MotoAmerica is headed to Monterey, California’s WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca July 11-13 for a Superbike tripleheader, along with the Twins Cup, King Of The Baggers, Supersport and Super Hooligans classes.
This is a race preview from MotoAmerica…
Tripleheader Superbike Time At WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca
The first of the three MotoAmerica Superbike races at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca will take place at 3:10 p.m. Race one will be preceded by the Legends Lap with Wayne Rainey, and the California Highway Patrol Salute. On Sunday, race two will start at noon with race three scheduled to begin at 3:12 p.m.
With three Superbike races and 75 points up for grabs in this weekend’s fifth round at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, it would be hard to argue that the two days of racing in Monterey could well be the most important weekend of the season for those fighting for the 2025 MotoAmerica Superbike Championship.
Thus far in 2025, Warhorse HSBK Racing Ducati’s Josh Herrin and Tytlers Cycle Racing’s Cameron Beaubier have put a bit of distance between themselves and the chasing pack, but the two riders with a combined seven AMA Superbike titles have plenty to worry about trying to beat each other. The two rivals have won seven of the eight Superbike races held thus far.
Herrin makes the trek up the California coast from his home in Temecula with an eight-point lead over Beaubier while riding a four-race win streak. Beaubier will have a shorter drive south from his home in Lincoln and will be trying to make up ground with a solid points haul from the three Laguna races.
Following his now-normal slow start with a fifth in the opening race of the season, Herrin has been a model of consistency and flat-out speed. Three straight third-place finishes were followed up by four consecutive victories, the most recent of which was his 20th career AMA Superbike win following a sweep of the two races at Ridge Motorsports Park two weeks ago.
Beaubier’s season so far has been the opposite of Herrin’s. Beaubier got off to a great start, winning three of the first four races and finishing on the podium in the other two. But a crash while battling with Herrin in race two at Road America cost him dearly as he failed to score a point. He went into the Ridge round ahead by two points and left trailing by eight points after getting beat in both races by Herrin.
Attack Performance Progressive Yamaha Racing’s Jake Gagne seems awfully close to being the Jake Gagne of old as he’s started the season with a win and five total podiums from the eight races in 2025. Gagne was third in both races at Ridge Motorsports Park and had the second-fastest laps in each race. He was only 2.4 seconds behind race winner Herrin at the conclusion of race one. This time last year, Gagne was struggling mightily with carpal tunnel syndrome and finished ninth in the dry race two at Ridge – 30 seconds behind Herrin. Gagne was fifth in both races last year at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, and he knows his way around the track on which he has won five Superbike races in his career.
Gagne comes to Laguna third in points, 26 behind Beaubier and 34 behind Herrin.
Bobby Fong is just eight points behind his Yamaha teammate Gagne, but 42 behind Herrin, who is in his first season with the factory team. Fong has four podium finishes on the season (all second places) but is coming off a less-than-stellar weekend for him at Ridge. Fong was fourth and eighth in the two races in the Pacific Northwest.
Richie Escalante has scored points in every round but the first race of the year way back in April at Barber Motorsports Park. The Vision Wheel M4 ECSTAR Suzuki rider hasn’t finished worse than seventh since his opening-round crash and he finds himself in fifth in the championship, 16 points ahead of Real Steel Honda’s Hayden Gillim and 17 ahead of his own teammate Sean Dylan Kelly.
Gillim is coming off his best race result of the year – a fifth in race two at Ridge. Kelly, meanwhile, got off to a great start to his season with four successive fourth-place finishes before things went off the rails at Road America and have continued through the Ridge round. Kelly is 95 points behind Herrin and five ahead of Gillim’s teammate JD Beach, who is eighth in the Superbike standings while leading the Superbike Cup title chase for those racing Stock 1000-spec bikes in the Superbike class.
BPR Racing’s Bryce Kornbau is ninth, one point ahead of FLO4LAW/SBU Racing’s Benjamin Smith, who is coming off a horrendous weekend in Washington with two mechanical DNFs in the two races.
The first of the three MotoAmerica Superbike races at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca will take place at 3:10 p.m. Race one will be preceded by the Legends Lap with Wayne Rainey, and the California Highway Patrol Salute. On Sunday, race two will start at noon with race three scheduled to begin at 3:12 p.m.
Pre-Laguna Seca Notes…
Cameron Beaubier broke the WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca lap record last year with the five-time MotoAmerica Superbike Champion lapping at 1:22.556 to break Josh Herrin’s previous lap record of 1:22.908 from 2018. Beaubier was joined on the front row by Sean Dylan Kelly and Cameron Petersen.
Cameron Beaubier and Josh Herrin split the two Superbike wins last year at Laguna Seca with Beaubier beating Herrin in race one and Herrin reversing that order in race two. Cameron Petersen finished third in race one with Sean Dylan Kelly filling out the podium in race two.
