Sunday Superbike
Following Saturday’s high-drama doubleheader where Bobby Fong (Attack Performance Progressive Yamaha Racing) took both races and cut the championship lead from 26 points down to a scant two points, Sunday’s finale set up a winner-take-all climax to MotoAmerica’s historic 50th Anniversary Superbike season.
With a punishing nor’easter pounding New Jersey Motorsports Park with torrential rain, high winds, and severe track delays throughout the day, the atmosphere in the paddock was thick with tension and anxiety. When track conditions finally allowed for racing, the pressure boiled over into a nerve-wracking 15-lap fight across a very wet track where the top four riders in the championship faced a battle for every major ranking on the line, calculating each lap around risk and reward.
For points leader Sean Dylan Kelly (OrangeCat Racing BMW), the relentless pressure of defending a two-point lead called for an aggressive, do-or-die approach. Pushing on the absolute ragged edge to keep Fong behind him, Kelly’s championship hopes evaporated on the fourth lap when he lost control on the slick asphalt and crashed out of the race.
Seeing his primary rival down, Fong executed a masterclass in risk management aboard his Attack Performance Progressive Yamaha YZF-R1. Riding with steady poise, Fong crossed the line in fourth place – a result that sealed his first career Quad Lock Superbike Championship with 316 points to Kelly’s 305, completing an emotional redemption story one year after a late-season title heartbreak at the same venue in 2025.
While Fong navigated the track with championship safety in mind, Strack Racing’s Mathew Scholtz put on an extraordinary display of wet-weather mastery out front. Slicing through blinding spray, Scholtz pulled clear of the chasing field to secure his fifth victory of the season. The win carried immense championship weight: entering Sunday trailing Beach by just one point, Scholtz’s 25-point haul vaulted him past Beach in the final standings to secure 3rd place overall in the 2026 championship (284 points to Beach’s 274).
Wrench Motorcycles’ Cameron Petersen delivered an inspired performance aboard his Ducati Panigale V4 R in the damp conditions, holding off the pack to take an outstanding second-place finish, while Beach completed the podium in third, capping a podium locking finish for Yamaha. With Fong securing fourth, Yamaha officially clinched the MotoAmerica Manufacturer of the Year award, while Attack Performance Progressive Yamaha Racing celebrated their fifth Superbike title (2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2026).
OrangeCat Racing’s Jayson Uribe rode a gritty race to place fifth aboard his BMW M 1000 RR, holding off PJ Jacobsen (Rahal Ducati Moto with XPEL) in sixth and Max Flinders (Thrashed Bike Scheibe Aftercare Racing) in seventh, and M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Brandon Paasch crossed in eighth.
Superbike Cup: Team Brazil’s Danilo Lewis Claims Sunday Finale
In Superbike Cup, Team Brazil Honda’s Danilo Lewis mastered the torrential wet conditions in Sunday’s finale to take 9th overall and claim his second SBK Cup victory of the weekend. Real Steel Honda’s Andrew Lee finished second in class (10th overall), officially securing the 2026 Superbike Cup Championship with an impressive 441 points. Super Carl Racing’s Carl Soltisz wrapped up Vice-Champion honors with 285 points. Meanwhile, Lewis’s Race 3 win elevated his total to 254 points, vaulting him past Deion Campbell (244 points) – who suffered a lap 5 DNF – to take third place overall in the final Superbike Cup standings.
Quad Lock Superbike Race 3 Results
- Mathew Scholtz (Yamaha)
- Cameron Petersen (Ducati)
- JD Beach (Yamaha)
- Bobby Fong (Yamaha)
- Jayson Uribe (BMW)
- PJ Jacobsen (Ducati)
- Max Flinders (BMW)
- Brandon Paasch (Suzuki)
- Danilo Lewis (Honda)
- Andrew Lee (Honda)
Supersport
Celtic/Economy Lube + Tire/Warhorse Ducati’s Darryn Binder authored a fitting final chapter to his championship season, taking his second win of the weekend in a Race 2 duel that went down to the wire.
