MotoAmerica: Drama-Filled Quad Lock Superbike Opener Debuts Deeply Competitive Field For 2026 Season.
The first round of the 2026 Quad Lock Superbike Championship is officially complete at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta as North America’s premier motorcycle road racing series closes the first weekend of the 50th anniversary of Superbike racing. Sunday experienced cooler temperatures than Saturday and brought overcast skies and some noticeable wind for the riders.
Attack Performance Progressive Yamaha Racing’s Bobby Fong took the win in a tight battle with fellow YZF-R1 pilot and race one winner, Strack Racing’s Mathew Scholtz. Fong began the race in second and spent 17 laps behind last year’s Supersport Champion taking multiple looks at turn 10A but could not gain the advantage before the corner, tucking back in line each time.
With two laps remaining, Scholtz dropped off the pace down the backstretch allowing Fong past. Prior to this, the two had been separated by no more than half a second for most of the contest. Fong went on to win the race by a margin of 2.921 seconds while Scholtz nursed his Yamaha home to a second-place finish, 6.270 seconds ahead of third place.
OrangeCat Racing’s Sean Dylan Kelly scored another podium performance with a third-place finish aboard his BMW M 1000 RR. The Hollywood, Florida, native navigated through a solid first Superbike weekend with his OrangeCat Racing team, with a pair of podiums for a solid start to the season, second in points.
JD Beach had a lonely race in fourth aboard his Attack Performance Progressive Yamaha YZF-R1 but salvaged valuable points after a race one DNF from a mechanical failure.
Fifth-place finisher Cameron Beaubier leaves Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta third in points after a hard-fought weekend. The six-time Superbike champ started from 20th position once again, and made his way to P6 by the sixth lap. Beaubier found himself within reach of a top five and overtook Wrench Motorcycle Cameron Petersen’s Ducati Panigale V4 R, securing a fifth-place finish.
In seventh place was the Real Steel Honda CBR1000RR-R Fireblade SP of Hayden Gillim, just beating out M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Brandon Paasch in eighth aboard his GSX-R1000.
The following quote is from race two winner Bobby Fong:
“My confidence was kicked twice this weekend and as a racer, you have two crashes and you don’t know what the hell is going on, you’re kind of just looking around like, ‘I can’t do that again,’ especially with my team owner. Everybody knows he’d probably kill me if I did one more throwing it down. So, no. It wasn’t that great at the time. I just wanted it to be over with. But I knew at the end it was going to be a hell of a last-lap battle, if his bike didn’t break. We got a little lucky at the end. I’m sure it would have been fireworks, for sure. We’re both competitive riders. We try to be safe out there, but we want the win just as much as anybody. It was good to get 25 points on the board. Looking forward to Barber. This track, you don’t get that big a drop when the tire goes off. It’s not like a huge decline like most tracks. I feel like going to Barber, you get a huge drop off in the tires and stuff. I think we excel a little bit. I’m looking forward to that. It’s going to be a long season. These guys next to me are super-fast. I feel like, every weekend, we’re going to be seeing each other up here.”
Our team is proud to announce our participation in the 2026 The Distinguished Gentleman’s Ride, a globally celebrated event that unites riders with a shared passion for classic, modern classic and vintage motorcycles while supporting vital men’s health causes.
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