Latest news with #Beaubier
NBC Sports
2 days ago
- Sport
- NBC Sports
Josh Herrin sweeps Road America, Cameron Beaubier crashes in Race 2
Josh Herrin followed up on his Saturday victory at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, with another Superbike win on Sunday to complete a sweep of the weekend. Herrin led wire-to-wire in Saturday's race on his Ducati despite pressure from Bobby Fong and Cameron Beaubier, but Sunday had a different plotline. Under pressure from Beaubier, Herrin rode off course in the chicane after leading Lap 1 and handed the top spot to the current points leader, but Herrin recovered quickly and was back up front on Lap 4, where he remained until the checkers. 'The guys gave me a perfect bike this weekend,' Herrin said in a news release. 'Like Bobby 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.' Dan Beaver, The decisive moment of the race occurred on Lap 8, when Beaubier laid his bike down in the carousel and retired with the crash damage. The accident effectively erased Beaubier's points lead, which was 23 points ahead of Jake Gagne after two rounds. Third-place Herrin was in even more dire straits at 36 points behind entering Road America, but he left in second with only a two-point gap. 'Like we talked about yesterday, just getting through those first two rounds is important for us,' Herrin said. '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 because of crashes, but that's part of the game. Making mistakes is part of it. You've got to try to minimize them.' For the second consecutive race, Herrin beat Fong to the line, this time by 8.6 seconds. 'I was kind of doing the same thing as yesterday,' Fong said. '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 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.' Richie Escalante improved on his fourth-place finish on Saturday to take the final podium spot despite his Suzuki losing power on the final lap. '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,' Escalante said. '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, but I made a mistake in the chicane. After that, I just maintained my pace.' Fourth-place Benjamin Smith and JD Beach rounded out the top five. This was a career-best finish for Smith. A pair of riders accustomed to riding up front saw their race hope evaporate early as Sean Dylan Kelly and Jake Gagne made contact early in the race. Both finished, but the incident relegated Gagne to eighth and Kelly to 14th, the last bike on the lead lap. Gagne fell from second in the championship standings at the start of the race to fourth. Bobby Fong's back-to-back second-place results elevated him to third in points. Race 2 Results Race 2 Lap Chart Superbike Rider Points
NBC Sports
3 days ago
- Sport
- NBC Sports
Josh Herrin wins MotoAmerica Superbike Race 1 at Elkhart Lake, leading wire-to-wire
Josh Herrin led wire-to-wire in the first race of Round 3 at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, to score his first MotoAmerica Superbike race of the season and the 17th of his career. With this win, Herrin interrupted the momentum of championship leader Cameron Beaubier, who was victorious in three of the first four races of 2025. 'I don't think it's just a fast track,' Herrin told Hannah Lopa on Peacock following the race. 'It's the first two rounds, I'm always a little scared and riding a little bad. I need the first two out of the way to get going.' Herrin had added incentive at Road America after welcoming twin girls to the world earlier in the week. 'If you look back the last couple years, we've ran at the front in some races, but I don't think we've won any of the first two rounds for '23 or '24,' Herrin said in a news release. 'I hear the guys on the broadcast saying, 'When they can let the Ducati loose…' I'm not saying the Ducati is not a fast bike, but I think this track suits me well. I've won on the Yamaha, the Ducati, the Suzuki, and got a podium on the BMW here. 'So, I've had a lot of success just around this track. I like the vibes here. My first pro race was at this track in 2006. So, it's been a long time. I just feel good here. I do think that this is kind of like our reset, I guess. Obviously, I want to win at the first two rounds. It's not like I'm not trying. But I'm also just trying to collect some points because I know that we just need to keep our head up and get out of there.' The defending champion, Herrin, entered the round third in the standings on the strength of three podiums in four starts. But with Beaubier winning three races and finishing second in the outlier, Herrin faced a 36-point deficit and needed to eat away at that lead. 'So, to get three podiums in the first two rounds out of four, I was stoked with,' Herrin continued. 'Then, to top it off with a win here, it's good. I'm happy to win. I always love to win. But for some reason, right now, this doesn't feel like I thought it would. Maybe it's just because all the stuff that's been going on this week. I'm tired. Got a lot on my mind. I was like, I want to say something about the babies on the podium, and it was like hard to remember all of the names now. I'm like, 'I'm going to mess this up.' But I'm excited. I look at it, but I've got so much going on in my mind right now it's insane. Hats off to the team for working hard and pushing me this weekend.' Herrin led all 12 laps, but he was never able to create a sizeable gap on the field, being pressured first by Bobby Fong and then by Beaubier. 'I was riding so hard to try to keep up with them,' Fong said. 'I think it was the second-to-last lap, I had a big one. I thought I was going down for sure in Turn 1. Nearly fell off the thing. I thought Cam was going to blast me. My pit board was saying 'G2,' so I thought that there were two people behind me the whole time. So, I'm like, this is it. I'm getting fourth place. I thought there [were] more people than Cam. So, I just kept pushing and pushing and pushing. 'Once I had that moment, Cam went by. I'm like, 'I think my race is over. I have to settle in.' Then he went wide. He just went super wide into Turn 1. I thought, here's my second chance. Got in second, and I thought he was going to get me again. But it was good. This guy kept me on my toes. Both these guys kept me on my toes the whole time. Definitely had a lot of moments out there. I was ready to just send it to the grass for sure plenty of times. But it was good to get some points and move forward to tomorrow.' Beaubier got the jump on the field but rode wide in Turn 1, and after handing the lead to Herrin, he struggled for the next couple of laps to reclaim his momentum. In fact, Beaubier regained his speed and caught Fong in the closing laps. He passed Fong on Lap 9, held that advantage for another lap, and then rode wide one more time. 'I got a good jump, and then I missed a shift slightly going second to third,' Beaubier said. 'Then I sent it off in there a little deeper than I should have in turn one. I felt like I was okay. Then I was going to be about mid-track, then I got a big front-end push that sent me off the track. Just kind of blended in as safe as I could. Then, after that, I just did not have the same feeling I did in qualifying and practice. But these guys were putting up a great pace.' In the final two laps, Beaubier pressured Herrin, but the pace of the leader forced a mistake by the second-place rider. 'Josh at the front had to be going 2:10s the whole race. I was in there too and I was slowly crawling back. But, for me, it was just kind of a race of mistakes. I was struggling pretty bad getting the bike stopped. Man, when this BMW is working, it feels so good. But when it's not quite in its window, it's a beast to ride. But I'm glad we collected some points, especially after a couple mistakes I had and a couple close calls. I'm glad that we were able to at least salvage some points today.' Mounting a charge once more, Beaubier set his sights the four-point differential between third and second. He finished 0.009 seconds behind Fong. Beaubier finished third, keeping a perfect streak of podiums alive. This was the 115th MotoAmerica Superbike podium of his career. Fourth-place Jake Gagne and Richie Escalante rounded out the top five. Sean Dylan Kelly crashed on Lap 3 and was the first rider to be eliminated from the race. JD Beach experienced clutch problems and also retired. Race 1 Results Superbike Rider Points
