Cycle News Staff | August 18, 2024
Sunday Superbike
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.
Kelly (40) held off Herrin (2) and Beaubier (6) for almost the entire race before Herrin found a way past with two laps to go.
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.
Superbike Race 2
- Josh Herrin (Ducati)
- Sean Dylan Kelly (BMW)
- Cameron Beaubier (BMW)
- Loris Baz (Ducati)
- Bobby Fong (Yamaha)
- JD Beach (BMW)
- Richie Escalante (Suzuki)
- Cameron Petersen (Yamaha)
- Ashton Yates (Honda)
- Jake Gagne (Yamaha)
Sunday Supersport
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 pulled back the gap to Jacobsen and Scott and took a resounding race two win.
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.
Sunday King of The Baggers
What was shaping up to be another fight to the finish between Harley-Davidson Factory Racing’s Kyle Wyman and S&S/Indian Motorcycle’s Troy Herfoss didn’t get the chance to materialize as Hayden Gillim crashed his RevZilla/Motul/Vance & Hines Harley-Davidson on the third lap in Sunday’s race, bringing out the red flag and ultimately the end of the race.
It was shaping up to be a proper KoTB boxing match until Gillim crashed out hard.
Since he was leading Herfoss when the red flag came out, Wyman was declared the winner, giving him his sixth win of the season and the five points back that he’d lost to Herfoss on Saturday.
RevZilla/Motul/Vance & Hines Harley-Davidson’s Rocco Landers finished third for the second time on the weekend as the series rookie continues to get closer to the top two.
Sunday Super Hooligans
It was also a doubleheader Sunday for the Mission Super Hooligan National Championship class with Saturday’s race getting bumped off the schedule with poor weather wreaking havoc.
When they did get started in the first of two races, Saddlemen Racing/Harley-Davidson’s Jake Lewis turned what looked to be an exciting Mission Super Hooligan National Championship race at Mid-Ohio into a dull one when he pulled away from the scrap behind him to win his second race of the season on Sunday morning.
Lewis topped his teammate Cory West by 1.2 seconds after separating himself from the pack in the closing stages with West beating KWR/Harley-Davidson’s Hayden Schultz by just .057 of a second.
West leads wildcard Fillmore in a sensational Hooligans race two.
Then came the pair of S&S/Indian Motorcycle’s with Tyler O’Hara fourth and Troy Herfoss fifth, respectively. Herfoss was slowed somewhat by a clutch issue.
If race one turned into a runaway in Hooligan terms, race two was anything but with six riders in the lead group all the way to the finish. And what a difference another race makes as race-one winner Lewis was at the back of that lead group in sixth place.
This one went to new championship points leader West after his two-one finishes on the day. West beat O’Hara, his main championship rival, by .105 of a second. Third place on the track went to KTM Development Team’s Chris Fillmore, but Fillmore was here on a KTM DUKE Prototype and not eligible for championship points.
That gave third to Herfoss with KWR/Harley-Davidson’s Hayden Schultz and West’s teammate Travis Wyman rounding out the top five.
Sunday Junior Cup
Seventeen-year-old Matthew Chapin is having quite a rookie season in the MotoAmerica Junior Cup Championship, and Sunday was his best day yet. The BARTCON Racing Kawasaki rider won both Junior Cup races, with Saturday’s race one postponed due to rain and rescheduled on Sunday. All the better for the Marylander because his two Super Sunday wins clinched the 2024 MotoAmerica Junior Cup Championship.
From one end to the other, it was a perfect weekend for Chapin, who was fastest in Friday’s Practice 1, earned the provisional pole in first qualifying later on Friday, secured pole position in final qualifying on Saturday, and won both races on Sunday.
Chapin was unstoppable in Junior Cup.
Chapin made light work of race one, winning by an unheard of for-that-class 3.4 seconds over Fernandez Racing’s Jayden Fernandez with Fernandez some nine seconds ahead of what was the first real battle in the race, with third through seventh finishing on the same second. The final podium spot went to Chapin’s BARTCON Racing teammate Eli Block.
“Oh, man,” Chapin said after race one. “It was a great race. Pulled the holeshot, and I knew I had the pace to get away, so I just put my head down, did some fast laps. Man, it was a great race.”