Rahal Ducati Moto with Desnuda Organic Tequila’s Josh Herrin gave the reigning champion all he could handle, the two riders trading the lead through the opening laps before briefly running side by side down the front straight after Binder momentarily lost traction. Binder answered by wrestling the lead back and building a cushion of more than a second and a half, only for Herrin to claw his way back to Binder’s rear wheel with three laps to go. Binder held firm to the line, taking the win by just 0.137 seconds — a fitting final margin for a rivalry that defined much of the 2026 season.
While the top two broke clear, Strack Racing’s Blake Davis grabbed an early third before settling for fourth at the finish, and Liberty Yamaha Racing’s Karel Hanika climbed to third in his second fill-in start for the injured Dominic Doyle. Rahal Ducati Moto with Droplight’s Kayla Yaakov had the wildest ride of the group, running as high as fourth before slipping back as far as seventh under pressure from Rahal Ducati Moto with Roller Die & Forming’s Alessandro Di Mario, Hanika, and local favorite Joseph LiMandri Jr (MP13 Racing/One Cure Racing), before clawing back to cross the line fifth. LiMandri finished in sixth with DiMario slipping back to seventh after running wide in Turn 1.
BPR Racing Yamaha’s Joshua Hayes, Saturday’s Race 1 winner, had a rougher go of it after crashing in Turn 1 directly off the start — he picked his Yamaha back up and rejoined the race only to crash in the same corner with five to go, again remounting the machine and salvaging an 11th-place finish, one lap down. Despite the chaos, Hayes actually set the fastest lap of the race with a 1:35.925, but was unable to overtake Yaakov for third in the final standings.
Mission King Of The Baggers
Rather than scrap the Bagger Challenge to the weather, series sponsor Mission Foods folded its $5,000 bonus into Race 2 itself: whichever rider led at the completion of lap three of the seven-lap race would claim the payout. Reigning 2026 champion J&P Cycles/Motul/Vance & Hines Factory Indian’s Hayden Gillim took the assignment seriously, leading the opening three laps to bank the bonus for himself before the real fight for the race win had even begun.
That fight ultimately belonged to Harley-Davidson x Dynojet Factory Racing’s Kyle Wyman, who turned his rough weekend around in style. After slipping to fourth off the start from second on the grid, the New York native worked back to third by the end of lap one, then found another gear at the race’s midpoint to sweep past Gillim with four laps remaining and pull away for the win by nearly two seconds over his own teammate, Bradley Smith. Gillim held on for third, giving the Indian and Harley-Davidson factory squads a tidy way to close out the season on the box together.
Big Diehl x Harley-Davidson Factory Racing’s James Rispoli crossed fourth to cap his season, with M3/Tobacco Road Harley-Davidson’s Max Flinders capping a strong finale in front of a supportive Northeast crowd in fifth. It was a tougher day for Gillim’s teammate, Troy Herfoss, who came home seventh after a difficult race — but the result didn’t cost him what mattered most: Herfoss closes out 2026 third in the final championship standings, still just two points behind Smith for the runner-up spot after a season-long battle that came down to the final laps of the final race.
Talent Cup
The Talent Cup class of 2026 wrapped up its season under a bit of technicality, but the cancellation did nothing to diminish what was an outstanding year for MotoAmerica’s youngest and newest professional ranks. Over the course of the season, the lightweight class delivered tight finishes, late-braking passes, and drafting battles at some of the longest circuits in the country — and the riders and teams who made the trip, some rearranging school schedules and working remotely along the way, earned real credit for their dedication to the sport.
When the final standings were tallied, Quarterley Racing’s Nathan Gouker stood alone at the top. The 15-year-old collected nine wins and 13 podiums across his rookie season to claim the title, finishing 43 points clear of Team Roberts’ Kensei Matsudaira in the runner-up spot.
