Bobby Fong swept Sunday’s MotoAmerica Superbike doubleheader, winning both races by comfortable margins. But his grin was matched by wide-eyed respect for the track.
“It was slippery,” the no. 50 Attack Performance Yamaha rider says of WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, referring specifically to the afternoon race. “The thing would break loose in the middle of the corner.”
Fong held off Josh Herrin and Cameron Beaubier in race three, claiming the lead with five laps remaining. The trio pulled away from the pack in the early going, making it a three-way battle.
Herrin grabbed the lead in the earlier going. After a bobble coming out of the Corkscrew, he held onto his no. 1 Warhorse HSBK Ducati to pull out in front. From there the race became a chase, with Fong clinging to second and Beaubier, handling the no. 6 Tytlers Cycle Racing BMW trailing in third.
“This track has always treated me well,” Beaubier says. But he finished third in both outings on Sunday after a sixth on Saturday. “Getting my butt kicked – it sucks. I did everything I could, but it wasn’t enough.”
Herrin claimed Saturday’s opener by three-tenths over Fong. Back-to-back second place finishes on Sunday gives him a 31-point lead in the overall standings as the series heads to Virginia International Raceway.
“I didn’t want to make any dumb moves trying to keep up,” he says of Fong’s late-race pass in race three.
Race two was precursor of the final round, with Fong outdistancing Herrin and Beaubier. In Saturday’s first race, Jake Gagne on the no. 32 Attack Performance Yamaha took the checkered flag in third, behind Herrin and Fong.
Gagne finished a distant fourth in the afternoon, unchallenged by other riders.
Despite the successful start – second on Saturday and a win in the first run on Sunday, Fong was not hopeful as the final race got underway. The track changed under the afternoon heat, making the motorcycles very active.
“The first three laps, I thought it was going to be a long race,” he says. “I just kept my head down and did my laps.”
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