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The MotoAmerica Medallia Superbike title fight that looked so promising at Road Atlanta in April ended earlier than just about anyone expected this weekend at Pittsburgh International Race Complex: pleasantly for Jake Gagne, who clinched his third consecutive championship; frustratingly for Josh Herrin; and painfully for former five-time champion Cameron Beaubier.
Think back to that opening round in April. Beaubier returned to the states after two discouraging years in the Moto2 World Championship, riding for a relatively new Tytler's Cycle Racing Team and on a BMW M 1000 RR, a bike without a stunning track record in Superbike racing, and yet Beaubier beat Gagne straight up in the first race, something hardly anyone did the last two years. Going into Road Atlanta, nobody expected that would happen. And leaving Road Atlanta, nobody expected we'd be here in August, with the championship already decided. But looking back now, it all seems to make perfect sense, the result of a couple of mistakes and some disastrous bad luck for Beaubier, alongside a lot of what Gagne's teammate, Cameron Petersen, once called "Jake doing Jake things."
How the championship was won
After the first four rounds, Gagne's steady performances had built a 23-point lead over Beaubier. But the first stroke of bad luck was about to hit. At WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, back in Beaubier's home state and in front of the seemingly hundreds of people who claim to be related to him, Beaubier recorded a DNF through no fault of his own. In the first of three Superbike races that weekend, Petersen crashed in front of him on the first lap, launching Beaubier's BMW into the air as he unavoidably used the Fresh N Lean Progressive Yamaha YZF-R1 as a ramp. Beaubier came back to win the two races on Sunday in front of the home crowd, but still lost points to Gagne, who had three podium finishes.
It got far worse in the next round at Brainerd International Raceway. Beaubier nearly caused a crash by running into Gagne early in race one, then high-sided later. Due to a concussion, he had to sit out race two on Sunday. Two more podiums for Gagne and two zeroes for Beaubier started to make Gagne's third straight title look like a sure thing. Warhorse HSBK Racing Ducati's Herrin moved into second place in the standings. But the bad luck wasn't done with Beaubier.
Coming into this weekend at PittRace, the other round with three Superbike races instead of the usual two, Beaubier admitted he was struggling to get back to his old form after the bruising weekend in Minnesota.
"This weekend has just been kind of a slow start for me," Beaubier said on Saturday. "I wasn't riding like myself. To be honest, I've been doing this long enough now that I'm able to bounce back pretty quick after a crash but that one rattled me a little bit."
Despite that, Beaubier regained a little of his confidence and finished a solid second in Saturday's race, behind Gagne. Sunday, however, was a disaster.
A poor start in race two put him back in ninth place while Gagne took the lead. Beaubier made a mistake and briefly ran off track, pushing him further back to 11th. It's an old adage in racing that one of the big drawbacks of a poor qualifying effort or a poor start is that it mires you in a pack of riders, where anything can happen and something bad is more likely to happen. That's just the way it went for Beaubier.
He had just passed Disrupt Racing's Hayden Gillim going into the revised chicane that MotoAmerica uses at PittRace and was inches behind Aftercare Hayes Schiebe Racing's Ashton Yates when something happened to Yates' BMW that caused him to lose power momentarily. With no time to react, Beaubier crashed into the back of Yates' motorcycle, was launched off his bike and was clipped by Gillim in mid-air. He crashed to the track and the red flag came out. See the video in the MotoAmerica Instagram post below.
While Beaubier did not suffer major injuries, he did have a laceration to his forehead. According to a post on Tytler's Cycle Racing's Instagram page, Beaubier's injuries are nothing "he can't shake off before COTA," but he did not join the grid for race three.
That left Herrin, who moved up to second in the standings, as the only rider who could keep Gagne from clinching the title two rounds early. But a sixth place on Saturday and two thirds on Sunday were not enough. "It’s hard to say you’re happy when you’re getting third places when in my mind I’m on the best bike, but it is what it is. We’re nearly there and just missing that final piece to put it all together," Herrin said.
Meanwhile, there was "Jake doing Jake things," meaning qualifying on the front row, getting a good start, gradually building a gap and then managing it to the end. In the end, he took all three wins at PittRace and left with a 101-point lead over Herrin, with just 100 points left up for grabs in the final two rounds at Circuit of the Americas and New Jersey Motorsports Park.
Gagne was his usual cool, calm, and modest self after winning his third consecutive Superbike championship.
"It's cool to get it done early and again, kind of unexpected," he said. "I haven't been the fastest guy all year but I think luck's kind of been on my side."
The future of MotoAmerica Medallia Superbike
Gagne, who never won a Superbike race prior to 2021, now has 38 career wins, putting him fourth on the all-time win list in the class. Beaubier is third at 57. There's no reason to think anything is going to change for Gagne, who has blossomed on Richard Stanboli's Attack Performance team and works well with crew chief Jon Cornwell.
Herrin is hoping for some of that stability in his career. He noted after Sunday's races that he hasn't had the same Superbike ride for two consecutive years in more than a decade. "I'm really hoping I get a chance again" with Warhorse HSBK Racing Ducati, said Herrin, "because I just love everything about this team and I'm having fun."
It's reasonable to assume that the Tytler's Cycle Racing team will return the same next year, as well. In just the team's second year in MotoAmerica Medallia Superbike, P.J. Jacobsen won his first Superbike race and Beaubier was the leading challenger to Gagne until this past weekend. At 30 years old, Beaubier should have several more years of racing ahead of him and a legitimate shot at breaking the all-time AMA wins record across all classes. Beaubier started the year so happy to be back on a Superbike, back racing in the United States, and closer to home and his young family in northern California. How will he bounce back from the beating he has taken to both his body and his confidence in the last three rounds? It will be interesting to see.
There are other stories to be completed in the final two rounds, now that the title has been decided. Can Westby Racing's Mathew Scholtz get a win this year? Will Superbike sophomore Richie Escalante of the Vision Wheel M4 ECSTAR Suzuki team get his first Superbike podium after coming close at PittRace?
With no more points to calculate, it's all about seeking race wins and cementing future spots on the few top teams in MotoAmerica. As Gagne put it, "I'm looking forward to going to the last couple of rounds and duking it out with these guys with nothing else to worry about."
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