Just 19 points cover the top five as the MotoAmerica Superbike Championship heads to Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta, May 2-4, for round two.
This is a press release from MotoAmerica…
Irvine, CA (April 30, 2025) –The racers likely to be fighting at the top of the 2025 MotoAmerica Superbike Championship when the series concludes in September, all emerged from round one at Barber Motorsports Park unscathed and with a bountiful points haul, setting things up nicely for round two at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta this weekend, May 2-4.
The premier MotoAmerica Superbike class will headline a packed weekend of racing at Road Atlanta that will include Motovation Supersport, Mission King Of The Baggers, Stock 1000 and the Mission Super Hooligan National Championship.
At the top of the Superbike point standings as the series pulls into Road Atlanta is Tytlers Cycle Racing’s Cameron Beaubier, the five-time MotoAmerica Superbike Champion and nine-time Road Atlanta Superbike winner. Beaubier won the first of two races at Barber Motorsports Park in the dry before finishing second in a soaking wet race two on his BMW M 1000 RR.
Attack Performance Progressive Yamaha Racing’s Jake Gagne showed at Barber that he’s back to his three-time MotoAmerica Superbike Championship-winning self after suffering through an injury-plagued 2024 that forced him to finish the season at his Colorado home and not at the racetrack for the last two rounds and four races.
Gagne was a solid third in race one and then turned in a masterful display of wet-weather riding in race two that no one else could match as he streaked away from the pack for his first win in almost a year, with a winless streak dating back to April 2024 at Road Atlanta.
Beaubier leads Gagne by just four points after the season opener, 45-41.
The experience level of the top two is unmatched, with the pair accounting for a combined eight of the past 10 MotoAmerica Superbike titles, with Toni Elias (2017) and Josh Herrin (2024) the other two champions in the MotoAmerica era.
Gagne’s teammate Bobby Fong comes into Road Atlanta as a factory Yamaha racer for the first time, and he also arrives in Georgia third in the title chase after the opening round in Alabama. Fong was a solid second to Beaubier in the dry race one but slipped down to fifth in the wet race two after struggling with vision issues.
Fong is 14 points behind Beaubier and just four points ahead of defending MotoAmerica Superbike Champion Josh Herrin, who was fifth and third in the two Alabama races. Although the Warhorse HSBK Racing Ducati rider was disappointed with his fifth in race one, he was overjoyed with his first wet-weather podium on the Ducati Panigale V4 R after finishing third in race two. Even though he’s 18 points adrift of Beaubier, there’s no panic in Herrin. After all, he didn’t win his first race in 2024 until the seventh race of the season.
Herrin is just a single point ahead of Vision Wheel M4 Ecstar Suzuki’s Sean Dylan Kelly, with the young Floridian impressive in his first weekend on the team’s Suzuki GSX-R1000R. Kelly posted identical fourth-place finishes in the two Barber races, albeit it in widely different conditions, showing that the change from last year’s BMW to the Suzuki hasn’t fazed him.
Hayden Gillim’s Real Steel Honda CBR1000RR-R SP should be better than the one he raced to sixth and eighth in the season opener as Gillim was hopeful of getting more Superbike hop-up parts prior to Road Atlanta.
Meanwhile, Gillim’s teammate, JD Beach, rode his Stock 1000-spec Honda to eighth and seventh in the two Superbike races, putting him just a point behind his teammate. Those two finishes equaled two wins in the Superbike Cup point standings with Beach off to a fast start in the class within a class for Stock 1000-spec motorcycles. Beach leads BPR Racing’s Deion Campbell by 14 points after just one round.
Beach will make his Stock 1000 debut at Road Atlanta in what will be the opening round for that class.
Thrashed Bike Racing’s Max Flinders had two solid results to start his season at Barber with 11th- and 10th-place finishes netting him eighth in the title chase after one round.
Kelly’s Vision Wheel M4 Ecstar Suzuki teammate Richie Escalante had a rough start to his 2024 season with a crash in race one and a sixth-place finish in race two.
FLO4LAW/SBU Racing’s Benjamin Smith was sixth in race one but crashed out in the tricky conditions of race two. The Pennsylvanian rounds out the top 10 in the championship as the series heads to the iconic 2.54-mile Road Atlanta.
