholtz rounded out the front row. The lap record is a 1:19.806, which is held by Cameron Beaubier and dates back to 2020.
With NJMP getting a complete repave in the off-season, lap records will likely be scorched this coming weekend.
With his win at COTA, Sean Dylan Kelly became the third rider in the MotoAmerica era to win a Superbike race in his rookie season, joining Toni Elias (2016) and Danilo Petrucci (2022). Five-time MotoAmerica Superbike Champion Cameron Beaubier also won in his rookie season of AMA Superbike racing in 2014, but that was pre-MotoAmerica.
About MotoAmerica
MotoAmerica is North America’s premier motorcycle road racing series. Established in 2014, MotoAmerica is home to the AMA Superbike Championship as well as additional classes including Supersport, Stock 1000, Twins Cup, Junior Cup, and King Of The Baggers. MotoAmerica is an affiliate of KRAVE Group LLC, a partnership including three-time 500cc World Champion, two-time AMA Superbike Champion, and AMA Hall of Famer Wayne Rainey; ex-racer and former manager of Team Roberts Chuck Aksland; motorsports marketing executive Terry Karges; and businessman Richard Varner. For more information, please visit www.MotoAmerica.com and follow MotoAmerica on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, and YouTube. To watch all things MotoAmerica, subscribe to MotoAmerica’s live streaming and video on demand service, MotoAmerica Live+
More, from a press release issued by Ducati:
Destiny beckons for Josh Herrin and Warhorse HSBK Racing Ducati as Herrin sets his eyes on the 2024 Steel Commander MotoAmerica Superbike Championship
Sunnyvale, Calif., September 25, 2024 — After eight rounds of white-knuckle racing, it all boils down to this as MotoAmerica descends on New Jersey Motorsports Park for the season-ending round over the September 27-29 weekend.
Warhorse HSBK Racing Ducati’s Josh Herrin sits in the box seat and heads into the round with a 46-point lead with two final races and 50 points to play for.
Herrin needs to finish race one with a 25-point advantage to second-placed Cameron Beaubier to be assured of the crown. Otherwise, he will still have race two to seal the title. Should Herrin wrap up the title, he will join American racing legends Eddie Lawson, Wes Cooley, and MotoAmerica President Wayne Rainey as a two-time AMA Superbike Champion.
Herrin’s 2024 season has been one that’s gotten better and better as it wore on. A solitary top-three finish from the first three rounds was replaced with a flurry of podiums and five race wins in 18 races, setting himself up perfectly for his championship charge.
If Herrin wraps up the 2024 Steel Commander MotoAmerica Superbike Championship, he will become the first Ducati rider since Troy Corser piloted a Fast by Ferracci Ducati 888 to the title in 1994.
As usual, Herrin will be backed up by his Warhorse HSBK Racing Ducati teammate, Loris Baz. Baz is in the hunt for a top-five finish in the championship and could end up as high as third if the cards fall his way in New Jersey.
New Jersey Motorsports Park is the Warhorse HSBK Racing Ducati team’s home track, and it’s a venue Baz has ridden at many times, so don’t discount the flying Frenchman from possibly notching his first MotoAmerica career race victory.
Josh Herrin (Warhorse HSBK Racing Ducati–#2)
“I’m really excited about this weekend but also a little nervous because there’s a lot on the line,” Herrin said. “We have a big points lead we’ve worked hard to get but even though we have that gap, the pressure is on.
“We’ve tested at New Jersey, so I’m not nervous about riding the track, and the bike’s been really good to me lately. It’s been working well the whole year, except at the beginning of the season with all the rain, which is still an area we need to improve.
“It should be dry this weekend, and we’re hoping to get the championship wrapped up on Saturday so we can go for a race win on Sunday, which I’d really like to end the year on. All the hard work has as paid off, so this weekend, we need to try to have fun on the Warhorse HSBK Racing Ducati V4 R.”
Loris Baz (Warhorse HSBK Racing Ducati–#76)
“I can’t believe it’s already the last race of the season!” Baz said. “I’m really looking forward to New Jersey. It’s the home round for the team and a place we’ve tested at, so we have a good setup for the V4 R.
“It’s a big weekend for the team—I want to end the season on a high note, a season that wasn’t exactly what I had hoped for personally but one where we’ve had some great results.
“I’m going to try my best as always and enjoy the atmosphere with Josh and the team.”
On track action for the ninth and final round of the 2024 Steel Commander MotoAmerica Superbike Championship will commence at 8:55 a.m. EDT on Friday, September 27 with Herrin and Baz taking to the track for Free Practice 1 at 10:10 a.m. EDT.
Race one will commence on Saturday, September 28, at 3:10 p.m. EDT, while the season-concluding race two will go green at 3:10 p.m. EDT on Sunday, September 29.
