Recapping the MotoAmerica SBK/STK/SS & Talent Cup action from COTA

MotoAmerica 2025

Round Ten – COTA

Images by Brian J. Nelson

Superbike Race One

Josh Herrin prevailed on Saturday, fending off Cameron Beaubier and Bobby Fong in a nail-biting three-way brawl that saw Ducati, BMW and Yamaha all represented on the podium.

Herrin did most of the leading, Beaubier took a few stabs at the front but couldn’t make them stick, and Fong never quite hit the lead but was glued to the tail of whoever did.

It all came down to the final corners, Fong tried a desperate lunge on Beaubier, who also made a last-ditch dive that ran him briefly off-track, but he still clung on to second by just 0.031s.

Richie Escalante was closing rapidly in fourth before crashing on the final lap, handing the position to Hayden Gillim, who finished four seconds clear of Sean Dylan Kelly (Vision Wheel M4 ECSTAR Suzuki).

Gillim’s teammate, JD Beach, took sixth, enough to clinch the Superbike Cup title for riders on Stock 1000 machinery.

Benjamin Smith (FLOLAW) was seventh, ahead of Ashton Yates (Jones Honda) and Danilo Lewis (Aftercare Scheibe Racing).

Jake Gagne (Attack Yamaha) remounted to round out the top 10 after crashing while in the lead group on lap five, while Australian rookie Max Stauffer (Superbike Unlimited Racing) finished 11th on his MotoAmerica debut.

Superbike Race One Results

Superbike Race Two

Cameron Beaubier trailed points leader Bobby Fong by 17 points coming into COTA but after two tense Texas showdowns, he’s slashed that deficit to just eight. Everything now hinges on the triple-header finale at New Jersey Motorsports Park.

COTA was a solid weekend for all three title contenders. Beaubier was second in race one and took a commanding win in race two, while Fong went third, then second.

Josh Herrin (Warhorse HSBK Racing Ducati) claimed race one honours before finishing third on Sunday.

It means Fong still leads the standings with 314 points, eight clear of Beaubier and 22 ahead of Herrin — and with 75 points still up for grabs in New Jersey, it’s officially game on.

Beaubier’s Sunday victory saw him come fast out of the blocks, trading paint with Fong on the opening lap, then stretching a gap while Herrin faded from contention.

Herrin spent most of the race fending off Sean Dylan Kelly (Vision Wheel M4 ECSTAR Suzuki) and Fong’s teammate Jake Gagne, eventually holding them off for third by less than a second as Kelly and Gagne crossed close behind.

Up front, Beaubier looked untouchable, almost… A near-crash on lap seven saw him momentarily lose the lead to Fong, but he gathered it up, struck straight back, and controlled the race from there to win by 1.1 seconds. It was his fifth win of 2025, the 70th of his Superbike career, and it keeps his quest for a sixth championship alive heading to the finale.

Fong, though, left COTA feeling quietly confident. He’s long been strong at NJMP and sees his 3-2 weekend as a win, while Herrin admits he’s on the back foot but still in the fight.

Kelly took fourth on Sunday ahead of Gagne, with JD Beach (Real Steel Honda) inheriting sixth after teammate Hayden Gillim crashed late but remounted for seventh.

Benjamin Smith (FLO4LAW), Ashton Yates (Jones Honda) and Danilo Lewis (Aftercare Scheibe Racing) rounded out the top 10.

Tough luck again struck Richie Escalante (Vision Wheel M4 ECSTAR Suzuki), who suffered a mechanical failure on the last lap while running fourth in race one, and then another on the first lap of race two.

Max Flinders crashed at turn one on the opening lap and clipped Max Stauffer’s rear wheel as he went down. The Australian remained upright but immediately put his hand up, presumably because of a bike issue caused by the collision.

Max Stauffer

“It was great to get my debut races underway finally. The first race was great to get in and get some learning done, and see what we really needed to work on for race two. Morning warm up, Sunday, we made quite a big step, and I was confident for the races, and after I got a great start, another rider ran into me from behind. It was a really disappointing end, as I believe we could have put a good race together. Massive thanks to the superbike unlimited team for this awesome opportunity.”

Next stop: New Jersey, with three races to decide it all.

Superbike Race Two Results

Superbike Championship Points

Superbike Cup Championship Points

Supersport Race One

Fast on Friday, a new lap record and pole position on Saturday morning, and a runaway lights-to-flag win that afternoon, it’s fair to say Mathew Scholtz is having quite a weekend.