Gouker wasted no time capitalizing on the achievement, departing Monday for a tryout with the Red Bull Rookies Cup program in Spain, while Matsudaira will continue competing in select rounds of the European Moto4 Championship to measure himself against the continent’s top young talent on the road to MotoGP. Yamaha BLU CRU Estenson Racing’s Sam Drane rounded out the top three in the final standings, 84 points off the pace, and looks poised to keep climbing the ranks in both MotoAmerica and American Flat Track competition. If this season proved anything, it’s that Talent Cup’s riders are already racing like professionals — even while some are still learning the ropes of life on the road.
Twins Cup
The Twins Cup championship battle wrapped up in workmanlike fashion, with Saturday’s results standing as the final word once Sunday’s race fell victim to the weather and the calendar. Robem Engineering’s Hank Vossberg locked up the title weeks ago at VIR, and nothing about the New Jersey finale changed that story — his 274 points held up comfortably atop the standings whether a final race ever went off or not.
The real intrigue was always going to be who joined him on the season-ending podium, and that question was answered Saturday when Karns/TST Industries Racing’s Isaac Woodworth claimed his first career win, beating M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Bodie Paige to the line in a race that saw Vossberg crash out of contention and Quarterley Racing’s Nathan Gouker cross the line first before a two-position penalty dropped him to third.
With no Sunday race left to shuffle anything further, Paige’s runner-up finish locked up second in the final championship standings on 184 points, just ahead of Yamaha BLU CRU Estenson Racing’s Sam Drane in third (170) and Paige’s own teammate, Matthew Chapin, in fourth by a mere two points (168). Woodworth’s breakthrough win couldn’t quite close the gap in the standings, but it was a fitting way to cap his season, good enough for fifth overall.
For Gouker, the brief Twins Cup cameo was just a footnote to a much bigger 2026 — one race, one podium finish after penalty, and a small taste of the welterweight class before turning his full attention to bigger possibilities in the Red Bull Rookies Cup Program.
Superbike Race One
Race 1 saw riders battling tricky, damp conditions and red-flag restarts. Fong proved unstoppable aboard his Yamaha YZF-R1, breaking away to win by 3.287 seconds over Warhorse HSBK Racing Flo4Law Ducati’s Cameron Beaubier. Behind them, Beaubier’s teammate, Benjamin Smith, produced a standout ride to capture third place, marking his first Superbike podium of the season, and a duo of Ducati V4 R’s on the Race 1 podium.
Points leader Kelly crossed the line in fourth. The fight for fifth came down to a thrilling finish at the line, as Kelly’s OrangeCat Racing teammate, Jayson Uribe, squeezed past Scholtz by just 0.015 seconds to claim fifth, dropping Scholtz to sixth. PJ Jacobsen (Rahal Ducati Moto with XPEL) placed seventh ahead of Beach, Hayden Gillim (Real Steel Honda), and Brandon Paasch (M4 ECSTAR Suzuki) rounding out the top ten.
Superbike Race 1 Results
- Bobby Fong (Yamaha)
- Cameron Beaubier (Ducati)
- Benjamin Smith (Ducati)
- Sean Dylan Kelly (BMW)
- Jayson Uribe (BMW)
- Mathew Scholtz (Yamaha)
- PJ Jacobsen (Ducati)
- JD Beach (Yamaha)
- Hayden Gillim (Honda)
- Brandon Paasch (Suzuki)
Superbike Cup Race One
In Superbike Cup Race 1 action, Real Steel Honda’s Andrew Lee led the Cup contenders across the finish line with a 12th-place overall finish to secure the class victory. Super Carl Racing 57 Rider Development Carl Soltisz took second in class (13th overall), followed by Corrientes Racing Team’s Emanuel Nicolas Aguilar in third (14th overall) to complete the Superbike Cup podium.
Superbike Race Two
Race two delivered one of the most intense, edge-of-the-seat battles of the season with unpredictable track conditions. With just five laps to go, a lead group of five riders –Scholtz, Fong, Beach, Kelly, and Jacobsen bringing up the rear – were separated by less than one second, with every rider pushing on the absolute limit.
