Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity, and Cameron Beaubier made the most of it when it fell his way for a sixth career MotoAmerica Superbike Championship.
Photography by Brian J. Nelson
Race two of the final round of MotoAmerica 2025 at New Jersey Motorsports Park will go down as one of the most dramatic in AMA/MotoAmerica Superbike Championship’s history.
Heading into the race, then five-time Superbike champion Cameron Beaubier trailed Bobby Fong by 13 points after the Yamaha man walked race one to take a 3.3-second win. And 2024 champion Josh Herrin wasn’t out of it yet, either, but his 31-point gap was going to be much harder to make up with two races to go. It was all to play for, with the title advantage—for the moment—painted in Yamaha blue.
Beaubier and the Tytlers Cycle BMW team were on the back foot after two crashes on Friday, one in which Beaubier worryingly had no idea the cause of. That meant the BMW was out of its crucial setup window and ensured the team had to run the hard rear tire for race one compared to Fong and Yamaha running the preferred soft-compound Dunlop.
“Then on Sunday, we were able to run the softer rear, which was good, but I was just hanging on for dear life with those guys,” Beaubier says of Fong and Herrin. “Then they started battling. Going into the last lap, I could hang on, just, but I couldn’t set myself up good enough to make a pass on one of them, especially with how close they were.
“So, going into the last lap, I flipped it left to right in that turn-three section and suddenly I saw a puff of smoke and Bob go tumbling through the grass. I was like, no way did that just happen. No way…”
But it did, and the title race was now turned completely upside down. Herrin took the win, and Beaubier banked another second place, only this time he reversed the championship table to lead Fong by seven points heading into race three, with Herrin now only 13 points in arrears. A second place for Beaubier would seal a sixth MotoAmerica Superbike Championship, but racing is never that straightforward.
“All of a sudden, we’re back in this thing. I’m in the points lead,” Beaubier said. “In the last race, I got a good start, latched onto Bob, and he pulled us away from the field. We were knocking out low- to mid-1:20s, which is very fast around there, but he tucked the front and crashed. I had a little lead, and I just did everything I could to get to the finish on two wheels.”
Although he was now free of Fong in the title hunt, if anything happened to either Beaubier or his BMW, Herrin would need a third-place finish or better, and he would be champion for a second consecutive year, turning around one of the biggest final-round points deficits ever seen in the process.
“[The race] was so tough because I still had to push to keep my gap,” Beaubier said. “It pretty much stayed the same the whole race, which was good, and somehow, we wrapped it up. It’s one of my proudest titles that I’ve won just because we just never gave up. It was a little bittersweet too because we found out before that last race that our team wasn’t continuing for next year, so it was cool to be able to tick that box for the team.”
The mission for Beaubier to become only the fourth rider in AMA Superbike history to win a title with a second manufacturer started perfectly with a win in the opening race at Barber Motorsports Park and three more podiums on the trot, giving him a 23-point gap over former three-time champion Jake Gagne heading into round three at Road America.
But the curse of “America’s National Park of Speed” struck again as Beaubier crashed out of race two and all but wiped out his championship advantage. Herrin went on a four-race winning streak, taking race two at Road America, sweeping The Ridge, and winning race one at Laguna Seca as Beaubier’s championship charge faltered.
“I did the best I could,” Beaubier said. “I got a podium both days at The Ridge, but I was riding out of my skin just to be there. Ducati upgraded its package with a new motor spec, and Yamaha had some concessions, so their bike got a little faster. In the middle of the season, Josh and Bob were riding awesome.
Beaubier had another thing on his mind—one more win would elevate him as the all-time AMA road racing winner, and it was a weight he felt should have been lifted much earlier in the year.
“At the beginning of the season, I was like, I should be able to blow through this [all-time winner accolade] pretty quick,” Beaubier said. “It took me months to get that next win, and it came at Mid-Ohio when Josh and Bob got into it. I was kind of gifted that win.”
Yet more drama was to follow as Beaubier suffered a fractured right wrist in a cycling accident near his home in Northern California. After several doctor’s visits and a good shot of lidocaine, Beaubier turned up to Circuit of The Americas a few days later with Fong now well and truly into gear and Herrin looking for redemption after breaking his leg at the previous round at Mid-Ohio.
Herrin pulled one of the gutsiest rides of his career to win race one, but Beaubier righted the ship in race two to take the win and etch one of the greatest saves ever seen into the MotoAmerica highlight reel, losing the front and then the rear through the daunting high-speed turn-18 right-hander.
“That was pretty much the save of my season, honestly. I couldn’t believe I saved that,” Beaubier said. “That was one of those things where I was literally opening the gas on the side of the tire, and it just somehow came back.”
And so did Lady Luck in the championship challenge. But as the saying goes, the harder you work, the luckier you get, and as the paddock converged in New Jersey, the momentum was now with the Tytlers BMW team, and Beaubier got the job done when everything was on the line.
The biggest twist came weeks after the dramatic New Jersey final as Beaubier was confirmed to replace Josh Herrin in the Warhorse HSBK Ducati team for 2026 alongside Benjamin Smith, the team now being branded Warhorse HSBK Ducati Flo4Law.
“Bobby Shek [HSBK Ducati team manager] presented me with a letter of intent on Sunday night at New Jersey,” Beaubier said. “It was pretty wild. All three of us [Herrin, Fong, Beaubier] were just in the title fight. In my eyes, I feel like the Ducati is the best bike on the grid, so to get the opportunity to ride that thing, you don’t turn it down.
“I went and spun some laps on a stock V4 S at Road America after the race, and I could not believe it. It felt like a race bike in stock trim. It was damn impressive and so fast. I’m stoked just for a new chapter, riding with a new team.”
Ducati will thus be the third manufacturer Beaubier has competed with in the premier American road racing championship, and there’s an extra slice of motivation at stake—the possibility of being the only rider in AMA Superbike history to win a title for a third different manufacturer. Judging by the speed of the Ducati Panigale V4 R that is being fully renewed for 2026 in not just North American racing but worldwide, Beaubier is in the box seat to pull it off.
“I’m not one for records, but it sure would be a nice award to have,” Beaubier said. “The bike is going to be a missile, and I’m more motivated than ever to get 2026 started.” CN
Click here to read the Cameron Beaubier Interview in the Cycle News Digital Edition Magazine.
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