The last time three Superbike races were held at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca was in 2023, and it was Cameron Beaubier winning two of the three with both of his wins coming on Sunday. Jake Gagne won the first of the three races on Saturday with Cameron Petersen crashing on the opening lap on the exit of turn two and taking Beaubier with him.
Cameron Beaubier is the all-time Superbike race winner at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca with 10 wins at the track in the hills east of Monterey. Beaubier won his first Superbike race at Laguna Seca in 2015, using the win to propel himself to his first MotoAmerica Superbike Championship.
WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca has a long history of hosting AMA Superbike races with the first-ever Superbike race at the track on the Monterey Peninsula taking place in 1976 and won by Reg Pridmore.
The fifth annual “Rainey’s Ride To The Races” will take place on Friday, July 11, with several legends of the sport scheduled to take part in the ride and then stay for the races and a lap of Laguna with Rainey himself on Saturday prior to the start of the first Superbike race. The legends include Kenny Roberts, Eddie Lawson, Bubba Shobert, Freddie Spencer, Rick Johnson, Doug Chandler, Kenny Roberts Jr., Ben Spies, and Kel Carruthers.
Chasing 90. Cameron Beaubier’s next MotoAmerica Superbike win will be historic as it will be his 90th victory across all AMA road race classes, which will make him the all-time AMA road race win leader. Beaubier is currently tied with Josh Hayes on the all-time list with 89 victories apiece. Hayes is currently racing in the Supersport class, so he also can add to his win list.
Mission King Of The Baggers Back In Action This Weekend At WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca
Wyman Has A Big Baggers Lead, Jacobsen Vs. Scholtz In Supersport, And A Ton More Action As MotoAmerica Heads To Monterey
Irvine, CA (July 9, 2025) – Forty-two days will have passed since the last time the men of the Mission King Of The Baggers class did battle at Road America and this Friday’s opening practice session for the fourth round of the Mission King Of The Baggers Championship at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca.
They should all be well-rested and champing at the bit to go racing.
Father-to-be Kyle Wyman rolls into Monterey with a healthy 56-point lead in the championship with Wyman and the Harley-Davidson x Dynojet Factory Racing Road Glide pocketing four wins from the six races. In the two he didn’t win, the New Yorker was second and third. He will be difficult to catch.
But difficult doesn’t mean impossible.
You can count on S&S/Indian Motorcycle’s Troy Herfoss fighting to the bitter end, and he showed some of that fight at Road America where he won for the first time in 2025 after a hard-fought battle that went to the very last corner with Harley-Davidson x Dynojet Factory Racing’s Bradley Smith. The pair fought over the racing line on the exit of turn 14 with the two making contact. Smith crashed and Herfoss won.
Herfoss’ teammate Loris Baz is the only rider other than Wyman and Herfoss to win a race this year with the Frenchman winning in iffy conditions at Road Atlanta. Baz has been impressive in his rookie season in the class, and he sits third – just three points behind the Australian.
Tyler O’Hara makes it three Indians in a row in second, third, and fourth in the series standings heading into Laguna Seca. O’Hara had his best weekend of the season at Road America with a third in race one and a fourth in race two, though the third-place finish was inherited when Smith and his Road Glide were DQ’d from Saturday’s race when the Harley was found to have exceeded the 7,000-rpm limit.
RevZilla/Motul/Vance & Hines Harley Davidson’s Hayden Gillim is still clawing his way back up the point standings after his non-finish in race one at Daytona back in March. Since then, Gillim has been bouncing back with a sixth, two fifths, and two fourths.
Smith is next, five points behind Gillim after a tough weekend for the Brit at Road America with his DQ and crash. Smith, however, did remount after the crash to salvage five points. He is one point behind Gillim and four points ahead of his teammate James Rispoli.
Rispoli had a horrible start to the season, as he failed to score a point in the first three races. Since then, he’s been on a bit of a roll with a fourth and two runner-up finishes in the last three races.
TAB Performance Racing’s Kyle Ohnsorg, RevZilla/Motul/Vance & Hines Harley-Davidson’s Rocco Landers, and Saddlemen Race Development’s Jake Lewis round out the top 10.
Motovation Supersport Championship – PJ And The Scholtz
Just 10 points separate Rahal Ducati Moto w/XPEL’s PJ Jacobsen from Strack Racing’s Mathew Scholtz as the Motovation Supersport series touches down at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, the site of two thrilling races last year between the two title combatants.
Last year, Jacobsen came in with a chip on his shoulder after contact between him and Scholtz at Ridge Motorsports Park left Jacobsen on the ground and Scholtz on the top step of the podium.
Jacobsen used the added motivation to beat Scholtz in both races at Laguna Seca a year ago, and he’s hopeful of something similar this weekend after getting beaten by Scholtz in both races at Ridge two weeks ago.