Pre-Road Atlanta Superbike Notes…
Unlike last year when the MotoAmerica round at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta was the opening round of the 2024 championship, this year’s event in Georgia is the second round of the MotoAmerica Superbike Championship. The only class in this year’s five-class program set to open its championship at Road Atlanta is the Stock 1000 class.
Bobby Fong was the polesitter for last year’s two Superbike races at Road Atlanta. Fong lapped at a clip of 1:23.640 to best Sean Dylan Kelly’s 1:23.818. Josh Herrin completed the front row with his 1:23.887. The two riders who won the two races – Cameron Beaubier and Jake Gagne – both started from row two.
Jake Gagne is the current Superbike lap record holder at Road Atlanta with his 1:23.407 from 2022.
Beaubier won the first of two races in 2024, topping Gagne and Fong by just .240 and .332 of a second, respectively, after a thrilling season opener. In race two, it was Gagne taking the victory over Beaubier by an even closer .119 of a second, with Cameron Petersen ending up third.
The 29-strong Superbike entry list features an international flavor with Mexico, Colombia, Brazil, Germany and Great Britain, joining the 24 Americans entered.
The last non-American to win a MotoAmerica Superbike race at Road Atlanta is Danilo Petrucci, with the Italian racing to victory in race one in 2022.
Cameron Beaubier has 66 AMA Superbike wins on his resume. and nine of those wins have come at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta. The all-time winningest Superbike racer at Road Atlanta is Mat Mladin with the Australian winning 14 Superbike races in Georgia from 2000-2009. Mladin is the racer with the record number of AMA Superbike wins with 82 victories – 16 more than Beaubier, who is second on the all-time list.
Baggers Back In Business, And Stock 1000 Gets Going As MotoAmerica Heads To Road Atlanta
Round Two Of Mission King Of The Baggers And The Stock 1000 Series Opener Set To Bring The Battles To Georgia
Irvine, CA (May 1, 2024) – It’s been almost two months since Kyle Wyman rode his Harley-Davidson x Dynojet Factory Racing Road Glide to victory in both Mission King Of The Baggers races in the season opener at Daytona International Speedway back in March, and the 2021 class champion is likely hoping that momentum is timeless as the class heads to Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta for round two, May 2-4.
For Wyman, the two wins in the Daytona opener were his fourth and fifth in a row at the Speedway, and his perfect weekend of racing has him leading the championship by a comfortable 22 points heading into Georgia.
While winning what are arguably the two biggest races of the season, Wyman knows that the seven-round, 14-race Mission King Of The Baggers Championship isn’t necessarily won at Daytona. Still, the momentum gained with a dominant Daytona performance can help set the tone for what’s to come.
S&S/Indian Motorcycle’s defending Mission King Of The Baggers Champion Troy Herfoss sits second in the title chase heading into round two after an up-and-down Daytona – literally. In race one, Herfoss was attempting to claw into Wyman’s lead when the Australian crashed in turn six with five laps to go. Fortunately, Herfoss was able to remount, finish eighth, and take the eight points that may prove valuable when points are added up at the end of the season.
In race two, Herfoss and Wyman battled for the win, with Wyman and his Harley-Davidson coming out of the spat with victorious, albeit by just .056 of a second over Herfoss and his Indian.
Bradley Smith wasted little time in taking his maiden step on a MotoAmerica podium, as the Brit took advantage of Herfoss’ miscue in race one to place second behind his Harley-Davidson x Dynojet Factory Racing teammate Wyman. In race two, however, Smith also had his first MotoAmerica crash. Like Herfoss the day prior, Smith was able to remount, finishing 10th to put him third in the championship with Florida in his rearview mirror.
Herfoss’ teammate Tyler O’Hara was a consistent sixth and fifth in the two races, putting him fourth heading to round two, and privateer Kyle Ohnsorg left Daytona fifth in the championship with fourth- and seventh-place finishes on his TAB Performance Racing Indian Challenger.
What of the other big guns like class newcomer and the third of the factory S&S/Indian Motorcycle teamsters Loris Baz, RevZilla/Motul/Vance & Hines Harley-Davidson’s Hayden Gillim, factory Harley rider James Rispoli, Rocco Landers, and SDI Racing’s King Of The Baggers rookie Cameron Petersen?
