A Wet Goodbye: MotoAmerica’s Feature Classes Close Out The 2026 Season At NJMP. 

Binder Caps His Title With A Race 2 Classic, Wyman Salvages The Weekend In Baggers, And Rain Cancels The Final Word In Talent Cup And Twins Cup.

Millville, NJ  – Rain wreaked havoc on the MotoAmerica schedule once more on the final day of the 2026 season, delivering the heaviest rainfall of a soggy weekend at New Jersey Motorsports Park (NJMP). Overnight storms left standing water pooling across the Thunderbolt Circuit and a river running down the front straight, forcing officials to delay the day’s schedule while working to protect the one championship still undecided: Quad Lock Superbike’s Race 3.

The rain continued into the early afternoon before finally letting up, though gray skies and cold temperatures lingered. Track crews spent the next stretch working to clear the circuit, but by 1:00 p.m. it was clear there wouldn’t be enough daylight left for every remaining class to get a Wet Familiarization session and a final race. With their championships already locked up, Talent Cup and Twins Cup had their final races of the season cancelled, while Supersport and Mission King Of The Baggers were able to close out their years on track. Superbike went off first once the rain relented, with Supersport and Baggers following to bring the curtain down on 2026 — and every race that did run went off fully wet, from flag to flag.

• 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.

Final 2026 Supersport points (top three): 

1. Darryn Binder (406) 

2. Josh Herrin (328) 

3. Kayla Yaakov (249)

The following quote is from Supersport Race 2 Winner Darryn Binder: “I’m super happy we got to race today, first of all. Yesterday didn’t go to plan. I messed up the start. Even though I felt good, I just couldn’t catch up. Fourth was the best I could manage. I was super disappointed in myself. I really wanted to end things off on a high, for the team’s sake, for everything they’ve done this year. Like you said, just to put the cherry on the cake. Thank you guys so much for everything, the whole Celtic Economy Lube Warhorse HSBK team. Thank you guys so much. Alpinestars, Sport Pesa. Thank you guys for everything this year. It’s been unreal. Looking forward to what next year holds.”

• 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.

Final 2026 Mission King Of The Baggers points (top three):

1. Hayden Gillim (287) 

2. Bradley Smith (230) 

3. Troy Herfoss (228)

The following quote is from Mission King Of The Baggers Race 2 Winner Kyle Wyman: “It means everything. This team has changed my life. Changed my career. This one is going to feel really good for a long time. I just don’t know what to say. It’s a long day waiting around, but it was worth it because this is the greatest feeling. I don’t know what to say. How do you sum up what we’ve done with this program? You just can’t. We’ve created a lot of memories. We’ve impacted a lot of people in a very positive way. I wouldn’t want to do it with any other group. Huge thank you to Harley-Davidson, DynoJet, Rockford Fosgate, Canaan, all of our partners, all the fans. The fans have been incredible in this series. I’m glad we could give them one more win.” 

• 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.

Final 2026 Talent Cup points (top three):
 

1. Nathan Gouker (314) 

2. Kensei Matsudaira (271) 

3. Sam Drane (230)

• 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.

Final 2026 Twins Cup points (top three):
 

1. Hank Vossberg (274) 

2. Bodie Paige (184) 

3. Sam Drane (170)

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