Bobby Fong entered Sunday in control of his championship fate, but he lost control of his bike in both races and fell to third in the standings.
Cameron Beaubier inherited second-place in Race 2 and the lead in Race 3 at New Jersey Motorsports Park from Bobby Fong after the points leader entering Sunday's program crashed in both events.
After the first race, Beaubier took the points' lead. After the second Fong crash, he earned his sixth championship in the 11-year history of the MotoAmerica Superbike series.
The first 19 laps of the first race were as thrilling as any fan could desire. Polesitter Fong took the lead from his teammate early in the race and watched as his two principal challengers slotted in behind. The trio swapped positions and the leads on almost every lap and were riding nose-to-tail-to-nose on the final lap when Fong laid his bike down in a high speed turn while sandwiched between Josh Herrin and Beaubier.
On the cool-down lap, Fong made a violent gesture when Herrin pulled over to make certain he was okay.
"He hit me earlier in the race in that same spot, I think," Herrin said. "I felt something the first time I went around him. I don't know. Honestly, I have no clue what happened. I just know that he was freaking out. I stopped on the side of the track, and he was already going like this to me (making a slashing motion across his throat). I was just trying to figure out what happened, and he just kept saying, 'I’m going to F’ing kill you.' So, I don't know what happened.
"In my book, he’s got a huge lead on us. I wouldn’t have been up there with us. I just would have cruised around in third knowing that’s all I had to do."
Fong's 17-point lead evaporated in the crash and he headed into the finale seven points behind Beaubier. Fong needed to win this race and have Beaubier finish third or worse to claim his first Superbike championship.
Fong led early in Race 3 on the weekend before he laid his bike down again one-third of the way through the race. Fong failed to finish either race, easily handing the win to Beaubier.
"I don’t even know what to say," Beaubier reflected after the race. "This year has been one of the craziest Superbike years I’ve ever had, with the speed Bob [Fong] had at the beginning, and middle of the season, and then [Josh] Herrin coming on strong. Coming into this weekend, we struggled really bad here last year. We weren't on the podium one day. I showed up with some confidence after COTA and went and fell down twice Friday and was scratching my head."
Therein lay some of the drama of the weekend. Beaubier crashed twice on Friday and forced his team to rebuild his bike. Finishing second to Fong on Friday was a step in the right direction, but he knew the title was a longshot nevertheless.
Herrin had to overcome the worst starting position of his career to merely stay in contention for the championship. He surged from 10th on the grid to third on Lap 1 of Friday's race and the morning feature on Saturday. He overcame the same poor grid position to land in the top five early in Sunday's afternoon race.
"I’m just happy we got the win," Herrin said after Race 1. "We’ve got an exciting race three for all the fans. It’s coming down to the wire, which is awesome. It makes those times where I got up and finished the race whenever we had something go wrong worth it."
Herrin finished fourth in the afternoon race and moved into second in championship standings.
Rounding out the podium was Richie Escalante (third) in the morning with Sean Dylan Kelly (second) and Hayden Gillim (third) scoring his first podium.
Category: General Sports
