It’s MotoAmerica Tripleheader Superbike Time At WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca.
Josh Herrin Leads A Tightly Knit Championship Battle As It’s Superbikes Times Three On The Monterey Peninsula, July 11-13.
With three Superbike races and 75 points up for grabs in this weekend’s fifth round at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, it would be hard to argue that the two days of racing in Monterey could well be the most important weekend of the season for those fighting for the 2025 MotoAmerica Superbike Championship.
Thus far in 2025, Warhorse HSBK Racing Ducati’s Josh Herrin and Tytlers Cycle Racing’s Cameron Beaubier have put a bit of distance between themselves and the chasing pack, but the two riders with a combined seven AMA Superbike titles have plenty to worry about trying to beat each other. The two rivals have won seven of the eight Superbike races held thus far.
Herrin makes the trek up the California coast from his home in Temecula with an eight-point lead over Beaubier while riding a four-race win streak. Beaubier will have a shorter drive south from his home in Lincoln and will be trying to make up ground with a solid points haul from the three Laguna races.
Following his now-normal slow start with a fifth in the opening race of the season, Herrin has been a model of consistency and flat-out speed. Three straight third-place finishes were followed up by four consecutive victories, the most recent of which was his 20th career AMA Superbike win following a sweep of the two races at Ridge Motorsports Park two weeks ago.
Beaubier’s season so far has been the opposite of Herrin’s. Beaubier got off to a great start, winning three of the first four races and finishing on the podium in the other two. But a crash while battling with Herrin in race two at Road America cost him dearly as he failed to score a point. He went into the Ridge round ahead by two points and left trailing by eight points after getting beat in both races by Herrin.
Attack Performance Progressive Yamaha Racing’s Jake Gagne seems awfully close to being the Jake Gagne of old as he’s started the season with a win and five total podiums from the eight races in 2025. Gagne was third in both races at Ridge Motorsports Park and had the second-fastest laps in each race. He was only 2.4 seconds behind race winner Herrin at the conclusion of race one. This time last year, Gagne was struggling mightily with carpal tunnel syndrome and finished ninth in the dry race two at Ridge – 30 seconds behind Herrin. Gagne was fifth in both races last year at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, and he knows his way around the track on which he has won five Superbike races in his career.
Gagne comes to Laguna third in points, 26 behind Beaubier and 34 behind Herrin.
Bobby Fong is just eight points behind his Yamaha teammate Gagne, but 42 behind Herrin, who is in his first season with the factory team. Fong has four podium finishes on the season (all second places) but is coming off a less-than-stellar weekend for him at Ridge. Fong was fourth and eighth in the two races in the Pacific Northwest.
Richie Escalante has scored points in every round but the first race of the year way back in April at Barber Motorsports Park. The Vision Wheel M4 ECSTAR Suzuki rider hasn’t finished worse than seventh since his opening-round crash and he finds himself in fifth in the championship, 16 points ahead of Real Steel Honda’s Hayden Gillim and 17 ahead of his own teammate Sean Dylan Kelly.
Gillim is coming off his best race result of the year – a fifth in race two at Ridge. Kelly, meanwhile, got off to a great start to his season with four successive fourth-place finishes before things went off the rails at Road America and have continued through the Ridge round. Kelly is 95 points behind Herrin and five ahead of Gillim’s teammate JD Beach, who is eighth in the Superbike standings while leading the Superbike Cup title chase for those racing Stock 1000-spec bikes in the Superbike class.
BPR Racing’s Bryce Kornbau is ninth, one point ahead of FLO4LAW/SBU Racing’s Benjamin Smith, who is coming off a horrendous weekend in Washington with two mechanical DNFs in the two races.
The first of the three MotoAmerica Superbike races at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca will take place on Saturday at 3:10 p.m. Race one will be preceded by the Legends Lap with Wayne Rainey, and the California Highway Patrol Salute. On Sunday, race two will start at noon with race three scheduled to begin at 3:12 p.m.
Pre-Laguna Seca Notes…
Cameron Beaubier broke the WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca lap record last year with the five-time MotoAmerica Superbike Champion lapping at 1:22.556 to break Josh Herrin’s previous lap record of 1:22.908 from 2018. Beaubier was joined on the front row by Sean Dylan Kelly and Cameron Petersen.
Cameron Beaubier and Josh Herrin split the two Superbike wins last year at Laguna Seca with Beaubier beating Herrin in race one and Herrin reversing that order in race two. Cameron Petersen finished third in race one with Sean Dylan Kelly filling out the podium in race two.
The last time three Superbike races were held at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca was in 2023, and it was Cameron Beaubier winning two of the three with both of his wins coming on Sunday. Jake Gagne won the first of the three races on Saturday with Cameron Petersen crashing on the opening lap on the exit of turn two and taking Beaubier with him.
Cameron Beaubier is the all-time Superbike race winner at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca with 10 wins at the track in the hills east of Monterey. Beaubier won his first Superbike race at Laguna Seca in 2015, using the win to propel himself to his first MotoAmerica Superbike Championship.
WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca has a long history of hosting AMA Superbike races with the first-ever Superbike race at the track on the Monterey Peninsula taking place in 1976 and won by Reg Pridmore.
The fifth annual “Rainey’s Ride To The Races” will take place on Friday, July 11, with several legends of the sport scheduled to take part in the ride and then stay for the races and a lap of Laguna with Rainey himself on Saturday prior to the start of the first Superbike race. The legends include Kenny Roberts, Eddie Lawson, Bubba Shobert, Freddie Spencer, Rick Johnson, Doug Chandler, Kenny Roberts Jr., Ben Spies, and Kel Carruthers.
Chasing 90. Cameron Beaubier’s next MotoAmerica Superbike win will be historic as it will be his 90th victory across all AMA road race classes, which will make him the all-time AMA road race win leader. Beaubier is currently tied with Josh Hayes on the all-time list with 89 victories apiece. Hayes is currently racing in the Supersport class, so he also can add to his win list.