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A year ago, Millville, New Jersey, was Heartbreak City for Bobby Fong, who entered the final day of the season leading the Superbike points but lost his chance for the title with crashes in the last two races. This year, the last-day heartbreak went to Sean Dylan Kelly and the MotoAmerica Quad Lock Superbike championship went to Fong.
The Attack Performance Progressive Yamaha rider, who started the weekend 26 points behind Kelly, on the OrangeCat Racing BMW M 1000 RR, turned in a near-perfect weekend performance under extremely imperfect conditions to finish the season 11 points ahead. That capped a brilliant late-season run by Fong, who notched five wins and gained 66 points on Kelly in the last eight races of the season. The only thing more indomitable than Fong this weekend at New Jersey Motorsports Park was the weather.
Weather disrupts, nearly cancels the finale
September weather in southern New Jersey can give you either end of the spectrum. Sometimes you get the most beautiful days of the year, with crystal clear skies, comfortably warm temperatures, and low humidity. Other times you get a nor'easter blowing up the coast with damaging winds and torrential rain. We got the latter this year.
The rain didn't arrive until Saturday but it definitely disrupted the weekend and played a role in the outcome of the championship. First, because Sunday's forecast looked worse, MotoAmerica wisely decided to have two Superbike races on Saturday and one on Sunday, instead of the reverse, which is the usual schedule for a tripleheader weekend. Then the Saturday morning Superbike qualifying session was canceled due to the rain, which meant the grid was based on times recorded in Friday's practice session. That became crucial because Kelly and the OrangeCat team got off to a slow start while Fong set the fastest time on his YZF-R1, so for all three races, Fong started on pole while Kelly was gridded in 10th place.
Rain was falling during Saturday's first race, which was stopped twice by red flags as water was pooling on the track. On each of the three starts, Fong soon took the lead and built a cushion, while SDK got as high as second, before finishing the race fourth. One race down and Fong had cut the gap to 14 points.
Conditions were a bit better in race two and by lap eight Kelly was able to pass Fong and take the lead. But he soon ran wide in a turn and fell back, battling with Strack Racing's Mathew Scholtz and Fong's teammate, J.D. Beach, who were themselves fighting over third place in the championship. In the end, it was another win for Fong and another fourth place for SDK. The gap was down to two points.
There was genuine worry that the final race might not take place on Sunday. It was originally scheduled for noon, but the rain didn't stop until a couple of hours after that. Track crews worked with heavy equipment, shovels, brooms, and leaf blowers to try to clear standing water off the track and the race finally launched around 3 p.m. The Twins Cup and Talent Cup races for the day were canceled to make room in the schedule.
In the deciding race, it was down to winner take all between Fong and SDK, and Fong jumped out to another early lead from his pole position. Kelly had the advantage of starting eighth, instead of 10th, because the two Warhorse HSBK Ducati Flo4Law riders sat out the race. SDK had to push, despite the risk, to try to catch Fong, and on lap three he set the fastest lap of the race to that point. Seconds later, braking for the very wet turn one, he crashed and the championship was essentially over, as long as Fong finished the race. Once he got the word that SDK was out, Fong cruised cautiously to the finish, letting Scholtz, Wrench Motorcycles' Cameron Petersen, and Beach past without a fight.
| MotoAmerica Quad Lock Superbike final standings | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bobby Fong | Attack Performance Progressive Yamaha YZF-R1 | 316 |
| 2 | Sean Dylan Kelly | OrangeCat Racing BMW M 1000 RR | 305 |
| 3 | Mathew Scholtz | Strack Racing Yamaha YZF-R1 | 284 |
| 4 | J.D. Beach | Attack Performance Progressive Yamaha YZF-R1 | 274 |
| 5 | Cameron Petersen | Wrench Motorcycles Ducati Panigale V4 R | 216 |
Not just fans, but also other riders and crew members from other teams came to congratulate Fong, a genuinely popular guy in the paddock. Many were no doubt thinking how bad they felt for him a year ago, when he let a title slip away through inexplicable mistakes, such as crashing out of second place on the last lap of the penultimate race last year at this same track.
It was a major comeback for Fong, who almost didn't get the Attack Performance ride last year and was nearly without a seat in the Superbike series. Fong will definitely remember 2026 for the rest of his life, as he not only got his first Superbike championship but also became a father.
"I just want to cry," Fong said after the race. "It's unreal. We came from a ways back. We fell short last year, and we made up for it this year. I've been working for this my whole entire life. I'd like to thank everybody who's been behind me in this long journey. It feels good."
Thus ends another MotoAmerica season. The series was hoping to top 290,000 total attendance at its nine rounds this year, though the weather at NJMP, in most years a well attended event, may have caused that to come up short. The series says that attendance has increased for six straight years, however, and Road America has set a record for attendance at a motorcycle event at that track the last two years.
Looking ahead to 2027, there are rumors of new teams joining the series, but as we saw this year with the 2025-title-winning team, Tytlers Cycle, pulling out, the future in motorcycle racing is never anything other than precarious.
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