Last two MotoAmerica Superbike rounds expanded to tripleheader weekends

There was a time when a weekend of AMA Superbike racing meant qualifying on Saturday and a single race on Sunday. That's one reason it's hard to compare old records to today's win totals, because today's riders get twice as many chances per season, roughly.

Now the series is temporarily increasing that to three races in a weekend at the two October rounds. The Superbikes will race once on Saturday and twice on Sunday. The two additional races will make up for the cancellation of the planned round at the Circuit of the Americas in conjunction with MotoGP, which was postponed in the spring and more recently canceled outright. The schedule for the other support classes will remain unchanged.

“It’s important to us, our teams, our riders and our fans to run a 20-race MotoAmerica Superbike Championship,” said MotoAmerica President Wayne Rainey. “With COVID-19 forcing the cancellation of the COTA round, we believe that adding an additional HONOS Superbike race to the Indy and Laguna rounds is the best way to get the 20 races scheduled.”

So far, MotoAmerica has run four rounds: two at Road America, the first with no fans, and then regular weekends at Road Atlanta and Pittsburgh International Race Complex. The series resumes in two weeks at a first-time venue for MotoAmerica, The Ridge Motorsports Park in Shelton, Washington. Due to COVID-19-related restrictions in Washington, fans will not be allowed to attend that race.

So far this season, Monster Energy Attack Performance Yamaha's Cameron Beaubier has been dominant in the Superbike class. The four-time champion has seven wins and one DNF due to a crash in eight races, giving him a 37-point lead over his teammate, Jake Gagne.