Jake Gagne Ends A Winless Drought With A Dominating Victory In The Alabama Rain.
Attack Performance Progressive Yamaha Racing’s Jake Gagne ended a winless drought of 350 days on Sunday at Barber Motorsports Park, and he did so in dominant fashion with a runaway victory in an Alabama rainstorm.
The three-time MotoAmerica Superbike Champion’s previous race victory was a year ago in April when he won race two at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta. Following his lone 2024 victory, Gagne suffered with carpal tunnel syndrome, which eventually led to him ending his season to forget early.
But Gagne showed that he’s back on form this weekend in Alabama, winning Sunday’s wet race two after finishing third in a dry race one Saturday.
On Sunday, there was no stopping Gagne. He jumped into the lead in turn one and was never headed, leading by as much as 13 seconds before backing off in the closing stages on a treacherous racetrack. At the finish line, Gagne had a comfortable 6.7 seconds in hand.
Saturday’s race-winner Cameron Beaubier finished second on the Tytlers Cycle Racing BMW M1000 RR, with the five-time MotoAmerica Superbike Champion crossing the line just a tick over a second ahead of Warhorse HSBK Racing Ducati’s Josh Herrin.
Herrin improved from his fifth-place finish on Saturday to a fighting third on Sunday, right on Beaubier’s tail and five seconds ahead of fourth-place finisher Sean Dylan Kelly. Kelly had a productive first weekend on the Vision Wheel M4 ECSTAR Suzuki, with a pair of fourth-place finishes.
Gagne’s teammate Bobby Fong was in the fight for second when he started to drop back with severe vision issues prompted by a fogged-up faceshield. Fong blindly rode to a fifth-place finish a day after finishing second to Beaubier.
Vision Wheel M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Richie Escalante was sixth, a day after crashing out of Saturday’s race. Escalante was well back of Fong and five seconds clear of Real Steel Honda’s JD Beach at the completion of the 15-lap race. With his seventh-place finish, Beach again claimed top honors in the Superbike Cup, which is a race within a race for Stock 1000-spec motorcycles.
Beach’s teammate Hayden Gillim had a tipover, remounted, and finished eighth.
Edge Racing’s Jason Waters and Thrashed Bike Racing’s Max Flinders rounded out the top 10.
Notable non-finishers included Jones Honda’s Ashton Yates and FLO4LAW/SBU Racing’s Benjamin Smith, with both riders crashing out in separate incidents.
Race two featured four different manufacturers in the top four: Yamaha, BMW, Ducati and Suzuki.
After the opening round of the 2025 MotoAmerica Superbike Championship, Beaubier leads Gagne by four points, 45-41. Fong is third on 31 points, four ahead of Herrin. Kelly is fifth with 26 points, just one behind Herrin, as the series heads to Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta for round two, May 2-4.
Superbike Race Two
- Jake Gagne (Yamaha)
- Cameron Beaubier (BMW)
- Josh Herrin (Ducati)
- Sean Dylan Kelly (Suzuki)
- Bobby Fong (Yamaha)
- Richie Escalante (Suzuki)
- JD Beach (Honda)
- Hayden Gillim (Honda)
- Jason Waters (BMW)
- Max Flinders (Yamaha)
Quotes…
Jake Gagne – Winner
“I just want to be fighting with these guys – Cam, Josh, Bobby. I think they’re going to be the guys. Obviously, defending champ Josh (Herrin), and Cam (Beaubier) is hungry. He hasn’t had enough Superbike championships, I guess. I just want to be in the fight. Yesterday I was actually really happy with that ride. It felt a little better than I thought in the race, just to be kind of staying with those guys for a little while. I was kind of excited for the rain today, but even like you said, watching that Supersport race, the track was really gnarly, especially on the Superbike. It’s so easy to hydroplane. On the warmup lap, I was just really hoping we all could be patient and not see anything bad happen, because it really was gnarly. Like I said, this Yamaha just works so well in the wet. I’ve been on it for so many years. We’ve had a lot of rain races, so it just feels like we got a good setup that we can take anywhere in the wet. Of course, you never know what’s going to happen. Guys like Cam and Josh and Bob (Fong) could throw down at any time, even in the rain, even in tricky conditions. I’m just happy that mainly we kept it on two wheels. Once I got into the lead, having clear track in front of you is so helpful. When you’re looking at splashes and you can’t see where the puddles are, you’re worried about hydroplaning. I don’t even remember how I got into the lead, the first or second lap. Then kind of put my head down. The bike just was working really good. I’m happy to leave with two podiums. I’m psyched with that, honestly.”
Cameron Beaubier – Second Place
“Win yesterday, second today. To be honest with you, I’m just happy today is over with. I haven’t had nerves like that going into a race… You always have a little bit, but nerves from actually just the track surface. That warmup lap, I saw how much standing water there was and watched the end of Supersport. I was like, ‘Damn, this is going to be a long race.’ Luckily, everyone was safe out there and we got it done. This guy (Gagne) put on a clinic and rode away from us. I couldn’t even see him five laps into the race. Hats off to him. Hats off to Josh (Herrin). Like I said, glad today is over with. I think Josh and Bob (Fong) riding around in front of me, I felt like helped my confidence. I was able to start finding my groove and rolling around the track. There at the beginning, I would go into the fast chicane on the back straightaway, and I was hydroplaning, and I had no idea what was going on. I noticed they started going a little bit inside that, and I was hitting the puddle that I couldn’t really see on the line you would hit in the dry. I tidied up some things. Saw Josh hydroplane big time in front of me a couple times on the short chute from Charlotte’s Web to Museum. That was a little scary. After that, Josh got messed up a little bit with some lap traffic. I darted to the inside, and I was able to put four or five laps together there at the end. Felt pretty good. I was able to open up a little gap and brought it home in second.”
Josh Herrin – Third Place
“We come into this event knowing it’s going to be difficult for us, and obviously I come into it hoping that the bike feels good. But for some reason, if it only happens at one track, I’m totally okay with it, but this just happens to be that track for us. No matter what we do, we know exactly what the problem is, and we just cannot figure a way to fix it. So, yesterday we just gambled for the race to try something completely different. It was a little bit worse, but the result went probably the same. Fourth, fifth, sixth… Somewhere in that spot. Then I woke up this morning and came to the track just praying that you guys were going to cancel the race because I just suck so bad in the rain on this bike. The guys just made a change today. All of a sudden, I went out the first lap and felt super good. Dragged my knee for the first time in my life in the rain and just had tons of confidence. But then in the race, I still felt good. I was super happy with the bike, but I didn’t have that confidence I had this morning. I came to the podium and Mick from Dunlop said my tire for some reason had seven pounds more pressure in the rear than the other guys, so I don’t know what happened there. If it was a mistake. I was fighting it super hard in the straight up and down areas. I think just that tensing me up so much when I would hit those puddles, it just made me ride a little bit more tense than I wanted. I was having a little bit more momentum in corners than I wanted because of that. So, to walk out of here with a podium in the rain is like winning a championship. It just feels amazing. Last year if you added up the points we lost in the rain, I can guarantee it was probably 50-something points. This is a huge breakthrough for us for the year. Just excited for the rest of the season now.”
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