Scholtz led much of the late running, but Fong made a decisive pass into first place with one lap to go. Fong held off the charging pack through the final turns to take his second win of the day, and his sixth of the 2026 season. In a sprint for the line, Beach edged out Scholtz by 0.159 seconds to take second place (+0.443s behind Fong), completing a 1-2-3 Yamaha podium sweep.
Superbike Race 2 Results
- Bobby Fong (Yamaha)
- JD Beach (Yamaha)
- Mathew Scholtz (Yamaha)
- Sean Dylan Kelly (Suzuki)
- Cameron Petersen (Ducati)
- Brandon Paasch (Suzuki)
- Tyler Scott (Suzuki)
- Danilo Lewis (Honda)
- PJ Jacobsen (Ducati)
- Emanuel Nicolas Aguilar (Honda)
Superbike Cup Race Two
Race 2 brought a shakeup in the Superbike Cup class as Danilo Lewis mastered the challenging conditions aboard his Team Brazil Honda to score an impressive 8th-place overall finish and claim the class win. Aguilar backed up his Race 1 performance with a strong second-place Cup finish (10th overall). Championship leader Lee finished third in class, 11th overall, with Soltisz placing fourth in class (12th overall) which secured his spot as vice-champion in 2026’s Superbike Cup.
Meanwhile, third-place Cup points contender Deion Campbell suffered a blow to his podium hopes after failing to finish the race. Sunday’s Race 3 will decide the final Cup podium position, where Campbell leads Lewis by 15 points after Saturday’s results.
Supersport Race One
Supersport’s Qualifying 2 session ran for 30 minutes Saturday morning, but with nobody expected to touch Friday’s dry-weather times, teams instead used the time to dial in race setup for what everyone knew was coming: a soaked Race 1. That preparation paid off in a big way for BPR Racing Yamaha’s Josh Hayes, who carved his way from second on the grid to his 91st career win — a milestone he reached in his 435th career start by calling on every ounce of the wet-weather mastery that’s earned him the nickname the Mississippi Madman. The win bumps Hayes up to third in Supersport points, two ahead of Rahal Ducati Moto with Droplight’s Kayla Yaakov.
For much of the opening laps, it looked like a two-rider affair, with Hayes and Rahal Ducati Moto with Desnuda Organic Tequila’s Josh Herrin separated by as little as two-tenths of a second while Yaakov shadowed them in third. But the race flipped on its head by the halfway mark: as Hayes began stretching his lead, Herrin found himself fending off a surging Yaakov instead of chasing the leader. With six laps remaining, Yaakov made the move stick, passing Herrin and pulling away as the Californian lost rear grip in the tricky conditions. Yaakov crossed the line second, 3.611 seconds clear of Herrin in third.
Polesitter and recently appointed Supersport champion Celtic/Economy Lube + Tire/Warhorse Ducati’s Darryn Binder never got the chance to factor into that fight — a spinning rear wheel off the start line dropped him from the front row to 11th before the race had even settled, and he could only recover to fourth by the checkered flag.
New Jersey native Rodio Racing’s Gus Rodio thrilled the home crowd by running as high as third before settling for a hard-earned fifth, and Liberty Yamaha Racing turned to fill-in specialist Karel Hanika — a two-time FIM World Endurance Champion — to replace the injured Dominic Doyle, and the Czech rider delivered immediately with a sixth-place finish in his MotoAmerica Supersport debut.
The wet conditions claimed six riders before the finish, including Ryder Davis (Ducati Pittsburgh/Mosites Motorsports) and MP13 Racing/One Cure Racing’s Joseph LiMandri Jr., who were both running inside the top five before going down in their own separate crashes. Their misfortune promoted Hayes’ teammate, Brenden Ketelsen, to fourth, but his run was short-lived. Ketelsen crashed entering the front straight and was forced out of the race, exiting the course nursing his right arm. Although battered, he’ll be able to suit up for Sunday’s Race 2.