Junior Cup race two was a lot closer at the finish line for Chapin, who nipped New York Safety Track Racing Kawasaki’s Yandel Medina by just .074 of a second. Third place went to Wolfe Racing’s Ryan Wolfe, who was only .015 of a second behind Medina.
All in all, Chapin, led every lap of both of Sunday’s Junior Cup races.
Sunday Royal Enfield Build. Train. Race
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.
“Thank you, and goodnight.” Yet another win for Mikayla Moore and the title.
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.
Saturday Superbike
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, but it was definitely a banner day for Josh Herrin.
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 familiarization 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 crushed the field the win race one
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 teammate in third.
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.
Herrin heads into tomorrow’s race two with a 30-point lead over Fong, 219-189. Gagne is third with 186 points with Beaubier moving to fourth with 168 points – one better than Gagne’s teammate 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.
Superbike Race One
- Josh Herrin (Ducati)
- Cameron Beaubier (BMW)
- JD Beach (BMW)
- Hayden Gillim (Honda)
- Sean Dylan Kelly (BMW)
- Bobby Fong (Yamaha)
- Ashton Yates (Honda)
- Benjamin Smith (Yamaha)
- Jake Gagne (Yamaha)
- Ezra Beaubier (BMW)
Saturday Supersport
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 tires 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 teammate Maxi Gerardo was fourth with Vision Wheel M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Teagg Hobbs rounding out the top five.
Mission King Of The Baggers – Herfoss Over Wyman
The Mission King Of The Baggers Championship is a uniquely American series that pits Indian Motorcycle and Harley-Davidson – two storied and iconic U.S.-based motorcycle manufacturers – against each other. It is a fierce rivalry that is very real between both manufacturers, the teams, and the riders. S&S/Indian Motorcycle’s Troy Herfoss and Harley-Davidson Factory Racing’s Kyle Wyman are cordial enough to each other, but when the faceshields go down and the lights go out on the starting grid, the two riders will fight with everything they have to beat each other.
In Saturday’s King Of The Baggers race one at Mid-Ohio, Wyman and Herfoss battled it out in a nine-lap shootout that saw Herfoss take the checkered flag by just a little more than a second over Wyman after Wyman made a strong challenge for the lead, but Herfoss was able to overtake Wyman again and make it stick.
Finishing third and another second adrift of Wyman was RevZilla/Motul/Vance & Hines Harley-Davidson’s Rocco Landers, who got the better of his teammate Hayden Gillim to round out the podium.
Herfoss’ win narrowed championship-leader Wyman’s advantage to just nine points with only five races left in the season.
Royal Enfield Build. Train. Race. – Moore No Less
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.
Another win for Mikayla Moore.
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.
Friday Superbike
Ben Spies’ 16-year-old Superbike lap record at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course will live for at least another day as Tytlers Cycle Racing’s Cameron Beaubier flirted with the mark but couldn’t quite get it done on a sunny and breezy day at the iconic racing facility.
After 40 minutes of Superbike Q1, the times at the top were close and oh so close to the lap record with Beaubier leading the way with his 1:23.904 – just .265 from Spies’ best in 2008.
Beaubier, who won a Superbike race here the last time one was held at Mid-Ohio in 2014, wasn’t alone in his quest to break Spies’ mark as Warhorse HSBK Racing Ducati’s Loris Baz was hot on his heels and just .122 of a second slower than the five-time MotoAmerica Superbike Champion. Beaubier, however, was the only rider to crack into the 1:23s.
Beaubier was in a league of his own on Friday.
Then came EasyHealthPlans.com/Top Pro Racing’s Sean Dylan Kelly just .153 of a second behind Baz and a scant .062 of a second clear of Baz’s teammate Josh Herrin, the 2024 Steel Commander Superbike points leader heading into tomorrow’s first of two races at Mid-Ohio.
Attack Performance/Progressive/Yamaha Racing’s Jake Gagne ended up fifth and the last rider on the same second as Beaubier with his 1:24.852.
Vision Wheel M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Brandon Paasch ended Friday in sixth with Tytlers Cycle Racing’s JD Beach seventh, followed closely by Gagne’s injured teammate Cameron Petersen with the South African riding to a brave eighth in Q1 after suffering a right ankle injury in yesterday’s Dunlop official test.
