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Who Is Ready For Barber? The 2023 Medallia Superbike Championship Is Hot, Hot, Hot

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The Opening Round Of The Series Showed Us That This Year’s
Superbike Title Chase Is Wide Open

IRVINE, CA – May 17, 2023 – (Motor Sports NewsWire) – In 2021 and 2022, the MotoAmerica Medallia Superbike Championship was dominated by Fresh N Lean Progressive Yamaha Racing’s Jake Gagne. Forty races were held during those two seasons and Gagne won 29 of those. Thus, 72 percent of the time, Gagne got to the checkered flag first. Naturally, he won the title in those two successive years.

Medallia Superbike Champion Cameron Beaubier (6) and two-time champion Jake Gagne (1)

Five-time MotoAmerica Medallia Superbike Champion Cameron Beaubier (6) and two-time champion Jake Gagne (1) are tied in the point standings as the series heads to Barber Motorsports Park for round two, May 19-21. Photo by Brian J. Nelson

But that was then, and this is now. And the now is round two of the 2023 series at Barber Motorsports Park in Birmingham, Alabama, May 19-21, with the expectations of battles at the front never higher than it is right now – based on what was witnessed in the season opener at Road Atlanta.

Two races do not make a season, but the opening round of the 2023 MotoAmerica Medallia Superbike Championship showed that the new year might just be a bit different than the past two as we head to Barber.

For starters, in the two previous seasons there was never really a battle at the front. Gagne either led off the line and dominated the race, or he led off the line and crashed, or he had a mechanical problem that kept him from finishing. For all practical purposes, he never failed to lead unless he had an issue.

On opening day at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta, however, Gagne was in a battle for the duration. He got out to an early lead in the opening two laps, and just when it appeared to be business as usual, the impossible started to happen. Gagne was being caught from behind by Cameron Beaubier, the five-time MotoAmerica Superbike Champion back from the wars of the Moto2 World Championship and armed with a fast but arduous to ride Tytlers Cycle Racing BMW M 1000 RR. Beaubier forged forward, caught Gagne, battled with Gagne, and ultimately beat the two-time defending champion to the finish line by a scant .340 of a second. And just behind the pair was Josh Herrin, the 2013 AMA Superbike Champion returning to the Superbike class for the same Warhorse HSBK Racing Ducati team that he partnered with to win last year’s Supersport title.

On Sunday, the fans were treated to an even better Medallia Superbike race with four men at the front in…

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