Hooligan Champion To Be Crowned While Supersport, Baggers And Talent Cup Begin Penultimate Round In Close Title Fights

IRVINE, CA (Sept. 9, 2026) — Four MotoAmerica Feature Classes add a quartet of tight championship fights to this weekend’s Quad Lock Superbike action at Circuit of The Americas in Austin, Texas. Supersport, Mission King Of The Baggers and Talent Cup all head into COTA with time running out, while the Mission Super Hooligan National Championship reaches its season finale for the class, with the number-one plate up for grabs in Texas.

COTA’s 3.41-mile, 20-turn counterclockwise circuit is one of the most physically and technically demanding venues on the calendar, and it will test every class on the grid. The Texas heat forecast for the weekend is expected to push competitors to their limits across three days of racing, placing a premium on rider endurance and tire management regardless of what machine they’re piloting.

Supersport

For Celtic/Economy Lube + Tire/Warhorse Ducati’s Darryn Binder, COTA is the only track on the MotoAmerica calendar where he has multiple races under his belt. The South African currently holds a 35 point lead over Rahal Ducati Moto with Desnuda Organic Tequila’s Josh Herrin and looks to lean on his prior MotoGP, Moto 2 and Moto 3 experiences to put the points lead further out of reach from Herrin.

Behind the leading duo, Rahal Ducati Moto with Droplight’s Kayla Yaakov sits 129 points behind in third. The 19-year-old holds a slim three-point advantage over BPR Racing Yamaha’s Josh Hayes in fourth. Hayes’ Race 2 win at VIR was the 90th of his lengthy AMA/MotoAmerica career, putting him just two shy of tying Cameron Beaubier’s current all-time record at 92. Hayes has recorded top-five finishes in 10 of 15 races and eyes a podium points spot just ahead.

Rounding out the top five in points is M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Tyler Scott. Scott will opt out of the Supersport class for COTA to fill in for his injured Superbike teammate Richie Escalante. In the Pennsylvanian’s place and making his MotoAmerica Supersport debut will be the team’s Twins Cup rider, 16-year-old Australian Bodie Paige.

Through a remarkable display of determination and an immense tolerance for the pain of physical rehabilitation, MP13 Racing/One Cure Racing’s Ella Dreher will re-enter the field for the COTA round. The 16-year-old Florida native rejoins the team in Texas after a grueling four-month recovery from her crash at Barber Motorsports Park earlier this year. She looks to regain her race pace before looking forward to 2027 with the MV Agusta-supported team.

Finally, the Supersport grid grows by one for the Texas round as 16-year-old Austin native Mikey Lou Sanchez is set to make his professional debut on home soil. In an impressive milestone for the series’ talent pipeline, the former MotoAmerica Mini Cup champion will pilot a third Celtic Racing/Warhorse HSBK Racing Ducati Panigale V2, proving the youth program directly leads to the professional MotoAmerica grid.

Mission King Of The Baggers

J&P Cycles/Motul/Vance & Hines Factory Indian’s Hayden Gillim took double victory during the previous round at Mid-Ohio, charging from sixth to win Race 2 by 0.25 of a second over teammate Troy Herfoss. Harley-Davidson x Dynojet Factory Racing’s Bradley Smith rounded out the podium in third, and that’s exactly how the Mission King Of The Baggers field begins their final two rounds with a stop in Texas.

Gillim brings a 23-point lead into COTA, a cushion built on race craft as much as speed. The Kentucky-native has made a habit of finding his way to the front if he isn’t already there at the start.

In second is Herfoss, the only rider with a realistic path to catching his teammate after pushing him to the wire more than once already this year. Smith sits third, 54 points back — technically alive but needing plenty to go his way over the final two rounds if Harley-Davidson is going to have a say in how this one ends.

Talent Cup

Championship leader Kensei Matsudaira of Team Roberts has his hands full behind him after the previous round, salvaging a pair of podium finishes after a challenging weekend in Virginia.

The 15-year-old Californian still leads the standings, but the margin that once stood at 23 points is down to just five after Quarterley Racing’s Nathan Gouker clawed back 18 with his double-victory performance at his home round. Matsudaira had to fight for every position to protect it, and he’ll need more of that grit at COTA to keep the pressure from turning into a deficit before the final round in New Jersey.

Gouker is the one applying it, riding a wave of momentum after his second straight win on home-region asphalt. Team Hammer’s Jake Paige rounds out the top three, 73 points back — technically still in the conversation, but needing a big weekend, and then some help, to stay in the hunt.

COTA isn’t new to this group — it’s where the 2026 season began. Matsudaira and Gouker split the two season-opening races back in March, trading wins separated by two-tenths of a second and a quarter-second, while Paige and Yamaha BLU CRU Estenson Racing’s Sam Drane swapped the final two podium spots by similarly slim margins in both races. That was before the series had turned a single competitive lap of the season. Now, with a full championship’s worth of racing and data behind them, all four return to Texas with a level of track knowledge none of them had back in March — enough that COTA could play out as a completely different race this time around. 

Super Hooligan

Andy DiBrino held off BPR Racing Yamaha teammate and Team Owner Bryce Kornbau by 0.216 of a second at Mid-Ohio, making a last-lap pass in the esses to continue a mid-to-late season trend of the two swapping wins over the last four rounds, and DiBrino on a run of six straight podiums. 

DiBrino’s cushion at the front is just as thin — a five-point lead with two races and 50 points left to award. He’s had to earn every bit of it as Kornbau has set multiple lap records this season and the margin could swing either way in Texas.

Gus Rodio (Rodio Racing) sits third, 19 points back, and remains the only other rider with a mathematical path to the title. Defending champion James Rispoli of Saddlemen Race Development, 53 points behind with just 50 on the table, has officially run out of road — leaving the fight for the 2026 crown to the top three at this final stop in Texas.

For information on the 2026 MotoAmerica schedule, and to purchase tickets for MotoAmerica events, CLICK HERE.

For information on how to watch MotoAmerica, CLICK HERE.

For photos and current points standings, CLICK HERE.