The Strack Racing rider shattered Garrett Gerloff’s Supersport lap record from 2016 before cruising to victory on Saturday at COTA, leading every lap and crossing the line more than 10 seconds clear of his nearest challenger.

Early on, it looked like there might be a fight on his hands. Scholtz headed a tight front group of four that included Cameron Petersen, PJ Jacobsen and teammate Blake Davis. The quartet circulated nose-to-tail for the opening five laps before drama struck.

Petersen suffered a massive highside exiting the left-hander onto the back straight, scattering the group and forcing Davis to take evasive action, allowing Jacobsen through into third. Davis regrouped quickly, though, and the pair became locked in a fierce scrap over second. When Jacobsen hit a false neutral and ran wide, Davis pounced, and from there they traded blows to the flag, Davis snatching P2 by just 0.194 seconds.

Scholtz, meanwhile, was long gone. He eased across the line with more than 10 seconds in hand to take his eighth win of the season and was just as pleased to see Davis steal points off Jacobsen in the title race.

Behind the podium trio, Tyler Scott held off Kayla Yaakov for fourth by 0.106 seconds despite two off-track excursions.

Supersport Race One Results

Supersport Race Two

With a commanding double victory at Circuit of The Americas, Mathew Scholtz has stretched his championship lead to 21 points over PJ Jacobsen (Rahal Ducati Moto w/XPEL) heading into the finale at New Jersey Motorsports Park. With 50 points still on the table, Scholtz only needs to put four more between himself and Jacobsen in the opening race to seal the deal.

Race two at COTA wasn’t quite as straightforward as his Saturday runaway. A blown motor dumped oil on the circuit before the start, delaying proceedings and forcing the race to be shortened to eight laps. When it did get underway, riders approached the line of oil-dry with caution, and the pace was noticeably down, bunching the front group up and raising the tension.

Early on, it was Jacobsen and Scholtz’s teammate, Blake Davis, swapping the lead while Scholtz stalked the pair. Davis crashed on lap three, and once Scholtz hit the front, he never let go, easing away to win by 1.8 seconds for his ninth victory of the season.

Jacobsen had to settle for second, his 15th podium of the year, and now faces a steep climb to deny Scholtz the title.

The feel-good story of the race belonged to Cameron Petersen (Celtic/Economy Lube+Tire/Warhorse HSBK Ducati), who somehow raced to third barely 24 hours after being launched skyward in a highside during race one. Limping around the paddock on Sunday morning, few expected him to even start, let alone stand on the podium. But when Kayla Yaakov (Rahal Ducati Moto w/XPEL) and Tyler Scott (Vision Wheel M4 ECSTAR Suzuki) ran wide in their final-corner duel, Petersen slipped through to snatch third.

Yaakov regrouped to take fourth ahead of Scott, with Aiden Sneed (MP13 Racing) a strong sixth. Torin Collins (Altus Motorsports), Brandon Paasch (3D Motorsports), Josh Hayes (BPR Racing Yamaha) and Corey Alexander (Rahal Ducati Moto w/Roller Die) rounded out the top 10.

Supersport Race Two Results

Supersport Championship Points

Superstock 1000 Race One

JD Beach kept his championship dream alive with a dramatic victory at Circuit of The Americas, edging Jayson Uribe in a race-long scrap that came down to the final corner.

Uribe had done most of the leading, but Beach pounced when it mattered. Diving up the inside into the last turn, he forced Uribe wide on exit and wheelied to the line just 0.590s clear, though in reality the winning move left daylight between them.

The win keeps Beach in the title fight heading into Sunday’s finale, with points leader Andrew Lee finishing fourth after a calculated ride. Lee now leads the championship on 176 points, 14 ahead of Beach (162), with Uribe third on 154.

Ashton Yates claimed third, 3.2 seconds behind the leading duo and comfortably clear of Lee. Rocco Landers crossed the line 2.3 seconds adrift of Lee in fifth, well ahead of Bryce Kornbau, who emerged from a tight mid-pack scrap to take sixth.

Kornbau’s teammate Deion Campbell followed him home in seventh, with Nolan Lamkin eighth, Jason Waters ninth, and Diego Perez rounding out the top ten.

With just one race left and 14 points between them, it’s all on the line for Lee and Beach in Sunday’s Stock 1000 season finale.