Landers ended up the best of that group but was off the pace with his seventh- and fifth-place finishes. Still, that was better than his teammate Gillim, who was scoreless in race one and sixth in race two.
Baz rebounded from a turn-one crash in race one to put his Indian Challenger on the podium in race two, finishing close behind Wyman and Herfoss.
Petersen, meanwhile, was third in race one but failed to score a point in race two. Saddlemen Race Development’s Jake Lewis finds himself seventh in the championship after Daytona with his fifth and eighth in the two races.
Rispoli’s Daytona was one for him to forget as he crashed out of both races and left Florida with zero points.
Stock 1000 – Here We Go!
Forty-five racers will attempt to qualify for the opening round of the MotoAmerica Stock 1000 Championship at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta, and if there’s one thing we know about the 2025 Stock 1000 series, it’s that it’s wide-open and anybody’s to win.
For starters, the rider who won seven of 10 races en route to winning last year’s Stock 1000 Championship is focusing his efforts on the MotoAmerica Superbike class. So, the 45 riders don’t have to worry about having to beat two-time class champion Hayden Gillim and his Real Steel Honda CBR1000RR-R Fireblade SP.
But they do have to worry about the series runner-up from 2024, Orange Cat Racing’s Jason Uribe. Only three men won Stock 1000 races last year, and Uribe was one of them. He was also the only rider other than Gillim to win more than one race, as he won twice on his BMW M 1000 RR en route to finishing second in the title chase, 21 points behind Gillim.
Uribe is returning for another crack at the title with the same team but with a different teammate – two-time Stock 1000 Champion Andrew Lee. No stranger to success in Stock 1000, Lee has 11 victories in the class and the two titles on his resume.
Jones Honda’s Ashton Yates was the third rider to win a round in 2024, with the Georgian taking victory in race two at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca. In addition to his lone victory, Yates had five podiums in Stock 1000 last year, and that earned him third in the title chase. Yates is also coming back for more in 2025, and the season starts with Road Atlanta, which is some 100 miles north of his Milledgeville home.
Two additional riders from last year’s top 10 in the championship are also returning to Stock 1000: fifth-ranked Bryce Kornbau and his BPR Racing Yamaha YZF-R1 M; and Kornbau’s teammate Deion Campbell, who ended up eighth in the 2024 series.
Two newcomers to the Stock 1000 class pull into Road Atlanta with big things expected from them – JD Beach and Rocco Landers.
Beach is a two-time MotoAmerica Supersport Champion (2015 and 2018) and is the all-time winningest rider in the category with 32 victories. The Kentuckian is also a two-time MotoAmerica Superbike race winner. Beach will race a Honda CBR1000RR-R Fireblade SP out of the Real Steel Honda pit alongside Gillim, who is focusing his efforts in 2025 on the MotoAmerica Superbike Championship.
For Landers, Stock 1000 will be the fifth MotoAmerica class that the youngster has competed in. And he’s won in all four of them: Supersport, Twins Cup, Junior Cup and Mission King Of The Baggers. In all, Landers’ win total is 54, and his podium finishes across all classes are an impressive 87. All that has added up to him winning two Junior Cup titles and a Twins Cup Championship.
The Californian will be armed with a RevZilla/Motul/Vance & Hines Suzuki GSX-R1000R in his attempt to win a fourth MotoAmerica Championship.
Oh, and Landers is just 20 years old.
In addition to the new riders in the class, there is also a new manufacturer and rider combination, with Cory Ventura set to make his, and Aprilia’s, debut in the Stock 1000 class at Road Atlanta on the RSV4 1100 Factory for new team PS2 Racing.
Motovation Supersport – The Heat Is On
Just one point separates rivals Mathew Scholtz and PJ Jacobsen at the top of the Motovation Supersport series point standings after one round and two races of the 2025 season at Barber Motorsports Park.
Bring on Road Atlanta.
Defending class champion Scholtz gave the brand-new Strack Racing Yamaha YZF-R9 a fantastic debut with a victory in round one at Barber Motorsports Park three weeks ago, with the South African riding the R9 to victory in its first MotoAmerica outing. The following day, in the pouring rain, Scholtz crashed, remounted, and still put the bike on the podium with his third-place finish.
