Beaubier becomes winningest rider in AMA Pro roadracing history

For more than 20 years, Miguel Duhamel had the most career wins with 86. Then for two years it was Josh Hayes, who displaced Duhamel at the top of the list in 2023 and went on to add a couple more wins for good measure, including one earlier this spring in the rain in the Motovation Supersport class at Barber Motorsports Park at age 50. But when Cameron Beaubier crossed the finish line first on his Tytlers Cycle Racing BMW M 1000 RR on Sunday at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, it was his 90th win across all classes, dating back to his first victory in SuperSport at Daytona in 2010 when he was 17 years old.

Just about everyone thought Beaubier would break the record held by Hayes, his former teammate, long before now. The fact that he didn't is evidence of just what an up-and-down season it has been in MotoAmerica Superbike in 2025.

Freakily streaky season takes another unexpected turn

At the three-fourths point of the season, Superbike has been an almost bizarre series of streaks. In the first four races at Barber Motorsports Park and Road Atlanta, Beaubier won three and finished second in the other, tying Hayes at 89 wins. It seemed certain he would soon break the record.

"Not going to lie, at the beginning of the year I had a lot of confidence going. I was like, I’m going to reel 90 off pretty quick," said Beaubier. "Then the last three rounds have been just a straight struggle."

While Beaubier began a drought, Warhorse HSBK Racing Ducati's Josh Herrin, the 2024 champion, found his mid-season form and reeled off five straight wins at Road America, Ridge, and the first race of the triple-header weekend at Laguna Seca. Then Attack Performance Progressive Yamaha's Bobby Fong took control and won five straight at Laguna Seca, VIRginia International Raceway, and Saturday's race at Mid-Ohio.

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While Herrin and Fong were riding their momentum, Beaubier hit a slump. Crashes at Road America and Laguna Seca, while fighting for the lead, left him with a DNF and a sixth-place finish. And on Saturday at Mid-Ohio, he was again fighting for the win when he tried a pass on Fong that he later called "a dumb move" and ran off track, ending up sixth instead of a sure second place.

The real drama at Mid-Ohio, however, surrounded Herrin, who had a disaster of a weekend that could well cost him the championship. He came into the weekend leading the standings, five points ahead of Fong, despite a crash at VIR in the previous round. On the first lap of Saturday's Superbike race, Bryce Kornbau's motorcycle suffered a mechanical failure that put oil on the track at the end of Mid-Ohio's long back straight, in turn six, the prime passing spot on the circuit. The track crew put down oil dry to clean up the spill and the race restarted. But after the sighting lap, Herrin was frantically waving at officials on the starting grid, obviously saying the race shouldn't be started. None of the other riders seemed to share his opinion, however. During the race, Herrin's Ducati got loose once and he again gesticulated animatedly, during the race, which didn't help his progress. He finished seventh and lost the points lead to Fong. All the other riders simply altered their lines through that corner, either going inside or outside the oil dry.

Things got worse for Herrin on Sunday. With Beaubier leading, Herrin tried to pass Fong for second place and bumped Fong from behind. Both went off track, suddenly giving Beaubier a lead of three seconds instead of a fraction of a second. Fong quickly recovered, but Herrin's Panigale went all the way to the fence and tipped over and it took him longer to get back on track. With five laps to go, he had worked his way up to 15th, the last points-paying position, when he crashed with another rider in an incident not caught on camera. That crash caused a red flag that ended the race and handed Beaubier a relatively easy 90th win.

Herrin dropped from first to third in the standings. Now, with five races left, two at Circuit of the Americas and three at New Jersey Motorsports Park, Fong leads Beaubier by 17 points and Herrin by 27 points.

It takes a village to raise a champion

With Beaubier still in peak form at age 32, he's likely to pad his lead with more victories. For now, the reality is still soaking in.

"To be sitting here with 90 wins to my name, it doesn’t even feel real," Beaubier said. "I have so much respect and look up to all those guys that are up there, too. Like I said out there on the podium, I have so many people that have helped me along the way. Just too many people to even thank them. My mom and dad for all the sacrifices. Not only just them, but my grandpa, Josh. Too many people to thank."

Beaubier also credited the talented racers he has competed against his whole life, including Fong, who was beside him on the podium Sunday and grew up racing against Beaubier in northern California, and Jake Gagne, another former teammate also on the podium with him.

Prior to the MotoAmerica Superbikes at Road America round at the beginning of June, which was the first opportunity Beaubier had to break Hayes' record, the MotoAmerica podcast, Off Track with Carruthers and Bice, brought both Beaubier and Hayes on the show and the two discussed their careers. The discussion included some interesting facts, such as the stat that when Hayes won his first Superbike race he was older than Beaubier is now. They also talked about the highlights and lowlights of racing against each other and as teammates, including the lowest of them all, the time in 2016 at Road Atlanta when the two teammates were leading the race and Hayes hit Beaubier from behind, causing them both to crash.

Hayes isn't the only record-setting rider Beaubier has teamed with. As a teen, he was selected for the Red Bull Rookies Cup and went on to be a teammate with Marc Márquez in the 125 cc world championship in 2009 before returning to the United States and beginning his career in domestic roadracing. In 2021, he returned to the world championship level, racing in Moto2 for two years. If not for those two years away, Beaubier's win total in MotoAmerica would certainly be higher.

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Wins across all classes		Superbike wins
Cameron Beaubier	90	Mat Mladin*	82
Josh Hayes	89	Cameron Beaubier	69
Miguel Duhamel*	86	Josh Hayes	61
Mat Mladin*	82	Jake Gagne	43
Rich Oliver*	71	Miguel Duhamel*	32
Jake Gagne	62	Toni Elias*	32
* - retired

What's next? Superbike supremacy

The next record for Beaubier to aim for is one that could easily be considered an even bigger accomplishment: the most wins in the Superbike class. That record has long been held by seven-time Superbike champion Mat Mladin, who sits fourth on the all-time wins list across all classes. But all 82 of Mladin's wins came in the premier class. So far, Beaubier has 69 Superbike wins to go with his victories in the lower classes.

Catching Mladin would certainly cement Beaubier's place in U.S. roadracing. For a time, Mladin and his Yoshimura Suzuki were so dominant that some fans disliked him for making the racing too predictable. From 1999 to 2009, he won seven Superbike championships, in addition to his 82 race wins, and it could easily have been more if not for the arrival of Ben Spies as his teammate. Mladin finished second to Spies in more than a dozen races and three times in the championship standings.

While Beaubier is the only racer with a shot at matching Mladin's Superbike record any time soon, if we're looking ahead we have to consider young riders who might catch Beaubier in the all-classes category. One rider on that list has to be RevZilla/Mission/Vance & Hines rider Rocco Landers, who hasn't raced in Superbike yet but at age 20 has already amassed 55 race wins while earning championships in Junior Cup and Twins Cup. If Landers is still able to win a race at age 50, like Hayes, how many victories might he have by then?

Records are things racers mostly look back on in retirement, however. Right now the immediate question is whether Beaubier's win on Sunday, which ended Fong's streak at five, started a new streak of his own. And whether he can make up 17 points in the last five races to nab a sixth championship.