Atlanta Road: 60th win for BMW star Beaubier / MotoAmerica Superbike

Loris Baz was one of MotoAmerica’s biggest visitors this winter. The Frenchman, who was most recently with the German Bonovo BMW team in the World Superbike Championship, returns to the powerful American Superbike class in 2024. This year, together with Josh Herrin, Baz is piloting the Ducati Panigale V4R for Warhorse HSBK Racing team.

In qualifying for the long 4.1 km course in the US state of Georgia, Bobby Fong who is a private entrepreneur of Yamaha made himself clear. He ran a fastest lap in 1:23.640 seconds to edge out former Moto2 World Championship rider Sean Dylan Kelly (BMW) in second place by 0.178 seconds. Behind Kelly, Herrin, current champion Jake Gagne (Yamaha) and BMW star Cameron Beaubier qualified in the top 5, while Loris Baz remained in 6th place on the grid (+ 0.674 seconds).

The first race took place on Saturday in good weather conditions. Seven drivers initially battled for the top spot at the spectacular Atlanta Speedway. As the number of laps ticked down, three remained with Yamaha riders Gagne and Fong and BMW rider Beaubier.

With two laps to go in the 19-lap race, five-time American SBK champion Beaubier attacked three-time champion Gagne, took the lead and held it until the finish. The 31-year-old celebrated his 60th win in American Superbikes. Behind Beaubier, Gagne and Fong crossed the finish line within 0.3 seconds and were also allowed to climb on the podium. Kelly, Herrin and Baz completed the top six.

On Sunday the tide turned. Not only that, the results were supposed to be completely different, but the weather also changed completely. Rain throughout the race day did not make things easy for the drivers and teams. At least when choosing tires, cyclists agreed: wet tires were the order of the day.

Yamaha star Gagne led the race almost throughout, but BMW duo Beaubier and JD Beach didn’t make it easy for the 31-year-old. In the end, Gagne won with a narrow lead of 0.119 seconds over Beaubier. Gagne’s teammate, Cameron Petersen, returned to the top three after recovering from a serious hand injury.

Behind Gagne, Beaubier and Petersen, Beach finished fourth, although he had previously crashed in the lead. Behind Sean Dylan Kelly in 5th place, Hayden Gillim (Honda) and Loris Baz crossed the finish line. Herrin and Fong only got the 9th and 10th row.

In the championship, Gagne and Beaubier lead with 45 points each, ahead of Kelly with 24 points. Fong and Beach are two behind with 22 points each. The next race will be May 17-19 at Barber Motorsports Park.

All results and overall standings can be found at this link.