Wrench Motorcycles’ Bobby Fong and Jones Honda’s Ashton Yates rounded out the top 10 heading into tomorrow morning’s Q2.
Vision Wheel M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Richie Escalante, meanwhile, finished the session in 12th in his return to racing after suffering serious injuries in the opening round at Road Atlanta.
Supersport – Jacobsen Strikes First
Rahal Ducati Moto’s PJ Jacobsen was third in Supersport Q1 with 11 minutes remaining in the session when he shot past his title rival Mathew Scholtz and his Strack Racing Yamaha YZF-R6 and Altus Racing’s Jake Lewis and went to the top of the timesheets with his 1:27.427, a new middleweight lap record at Mid-Ohio.
The time would hold up with Jacobsen ending the session just .163 of a second ahead of Scholtz with Lewis ending up third with his 1:27.885.
N2 Racing/BobbleHeadMoto’s Blake Davis and EasyHealthPlans.com/TopPro Racing’s Maxi Gerardo were half a second off Jacobsen’s best and were the last riders within a second of the New Yorker.
Jacobsen’s teammate Kayla Yaakov, Vision Wheel M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Tyler Scott, Gerardo’s teammate Larry Pegram, Tytlers Cycle Racing’s Stefano Mesa and SportbikeTrackGear.com’s Max Van rounded out the top 10, provisionally.
Mission King Of The Baggers – Wyman, Barely
Harley-Davidson Factory Racing’s Kyle Wyman led the way in Mission King Of The Baggers Q1 on Friday at Mid-Ohio with the championship points leader just .121 of a second ahead of his S&S Cycle/Indian Motorcycle title rival Troy Herfoss. Wyman’s best lap was a 1:27.872 to Herfoss’ 1:27.993.
Wyman led on Friday but only just.
The top five were all within a second of Wyman with RevZilla/Motul/Vance & Hines Harley-Davidson teammates Hayden Gillim and Rocco Landers ending the session third and fourth. Herfoss’ teammate Tyler O’Hara rounded out the top five in Q1.
Tomorrow morning the big Baggers will return to the track for Q2, which will transfer the top six finishers to the Mission King Of The Baggers Challenge and its $5000 payday in the winner-take-all race, which will take place at 12:05 p.m. with the first of two championship race at 4:05 p.m.
Junior Cup – Back To Business
You could forgive racers in the Junior Cup class for being a bit rusty after not racing since the Brainerd International Raceway round back in June. But that wasn’t the case as the youngest racers in the series were quickly back up to speed by the time Q1 came around on Friday afternoon.
BARTCON Racing’s Matthew Chapin picked right up where he left off in Q1 as the championship points leader led the way with his 1:36.52, even though he said his best lap featured a mistake. Chapin ended Friday afternoon’s session with the only lap in the 1:36s as he ripped off a 1:36.652.
Fernandez Racing’s Jayden Fernandez ended up second, .755 of a second behind Chapin but ahead of New York Safety Track Racing’s Yandel Medina. Royalty Racing’s Carson King and BARTCON Racing’s Eli Block rounded out the top five.
Royal Enfield Build. Train. Race. – Moore Again
Mikayla Moore was Mikayla Moore on Friday at Mid-Ohio with the Maryland racer earning provisional pole position for this weekend’s two Royal Enfield Build. Train. Race. races. If Moore stays on top in tomorrow’s Q2 she will continue her streak of being on pole in every race for the past year and a half.
Moore lapped at a best of 1:47.186 to lead Kira Knebel by 2.253 seconds with Emma Betters rounding out the provisional front row with her 1:40.257.
Mission Super Hooligan National Championship – Herfoss’ First
S&S Cycle/Indian Motorcycles’ Troy Herfoss hasn’t had a pole position yet in his rookie season of Mission Super Hooligan National Championship, but he earned his first provisional pole on Friday at Mid-Ohio.
Herfoss and his 1:29.801 topped his teammate Tyler O’Hara by .123 of a second on Friday afternoon with the top eight riders on the same second as the Australian.
Saddlemen/Harley-Davidson teammates Travis Wyman and Cory West were third and fourth, respectively, with KTM Development Team’s Chris Fillmore rounding out the top five heading into tomorrow’s Q2 session.
For more MotoAmerica news and results, click here