Mission King Of The Baggers
Mother Nature wasn’t finished with the Baggers class either, wiping out their morning Q2 session and the Bagger Challenge entirely and replacing them with a Free Practice session in its place. By the time Race 1 rolled around — slotted in after Superbike’s second contest of the day, during a stretch with no fresh rain — a semi-dry line had begun to form, forcing every rider into a gamble on tires. Defending champion Harley-Davidson x Dynojet Factory Racing’s Kyle Wyman rolled the dice on a rear slick paired with a front rain tire but made the switch too late to complete a warm-up lap, dropping him from second on the grid all the way to a pit-lane start. J&P Cycles/Motul/Vance & Hines Factory Indian’s Troy Herfoss, teammate Hayden Gillim, and SDI Racing’s Tyler O’Hara all gambled on full slicks instead — and it proved to be the winning call.
Herfoss played the long game, patiently working through traffic and even slipping as far back as fourth after a small bobble, before mounting a charge in the closing laps that carried him past his own teammate for the win by just 0.035 seconds — the tightest of margins after Gillim, the reigning 2026 champion, had led every lap but the last.
In third, O’Hara made it a clean sweep of the podium for Indian Motorcycle, holding off a hard-fighting Harley-Davidson x Dynojet Factory Racing’s Bradley Smith in the early laps before the Englishman ran off course, handing O’Hara the final spot on the box — his second podium in as many rounds after also finishing third at COTA. M3/Tobacco Road Harley-Davidson’s Max Flinders rounded out the top five in front of a supportive Northeast crowd. Wyman charged back to finish sixth after starting from pit lane.
Talent Cup Race One
There was no stopping Quarterley Racing’s Nathan Gouker on the way to his coronation weekend, as the newly crowned 2026 Talent Cup champion cruised to his ninth win of the season, controlling the race from the front with little drama.
Yamaha BLU CRU Estenson Racing’s Sam Drane brought it home alone in second, a result that reinforces his hold on third place in the season standings as he continues to keep fellow Australian Jake Paige at arm’s length in the points battle.
The real fireworks were happening behind them, where Team Hammer’s Paige and Real Steel Honda’s Derek Sanchez traded the final podium spot multiple times over the last four laps of a ferocious scrap, both riders more than five seconds adrift of Drane by that point. Sanchez, still chasing his first podium of the year, held the position into the final lap before Paige found a way past at the very end, snatching third by a mere 0.008 seconds at the line. Sawyer Lafayette (Sawyer Lafayette Racing) rounded out the top five, capping a Saturday that saw Gouker solidify his championship bid.
Twins Cup
Twins Cup was among the classes hit hardest by the weather, losing its own Qualifying 2 session to standing water on the circuit and instead being sent out for a Wet Familiarization session ahead of a Race 1 shortened from 13 laps to seven. What followed was one of the most chaotic finishes of the weekend. Karns/TST Industries Racing’s Isaac Woodworth took his maiden career win, but the story of the race was written in its closing seconds.
Robem Engineering’s Hank Vossberg — already the crowned champion — led the opening lap before Woodworth surged past on lap two, dropping Vossberg to third behind a hard-charging Quarterley Racing’s Nathan Gouker, who was making his Twins Cup debut.
Gouker ran second behind Woodworth deep into the race, and as the leaders took the white flag, a yellow flag also flew for a downed rider in Sector 1 — the exact moment Gouker made his move to pass Woodworth for what looked like a stunning debut victory. The pass under yellow triggered a post-race penalty, and moments later Vossberg crashed out of third on the very same lap.
When the dust settled, Woodworth was awarded the win, M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Bodie Paige was promoted to second, and Gouker’s two-position penalty dropped him to third — still a remarkable result in his first-ever Twins Cup start. Vossberg salvaged what he could, crossing in 10th, while Paige’s teammate Matthew Chapin finished fourth and Team ECB Racing’s Eli Block rounded out the top five for the best finish of his season.
