Wrench Motorcycles’ Bobby Fong barely won Saturday’s slugfest with Warhorse HSBK Racing Ducati’s Josh Herrin after a race-long battle. An hour or so after the race, Fong said he’d try to do things differently on Sunday. He’d said he would try and pull away at the front and not partake in any battles.
Turns out Fong was good to his word.
Fong did what he said he’d do and led from start to finish in Sunday’s Steel Commander Superbike race, leading every single lap and crossing the finish line with a margin of 3.8 seconds over Herrin, who was second for the second straight day.
And guess what? The name atop the Steel Commander Superbike Championship point standings belongs to one Bobby Fong. That’s right. Bobby Fong.
Fong leads three-time MotoAmerica Superbike Champion Jake Gagne, who finished seventh on Sunday as he continues to be plagued by arm pump, by eight points after his two Brainerd wins. Fong has scored points in all nine Superbike races held thus far in 2024 and he’ll take that points lead to Ridge Motorsports Park in Washington for round five, June 28-30.
Photo by Brian J. Nelson
Herrin was solid again on Sunday, though he couldn’t keep pace with Fong. Instead, he hunted down Attack Performance/Progressive/Yamaha Racing’s Cameron Petersen and passed the South African to finish second.
Petersen, who was fifth on Saturday, tried to hang on to Herrin, but ultimately settled for third place – for his fifth podium finish of the year.
Fourth place went to Herrin’s teammate Loris Baz. The Frenchman was in the battle for second with Herrin, Petersen and EasyHealthPlans.com/TopPro Racing’s Sean Dylan Kelly when Kelly had a vicious highside that ended up forcing Baz off track and onto the grass. Although he tried to fight back, he couldn’t make headway into the gap to Petersen.
Fortunately, Baz was well clear of Vision Wheel M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Brandon Paasch and finished fourth with Paasch some six seconds behind in fifth. Baz and Paasch were third and sixth, respectively, on Saturday.
Tytlers Cycle Racing’s JD Beach improved from seventh on Saturday to finish sixth on Sunday.
Gagne, meanwhile, was a frustrated and lonely seventh with Australian Troy Herfoss eighth in his fill-in ride for the injured Cameron Beaubier on the Tytlers Cycle Racing BMW M 1000 RR.
Jones Honda’s Ashton Yates and Aftercare Scheibe Racing’s Ezra Beaubier rounded out the top 10.
Fong leads Gagne in the series points, 138-130, with Herrin third on 119 points and just nine clear of Petersen’s 110. Baz sits fifth in the standings with 101 points.
Superbike Race 2
- Bobby Fong (Yamaha)
- Josh Herrin (Ducati)
- Cameron Petersen (Yamaha)
- Loris Baz (Ducati)
- Brandon Paasch (Suzuki)
- JD Beach (BMW)
- Jake Gagne (Yamaha)
- Troy Herfoss (BMW)
- Ashton Yates (Honda)
- Ezra Beaubier (BMW)
Quotes
Photo by Brian J. Nelson
Bobby Fong – Winner
“It sounds good, but we’re not going to get ahead of ourselves,” Fong said when told he was leading the championship. “We’re only four rounds into this thing. We’ve got a lot of races left. Honestly, first thing is I want to wish my dad Happy Father’s Day. He doesn’t go to many rounds, but I want to wish him Happy Father’s Day. We’re on a good streak right now. We’re going to just play it safe and just maximize points each weekend. I would have never thought I would even be in this position last year or even leading up to the season. The goal is just to get on some podiums and see what we can do. But now we’re in this thing, and we’ve just got to be smart. We’re not going to get ahead of ourselves. Going into this race, we made some changes this morning and I told my data guy, ‘Nick, we need to smooth this bike out.’ On the warmup lap out there, I’m like, ‘I think we smoothed it out too much.’ We took a lot of torque away. At first when I had some grip, I’m like, ‘this thing is slow,’ but once the tire started going away it played in my favor for sure. You just kind of roll it around like a 600. It was slippery out there. So, what we did with the electronics definitely helped out there. Kudos to the team. Congrats to these guys. They’re keeping me honest. I always go good here, and the Ridge is a different story. We’re just going to keep going and try to keep this lead.”
Josh Herrin – Second Place
“No matter what, we’re always trying to win. We can’t leave here and be super happy with a second, but I’m content with it. After the way that the beginning of the season went, it’s good. We’ve been just trying to chip away. It’s been not going our way. The rain, for some reason I’m struggling with this year, so we lost a lot of points in the two rain races and lost a lot of points in race one at Atlanta. I’ve just had to try to claw my way back. It seems like now we’re getting there. I think we’re probably 18 points behind Bobby (Fong) now, and I don’t know how many behind (Jake) Gagne, or if we’re in second or not. I don’t think so. But I’m happy with the way that the championship is shaping up. I’ve been around here 19 years now and been lucky enough to win three championships and know that it’s not about the first half of the season. Things can go wrong the first half of the season. Just got to keep chipping away and never give up. My team is just full of that energy. We’ve got a good crew. Three years on the same team is a blessing for me. To be on the podium on Father’s Day, my kid’s not here right now but it’s just a good feeling. Thirty-four years old, I’m a dad and fighting for Superbike wins – not today but yesterday. I’m happy with this one and looking forward to the next couple rounds that we got coming up.”
Third Place – Cameron Petersen
“I’m position-wise quite a bit better, but in terms of race pace and the way I rode, I feel like I rode worse than I did yesterday. Obviously, yesterday just got caught up with those lappers in the last few laps. It was a tough race. I tried to go with Bob (Fong) in the beginning and his pace was pretty hot and I was just pretty sloppy, making a lot of mistakes, running wide, and really struggling with rear grip pretty much from lap one. But stoked to be on the podium. Good points haul. Just got to be consistent and be in this thing at the end. Seriously congrats to Bob this weekend. The guy was untouchable. Congrats to Josh (Herrin). I tried to keep him honest for the second half of the race there, but he just kind of slowly broke me and that was it.”
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