Josh Herrin led wire-to-wire in the first race of Round 3 at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, to score his first MotoAmerica Superbike race of the season and the 17th of his career.
With this win, Herrin interrupted the momentum of championship leader Cameron Beaubier, who was victorious in three of the first four races of 2025.
“I don’t think it’s just a fast track,” Herrin told Hannah Lopa on Peacock following the race. “It’s the first two rounds, I’m always a little scared and riding a little bad. I need the first two out of the way to get going.”
Herrin had added incentive at Road America after welcoming twin girls to the world earlier in the week.
“If you look back the last couple years, we’ve ran at the front in some races, but I don’t think we’ve won any of the first two rounds for ’23 or ’24,” Herrin said in a news release. “I hear the guys on the broadcast saying, ‘When they can let the Ducati loose…’ I’m not saying the Ducati is not a fast bike, but I think this track suits me well. I’ve won on the Yamaha, the Ducati, the Suzuki, and got a podium on the BMW here.
“So, I’ve had a lot of success just around this track. I like the vibes here. My first pro race was at this track in 2006. So, it’s been a long time. I just feel good here. I do think that this is kind of like our reset, I guess. Obviously, I want to win at the first two rounds. It’s not like I’m not trying. But I’m also just trying to collect some points because I know that we just need to keep our head up and get out of there.”
The defending champion, Herrin, entered the round third in the standings on the strength of three podiums in four starts. But with Beaubier winning three races and finishing second in the outlier, Herrin faced a 36-point deficit and needed to eat away at that lead.
“So, to get three podiums in the first two rounds out of four, I was stoked with,” Herrin continued. “Then, to top it off with a win here, it’s good. I’m happy to win. I always love to win. But for some reason, right now, this doesn’t feel like I thought it would. Maybe it’s just because all the stuff that’s been going on this week. I’m tired. Got a lot on my mind. I was like, I want to say something about the babies on the podium, and it was like hard to remember all of the names now. I’m like, ‘I’m going to mess this up.’ But I’m excited. I look at it, but I’ve got so much going on in my mind right now it’s insane. Hats off to the team for working hard and pushing me this weekend.”
Herrin led all 12 laps, but he was never able to create a sizeable gap on the field, being pressured first by Bobby Fong and then by Beaubier.
“I was riding so hard to try to keep up with them,” Fong said. “I think it was the second-to-last lap, I had a big one. I thought I was going down for sure in Turn 1. Nearly fell off the thing. I thought Cam was going to blast me. My pit board was saying ‘G2,’ so I thought that there were two people behind me the whole time. So, I’m like, this is it. I’m getting fourth place. I thought there [were] more people than Cam. So, I just kept pushing and pushing and pushing.
“Once I had that moment, Cam went by. I’m like, ‘I think my race is over. I have to settle in.’ Then he went wide. He just went super wide into Turn 1. I thought, here’s my second chance. Got in second, and I thought he was going to get me again. But it was good. This guy kept me on my toes. Both these guys kept me on my toes the whole time. Definitely had a lot of moments out there. I was ready to just send it to the grass for sure plenty of times. But it was good to get some points and move forward to tomorrow.”
Beaubier got the jump on the field but rode wide in Turn 1, and after handing the lead to Herrin, he struggled for the next couple of laps to reclaim his momentum. In fact, Beaubier regained his speed and caught Fong in the closing laps. He passed Fong on Lap 9, held that advantage for another lap, and then rode wide one more time.
“I got a good jump, and then I missed a shift slightly going second to third,” Beaubier said. “Then I sent it off in there a little deeper than I should have in turn one. I felt like I was okay. Then I was going to be about mid-track, then I got a big front-end push that sent me off the track. Just kind of blended in as safe as I could. Then, after that, I just did not have the same feeling I did in qualifying and practice. But these guys were putting up a great pace.”
In the final two laps, Beaubier pressured Herrin, but the pace of the leader forced a mistake by the second-place rider.
“Josh at the front had to be going 2:10s the whole race. I was in there too and I was slowly crawling back. But, for me, it was just kind of a race of mistakes. I was struggling pretty bad getting the bike stopped. Man, when this BMW is working, it feels so good. But when it’s not quite in its window, it’s a beast to ride. But I’m glad we collected some points, especially after a couple mistakes I had and a couple close calls. I’m glad that we were able to at least salvage some points today.”
Mounting a charge once more, Beaubier set his sights the four-point differential between third and second. He finished 0.009 seconds behind Fong.
Beaubier finished third, keeping a perfect streak of podiums alive. This was the 115th MotoAmerica Superbike podium of his career.
Fourth-place Jake Gagne and Richie Escalante rounded out the top five.
Sean Dylan Kelly crashed on Lap 3 and was the first rider to be eliminated from the race. JD Beach experienced clutch problems and also retired.