Friday Superbike
The season’s defining championship battle wasted no time making its presence felt. Wrench Motorcycles’ Cameron Petersen threw down the gauntlet in Friday morning’s Free Practice, ripping off a 1:21.166 to top the field ahead of Attack Performance Progressive Yamaha Racing’s Bobby Fong (+0.515) and Warhorse HSBK Ducati Flo4Law’s Cameron Beaubier (+0.535). Points leader OrangeCat Racing’s Sean Dylan Kelly settled for fourth, with Real Steel Honda’s Hayden Gillim rounding out a stacked top five on a track already threatening to shuffle the deck for the title fight.
With a nor’easter bearing down on New Jersey for the back half of the weekend, MotoAmerica officials have scrapped Saturday’s Timed Qualifying session for the Superbike class entirely, setting the Race 1 grid directly from Friday’s Timed Practice instead. The schedule shakeup didn’t stop there: originally slated to run Race 1 on Saturday and close out the triple-header with Races 2 and 3 on Sunday, the Superbike class will now run both Race 1 and Race 2 on Saturday, pushing only Race 3 to Sunday — the day forecast to bear the brunt of the storm.
It’s a significant reshuffling of the road to a championship, compressing two-thirds of the title-deciding points into a single day and leaving the decisive final race to play out under what could be the wettest conditions of the weekend.
In Timed Practice, the top ten finished the session separated by less than a second, with Beaubier making the most of Friday’s consequential 40-minute session with a 1:20.209 to take the top spot a day early.
Fong followed the six-time and defending Superbike champion by a mere 0.085 seconds, setting his Yamaha in prime position to attack the championship in the wet at the final round.
South African Petersen rounded out the front row in third (+0.346 seconds), primed to play the spoiler across the weekend’s three Superbike races that will decide the championship.
Attack Performance Progressive Yamaha Racing’s JD Beach (+0.637 seconds) came fourth and Strack Racing’s Mathew Scholtz fifth (+0.644 seconds). Real Steel Honda’s Hayden Gillim showed solid speed rounding out the second row in P6 (+0.830 seconds) with Beaubier’s teammate Benjamin Smith behind him turning the exact same lap time in P7 (+0.830 seconds). OrangeCat Racing’s Jayson Uribe was 0.830 second behind in eighth and Rahal Ducati Moto with XPEL’s PJ Jacobsen in ninth.
The real headline, though, belongs to Kelly: only tenth fastest (+0.984) when it mattered most, the championship leader will now be forced to carve his way forward from the fourth row in Race 1, with zero chances left to erase it before the lights go out on a weekend that will decide his fate against Fong, Scholtz and Beach.
Superbike Cup
While the Superbike title chase dominated the headlines, Superbike Cup competitors ran alongside the premier class Friday, with the grid for their own competition being set within the overall Superbike order. Real Steel Honda’s Andrew Lee, who wrapped up his fourth career MotoAmerica title at COTA, was the fastest Cup rider on the day with a 1:22.330, good for 14th overall in the Superbike field — but he barely had room to breathe.
Right behind him was a familiar face making an unfamiliar move: BPR Racing Yamaha’s Bryce Kornbau, fresh off clinching the Mission Super Hooligan National Championship at COTA, is turning his attention to Superbike Cup for the season finale and immediately made his presence felt, trailing Lee by just 0.011 seconds to line up 15th overall. Team Brazil’s Danilo Lewis rounded out the top three Cup riders in 16th overall, just over a second off the pace.
Behind that group, the real battle is for silver — BPR Racing Yamaha’s Deion Campbell and Super Carl Racing 57 Rider Development’s Carl Soltisz enter the weekend separated by just five points, and neither has shown any sign of settling for second without a fight.
Supersport
The Supersport field delivered an early surprise Friday morning, with Rodio Racing’s Gus Rodio slicing through Practice 1 at his home track for the fastest time of the session at 1:23.037, just ahead of BPR Racing Yamaha’s Josh Hayes and Rahal Ducati Moto with Desnuda Organic Tequila’s Josh Herrin. Newly-crowned champion Celtic/Economy Lube + Tire/Warhorse Ducati’s Darryn Binder, meanwhile, spent the morning lurking in eighth — content, it seemed, to let others show their hand first.