“I feel good,” Jacobsen said after race two at Ridge Motorsports Park. “I got two wins at Laguna last year. I like that place a lo, and I think the (Ducati) V2 works well there, and I think the new parts that we have on the bike will be very good at Laguna.”
Scholtz also had something to say about that.
“Overall, taking 50 points home gives me a lot of confidence, “Scholtz said. “At Laguna last year, PJ pipped me on the last lap twice, so I need to get something back there. It’s always been a strong circuit for me on the Superbike and I’m hoping the R9 translates into that.”
The best of the rest so far this season is Scholtz’s teammate Blake Davis. The teenager is 59 points behind Jacobsen and 49 behind Scholtz, and he is seven ahead of Vision Wheel M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Tyler Scott.
Altus Motorsports’ Jake Lewis didn’t have the weekend he was looking for at Ridge Motorsports Park, and he heads to Laguna Seca fifth in the championship and 18 points behind Scott.
Celtic/Economy Lube+Tire/Warhorse HSBK Ducati’s Cameron Petersen is just two points behind Lewis and nine ahead of Rahal Ducati Moto w/XPEL’s Kayla Yaakov with a mechanical issue costing her championship points in race two at Ridge after she’d finished fifth in race one.
BPR Racing’s Josh Hayes, the only rider other than Jacobsen, Scholtz and Davis to win a Supersport race in 2025, is eighth in the point standings, 15 ahead of his teammate Teagg Hobbs and 20 ahead of Altus Motorsports’ Torin Collins.
SC-Project Twins Cup – Can Anyone Stop Di Mario?
Alessandro Di Mario and his Robem Engineering Aprilia RS 660 are simply dominating the SC-Project Twins Cup class with the Kentuckian leading the title chase by a whopping 53 points.
That’s what happens when you win three of the first six races and finish second in the other three. No one other than Di Mario in the top 10 has earned points in every round. And he’s earned 135 of them.
Di Mario heads to WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca riding the high of a three-race win streak while his closest rival in the championship chase has hit a rough spot. RevZilla/Motul/Vance & Hines Suzuki’s Matthew Chapin has gone a bit cold after his blazing hot start with two wins at Daytona kicking off his rookie campaign in the class. Since then, however, Chapin has only scored 16 points in the last three races while Di Mario has scored 75 points.
Still, Chapin is second in the title chase, 19 ahead of Bad Boys Racing’s Avery Dreher. Dreher is the third rider in the class to taste victory with his win coming in race two at Barber Motorsports Park in April.
Giaccmoto Yamaha Racing’s Dominic Doyle is just a point behind Dreher in fourth, 10 points ahead of Karns/TST Industries’ Levi Badie.
Mission Super Hooligan National Championship Powered By Harley-Davidson – Chasing Lewis
Such was Jake Lewis’ domination of the Mission Super Hooligan National Championship that his Saddlemen Race Development teammate Cory West wasn’t sure he’d win another race. But he did.
Lewis won his fourth Hooligan race in a row in race one at Ridge Motorsports Park two weeks ago, but West fought back in Sunday’s race two to score his first win since Daytona. And it was the first win since Daytona for anyone not named Jake Lewis.
After three rounds and six races, Lewis leads defending series champion West by 24 points as the series arrives in Monterey. West, in turn, leads the third Saddlemen Race Development teammate Travis Wyman by 13 points.
KWR Harley-Davidson’s James Rispoli is hot off a 40-point weekend with his two second-place finishes in Washington.
The first non-Harley-Davidson Pan America in the championship standings is the Yamaha MT-09 SP ridden by Giaccmoto Yamaha Racing’s Dominic Doyle, who sits fifth in the title chase, 12 points behind Rispoli.
Pre-Laguna Seca Notes…
PJ Jacobsen did the double in the Supersport class last year last year at Laguna Seca with the New Yorker winning both races over his championship rival Mathew Scholtz. The two wins pulled Jacobsen to within 18 points of Scholtz as the series’ West Coast swing came to a close.
Kyle Wyman and Hayden Gillim split wins in last year’s two Mission King of The Baggers’ races. Wyman won race one over Rocco Landers and Gillim with Gillim besting Wyman and Landers in race two.
In the two Mission Super Hooligan National Championship races at Laguna Seca a year ago, it was Tyler O’Hara and Cory West taking home victories. O’Hara topped West and Hayden Schultz in race one with West beating Jake Lewis and O’Hara in race two.
The MotoAmerica Stock 1000 class had two races at last year’s round in Monterey, but Stock 1000 isn’t competing this year at Laguna Seca, and the SC-Project Twins Cup series will be the fifth class seeing action, joining Superbike, Mission King Of The Baggers, Motovation Supersport, and the Mission Super Hooligan National Championship.
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