AMA Superbike racing has been held for the past 11 years in succession at New Jersey Motorsports Park with this weekend’s race marking the 13th AMA Superbike event at the facility in Millville. The discrepancy in those two numbers stems from the 2016 season when NJMP hosted two rounds of the MotoAmerica Series.
That’s Mr. New Jersey to you: The most successful AMA Superbike racer at NJMP is far and away Josh Hayes. Hayes, who is currently a rider coach in the MotoAmerica paddock, has won 11 of the 24 Superbike races held at NJMP. Fittingly, Hayes won the first two Superbike races held at NJMP in 2009 and followed that up with two more wins in 2010. In fact, the four-time AMA Superbike Champion won seven of the first eight races held in New Jersey. Hayes also won the first two Superbike races of the MotoAmerica era at NJMP in 2015.
Three active MotoAmerica racers have won Superbike races at NJMP: Cameron Beaubier, Toni Elias and Josh Herrin. Beaubier leads the way with four wins (two in 2016, one in 2018 and one in 2019), followed by Elias’ three victories (one in 2016, two in 2017) and Herrin’s two wins (one in 2013 and one in 2018).
If you see Roger Hayden walking around the paddock at NJMP this weekend during a break in his announcing duties on MotoAmerica Live+, buy him a soda or something. Hayden, who won twice in New Jersey during his Superbike career, finished second five times. Included in those five second-place finishes were a .044 of a second loss to Josh Hayes in 2015, a .156 of a second loss to Toni Elias in 2016 and a .039 of a second loss to Elias in 2017.
Four-time MotoAmerica Superbike Champion Cameron Beaubier arrives at NJMP with nine wins from the 10 HONOS Superbike races held thus far in 2020. His ninth win pushed his career total to 47 AMA Superbike wins, which puts him third on the all-time AMA Superbike win list behind Mat Mladin (82 wins) and Josh Hayes (61 wins).
Garrett Gerloff, who is now racing in the World Superbike Championship, is the current Superbike lap record holder at NJMP. The Texan earned pole position last year with a record-setting 1:20.323.
Gerloff went on to win Superbike race one a year ago at NJMP, besting his Yamaha teammate Beaubier by 1.7 seconds. Beaubier bounced back the following day to beat JD Beach by 1.4 seconds for the victory. Gerloff, meanwhile, was declared unfit to race on Sunday after crashing during morning warm-up and suffering a concussion.
The fastest race lap of last year also went to Gerloff with the Texan lapping at 1:20.588 in race one. Beach had the fastest lap in race two – a 1:20.785 – en route to second place behind Beaubier.
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