Every championship is different but for the last three seasons of the MotoAmerica Superbike division there has been only one champion in Jake Gagne, rider for the Progressive Yamaha team.
To say Gagne has been dominant over the past three seasons would be to understate his performance to a massive degree. In route to his 2021 title, Gagne won 17 races, sweeping seven of nine rounds. There was not a single weekend in which he did not win at least one of the two races and at New Jersey Motorsports Park in the penultimate round, he won all three events in the triple header.
In 2022 Gagne won 12 of 20 events, sweeping four of 10 rounds. While the races were competitive, Gagne nearly always came out on top.
But riding at the front of the pack can be a lonely experience - and the goal is to beat the competition head-to-head with the most intense battles possible.
Gagne got to experience that in 2023 with two riders at the top of their game.
The Flipped Switch
Riders often talk about a switch flipping at some point in their career. For Gagne, that happened in 2020 when he made the change from the Scheibe Racing BMW team and climbed on board his Yamaha as a teammate to Cameron Beaubier.
That year, it was Beaubier’s time to dominate, winning 16 of 20 races and standing on the podium in every race he finished.
In nine of those races, Gagne was standing on the podium with him.
Was that when the switch flipped?
“I’d say it definitely was,” Gagne told NBC Motors. "[The 2020 season] is when I came on the Yamaha team for my first year with Beaubier as my teammate. He won the championship. That was always, especially here in America, that was the dream team to ride (for) and the dream bike to ride. And I just clicked really well with the bike. I learned a lot my first year, ended up finishing second in that championship to Cameron.”
The next year, Beaubier was off to Europe to race in the Moto 2 division of MotoGP and Gagne had an opportunity to put his lessons to use.
“So ’21 was definitely a breakthrough season,” Gagne said. “When Beaubier left, I tried to fill his shoes and do my job for Yamaha. Since then it’s been great years and a lot of learning and a lot of maturing as a rider. At this point I kind of feel like the veteran of the class. I’m just lucky that I’ve had such a great team to learn with.”
Gagne was virtually unchallenged for the title in 2021, beating Mathew Scholtz by 88 points that year. The competition was stiffer in 2022 when Gagne finished just 20 points ahead of Danilo Petrucci. The competition was closing the competitive gap.
“It’s good to see this Moto America class get closer and closer every year,” Gagne said.
Tightening the Field
That attitude was put to the test in 2023. After two seasons with the American Racing team in MotoGP’s Moto 2, Beaubier returned to the United States and MotoAmerica.
Gagne was ready. He beat his former teammate in three of the first four races.
But Beaubier didn’t lose any speed while in Europe; he won the season opener and swept the top-five in the first five races. Gagne won three of those races but a freak mechanical issue at Road America forced a retirement.
Suddenly the race was on.
“Having (Beaubier) come back to the series was really cool,” Gagne said. “I was excited about it. Right from the first race, he won the first race and was straight out of the gate really fast. … These last couple of years, I knew every year would get a little tougher as everybody kind of steps it up and all the teams and bikes have stepped it up as well.
“Racing a guy like Beaubier - I have so much respect for him and what he’s done. We also get along really well. We’ve raced together for quite a long time now. So it was really cool to see the class just get that tight and have some really close battles at the front. The last couple of years, a lot of the time, it has been kind of some lonely rides in first place for me besides some mistakes. So it was good for me to kind of get back in that close battle situation.
“And not only that, but I think it’s just great to see for the series and I hope the racing is more exciting than it’s been for those couple of years. I’m all about it and it pushes me to get better. It’s been fun having some good battles at the front with those guys.”
The drama was truncated in Brainerd, Minnesota in Round 6. Beaubier crashed and suffered a concussion. To that point in the season, Gagne and Beaubier had five wins each.
Gagne won Race 1 at Brainerd and finished second in the second race. The season pivoted at that moment.
“It was definitely a real bummer,” Gagne said. “He was the main competitor for the championship. Obviously, (Josh) Herrin was really close and some of the other guys are really close at times, but the experience that (Beaubier) has, he’s just super consistent and super smart as a racer. He’s won a lot of championships, so he knows what it takes.
“To see some bad luck come his way this year was definitely a bummer. I want to win, but at the same time, I want to see a close race, and I don’t want to see any of those guys go out with injuries like that.”
It was not a cake walk by any stretch. When Gagne’s teammate Cameron Petersen was forced to the sideline by injury, American Flat Track racer and former speedway rider JD Beach took his place on the bike and scored top-fives in all but two races at the end. He won the season finale.
“It was all really awesome having Beach on the team,” Gagne said. “It was a bummer for Cam Petersen to have his injuries, but someone’s got to fill the spot and the bike’s got to be out there. (Beach) did an amazing job. He’s my favorite flat tracker.
“We were teammates years ago so we’ve actually raced and spent a lot of time together. It was really fun having him in the truck for those races.
“When he’s on the track, he’s intense and he’s serious and wants to get the job done. So it was really cool. I was really happy to see him get that win for the final race of the year. He really deserved it. I know he loves flat track but I know he still really misses road racing, so it was cool to see him prove himself like that and show he’s still one of the best road racers here - even after taking so much time off.
“It was really impressive.”
Double Teamed
Even with the shifting competition, there is always someone to race - or rather: something.
With a massive drop off in points from first to fourth, consistency is critical to winning a MotoAmerica Superbike championship.
“I’m one of the veterans in the class and so wisdom kind of comes,” Gagne said. “You think about racing a little differently and it was a goal of mine to finish as many races as possible. If we didn’t have the pace to win, which was definitely the case at times this year, I wanted to just bring the bike home on the podium. That seemed to be kind of the key for us this year.
“All the podiums really paid off for the championship run. In any class, you still have got to get wins. I think we won about 10 or 11 of them. You expect that if, you do get that many wins - about half of the wins out of 20 - then you need to make sure you’re on the podium every weekend or at least get the best result you can.”
Consistency is king, but the only way to ensure a rider achieves it is to first race the track. Take what it will give and find ways to do so with greater success than the competition.
“We’re always kind of racing the track individually,” Gagne said. “That’s kind of our first focus but this year with the speed getting closer and closer and it pushes me as well. I’ve been around a long time in the sport and even after the last couple of years of winning championships like this year, I feel like I really was able to probably learn more than I even ever have in my career.”