The 2026 Supersport Champion made his intentions clear the moment it counted. The South African exploded to the top of Qualifying 1 with a 1:22.372 on a gap of 0.497 seconds that left no doubt about who’s still the class of the field.
Hayes held on for second, with Herrin third (+0.557 seconds) and Rahal Ducati Moto with Droplight’s Kayla Yaakov fourth (+0.559) as they battled down to the wire for the final two spots on the front row.
Strack Racing Yamaha’s Blake Davis was fifth (+0.673 seconds), with the New Jersey-native Rodio sixth and M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Rossi Moor turning heads in seventh for his Supersport debut.
Mission King of The Baggers
There was no mystery about who owned Friday in the Baggers class. J&P Cycles/Motul/Vance & Hines Factory Indian’s Hayden Gillim was untouchable in both sessions, topping Practice 1 with a 1:22.827 before backing it up with a 1:22.124 for a new lap record in Qualifying 1 — a dominant showing from a rider who’s already sealed the championship but clearly isn’t ready to ease off the throttle.
Harley-Davidson x Dynojet Factory Racing’s Kyle Wyman shadowed him by 0.234 seconds in Q2.
The battle for the runner-up spot in the standings, though, took an unexpected twist. Harley-Davidson x Dynojet Factory Racing’s Bradley Smith clocked the third-fastest time (+0.963 seconds) in Qualifying 1, while Gillim’s own teammate, Troy Herfoss — locked in a tight fight with Smith and trailing by just three points — failed to post a qualifying time at all, an ominous wrinkle heading into a weekend where every point matters.
SDI Racing’s Tyler O’Hara and Big Diehl x Harley-Davidson Factory Racing’s James Rispoli rounded out the top five in Q1.
Talent Cup
There’s a fitting symmetry to Quarterley Racing’s Nathan Gouker sealing his championship at the exact track where he’ll spend the weekend riding like there’s still one to win. The soon-to-be 2026 champion set the tone from the opening session Friday, topping the morning’s Practice 1 before turning up the heat in Qualifying 1 with a blistering 1:29.854 — nearly three-tenths clear of his closest pursuer. It’s the kind of performance that suggests Gouker has no intention of coasting into his coronation; if anything, the pressure’s off and the throttle’s wide open.
Behind him, the real drama is just getting started. Yamaha BLU CRU Estenson Racing’s Sam Drane qualified second (+0.282 seconds) and will spend the weekend trying to hold off Team Hammer’s Jake Paige for the final podium spot in the season standings — a task made trickier by the fact that Paige, who didn’t even record a lap in Friday morning’s Practice 1, roared back to qualify third (+1.430 seconds) by the afternoon.
Right on two Australian’s heels was Real Steel Honda’s Derek Sanchez King in fourth (+1.528 seconds) riding in front of a home-state crowd and looking every bit like a rider chasing his first podium of the year with extra motivation on his side.
Twins Cup
Already-crowned champion or not, Robem Engineering’s Hank Vossberg showed up Friday looking every bit like a rider with something left to prove. Vossberg topped both sessions on the day, capping it with a 1:24.113 in Qualifying 1 for a new lap record and a reaffirmation of exactly why he wrapped up the title weeks ago.
Karns/TST Industries Racing’s Kevin Olmedo and teammate Isaac Woodworth rounded out the top three, keeping the Karns/TST squad squarely in the mix as the season winds down. Unfortunately, both riders would go down in the session with Woodworth walking away under his own power and Olmedo regrettably being declared unfit for the remainder of the weekend.
The real intrigue, though, came from an unexpected corner of the paddock. M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Matthew Chapin and Bodie Paige — both locked in a tight scrap for second in the final standings — qualified fifth and sixth, respectively, keeping their championship math alive heading into race day. But it was Talent Cup’s soon-to-be-crowned champion, Quarterley Racing’s Nathan Gouker, who stole the show in his own right: in his first-ever Twins Cup qualifying session, Gouker immediately flashed the pace that’s carried him to a title of his own, qualifying an eye-catching fourth aboard the Aprilia RS 660 in his class debut.