Scholtz has seen this movie before, as he crashed out of the lead in the first of two Superbike races at Barber in 2021, yet remounted to finish second.
Jacobsen and his Rahal Ducati Moto w/XPEL Panigale V2 had a steady start to his season with two second-place finishes in the two Barber races. That puts the New Yorker just a single point behind Scholtz, as it already looks as though these two will battle week in and week out as they did a season ago.
However, Barber also showed that they may not have it all their way.
Fifty-year-old Josh Hayes showed his prowess in the rain with an impressive victory in Sunday’s downpour in Alabama. Armed with the new YZF-R9 from under the BPR Racing awning, Hayes’ win came after his 10th-place finish on Saturday in the dry. Hayes believes he will be a factor in the championship, and who would be brave enough to disagree with him based on the fact that he’s a four-time AMA Superbike Champion with 89 victories across all classes? Hayes arrives in Georgia with a 10-point deficit to Scholtz.
Scholtz’s teammate Blake Davis was consistently fast at Barber, with the 19-year-old third and fourth in the two races, placing him fourth in the title chase, just two points adrift of Hayes and 12 points from the lead after one round.
Fifth place is jointly held by Rahal Ducati Moto w/XPEL’s Kayla Yaakov and Vision Wheel M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Tyler Scott. Yaakov earned her 20 points with a fifth and a seventh, and Scott has 20 points based on his fourth- and ninth-place finishes.
Mission Super Hooligan National Championship – West And The Rest
It took a while for Cory West to win an AMA Championship, so it’s natural that he’s in no rush to give that up.
Defending Mission Super Hooligan National Champion West arrives for round two of the series at Road Atlanta leading the point standings after the two races at Daytona International Speedway back in March.
West won race one and finished second in race two on his Saddlemen Race Development Harley-Davidson Pan America, and those results gave him a slim, one-point lead over his teammate Travis Wyman, 41-40. The third Saddlemen teamster, Jake Lewis, is third in the championship, nine points behind West, after winning race two at Daytona.
Class rookie James Rispoli is fourth in the championship standings heading to Road Atlanta after his third- and fifth-place finishes on his KWR Harley-Davidson Pan America at Daytona. Rispoli’s teammate Cody Wyman rounds out the top five heading into Road Atlanta.
Strack Racing’s Hawk Mazzotta is the highest-placed non-Harley-Davidson in the championship, with the Californian seventh in the standings on his Yamaha MT-09.
Pre-Road Atlanta Notes…
PJ Jacobsen won both Supersport races at Road Atlanta in 2024, beating Blake Davis by just .103 of a second, with Mathew Scholtz just .407 of a second adrift in a thrilling race one. In race two, Jacobsen again took victory. This one was easier, as he crossed the line 2.7 seconds ahead of Corey Alexander with Jake Lewis rounding out the podium.
Australian Troy Herfoss swept both of the Mission King Of The Baggers races last year. Herfoss topped Kyle Wyman and Hayden Gillim in race one, prior to besting Tyler O’Hara and Max Flinders in the rain-sodden race two.
Of the 45 Stock 1000 entries, BMW and Yamaha are tied with the most representation, with both manufacturers having 14 entries apiece. Honda is next with eight entries, followed by Suzuki (4), Kawasaki (3), Ducati (1) and Aprilia (1).
Five different manufacturers are competing for the 2025 Motovation Supersport crown, with Suzuki leading the way in the number of entries with 11 GSX-R750s. Yamaha (six YZF-R9s and three YZF-R6s) and Ducati both have nine entries each, while Kawasaki and MV Agusta have two and one entries, respectively.
The Motovation Supersport class features an international flavor, with riders from six countries represented—USA, Australia, South Africa, Canada, Mexico, and Great Britain.
The 45-riders-strong entry list for Stock 1000 at Road Atlanta features riders from five different countries – USA, Colombia, Germany, Argentina, and Great Britain.
The Mission Super Hooligan National Championship round in Georgia has attracted 46 entries on nine different brands of motorcycles – Harley-Davidson, BMW, KTM, Yamaha, ARCH, Indian, Triumph, Ducati, and Suzuki.
When Stock 1000 takes to the track for the first of its practice sessions on Friday, it will be 740 days since the class last competed at Road Atlanta in 2023.
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