Superstock 1000 Race One Results

Superstock 1000 Race Two

While the battle heated up at the front between his championship rival, JD Beach, and his OrangeCat Racing teammate, Jayson Uribe, ahead of him, Andrew Lee was thinking big picture. Finishing fourth was all he needed to do to earn the 2025 Stock 1000 Championship, and that’s exactly what Lee did.

Final points tally: Lee 189. Beach 187. Two measly points separated the two after a thrilling season of Stock 1000 racing.

The season finale for Stock 1000 at COTA was much like Saturday’s race as it turned into a Beach vs. Uribe duel. Again, it was Uribe doing most of the leading, and at one point, it looked to be enough as Beach made a mistake with five laps to go. Uribe had a bit over a second lead, but Beach had his head down with his typical refuse-to-lose attitude. He reeled Uribe back in, and with two laps to go, he was back on the BMW’s tailpipe.

With a lap to go, Beach struck and made a pass on Uribe going into turn one. When they got to the all-important back straight, Uribe was in the perfect position to draft past Beach. And he did just that. But it all went wrong in the tight left-hander at the end of the back straight as Uribe got in too hot and couldn’t get stopped in time. Real Steel Honda’s Beach was right where he needed to be, and he dove under Uribe and stormed away to his fifth victory of the year – by 1.5 seconds.

Jones Honda’s Ashton Yates was third for the second straight day, some four seconds ahead of now three-time Stock 1000 Champion Andrew Lee.

RevZilla/Motul/Vance & Hines Suzuki’s Rocco Landers rounded out the top five.

Superstock 1000 Race Two Results

Superstock 1000 Championship Points

Talent Cup Race One

Alessandro di Mario tightened his grip on the 2025 Parts Unlimited Talent Cup By Motul title after a commanding lights-to-flag victory on Saturday at Circuit of The Americas, his sixth win of the season.

While Di Mario was faultless out front, chaos unfolded behind him. His recent rival Hank Vossberg (Tytlers Cycle Racing) suffered an issue off the line that left him out of contention, eventually finishing 12th and a lap down. Ian Fraley (Real Steel Honda) also struck trouble early and faded to 11th, while Kensei Matsudaira (Roadracing World Young Guns) was forced out on the opening lap with a mechanical.

There was drama, too, for Kody Kopp (Team Roberts), who had a huge moment when his Krämer snapped sideways mid-corner. He saved the crash with some flat track magic, but his race was over.

That cleared the way for Di Mario to cruise home 3.8 seconds clear of Bodie Paige (Jones Honda), while the battle for third went down to the wire, and then down in the gravel. Ella Dreher (MP13 Racing) and Sam Drane (Yamaha BLU CRU Estenson Racing) collided at the final corner, both crashing out. Drane managed to remount and limp home third, while Dreher took longer to rejoin and crossed the line eighth.

Solly Mervis (Ice Barn Racing) claimed a popular fourth, his best result of the year, ahead of Nathan Bettencourt (Bettencourt Racing) in fifth.

With just one race left on Sunday, Di Mario now leads the championship on 229 points, 53 clear of Drane (176), with Paige up to third on 158. Vossberg slips to fourth on 157, and Dreher rounds out the top five with 109.

Talent Cup Race One Results

Talent Cup Race Two

Alessandro Di Mario didn’t need to do much on Sunday to seal the Parts Unlimited Talent Cup By Motul crown but he went ahead and did it in style anyway. The Warhorse Ducati/American Racing rider claimed victory at COTA to lock up the championship with two races still to spare in the debut season of the series.

It was Di Mario’s second win of the weekend and his seventh of the year, pushing his points tally out to an unassailable 254. A dominant campaign wrapped up with a flourish.

Behind him, Hank Vossberg of Tytlers Cycle Racing crossed the line second, narrowly holding off Kensei Matsudaira from Roadracing World, who was making his Talent Cup debut. Matsudaira actually pipped Vossberg to the flag but was handed a two-second penalty for exceeding track limits, which dropped him back to third.

Further down the order, Kody Kopp (Team Roberts) won a lively scrap for fourth ahead of Ella Dreher (MP13 Racing) and Sam Drane (Yamaha BLU CRU Estenson Racing), but the day, and the season, belonged to Di Mario.

Talent Cup Race Two Results

Talent Cup Championship Points

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