Jake Gagne made a lot of people look like fools this year, so I don’t feel too bad that I’m one of them. In my annual season preview over at RevZilla, I said this year would be wide open, since the last two champions were no longer in the series. I thought we’d see multiple race winners and a few championship contenders.
Instead, we got unprecedented domination by one man. Jake Gagne.
The numbers don’t lie. Here are some of the amazing stats the Fresh N’ Lean Attack Performance Yamaha rider amassed this season.
0
Number of Superbike wins Gagne had coming into this season. Think about this. The most dominant racer in any major professional motorcycle road racing series in the world in 2021 started the year tied with me in career Superbike wins. And let’s face it, I couldn’t beat anyone in the MotoAmerica HONOS Superbike field in a straight-up race unless I got to borrow one of their Superbikes and they were forced to ride Big Ruckus scooters.
1
The number of AMA pro motocross outdoor nationals Gagne has qualified for, one more than any other Superbike champ. He did it back in 2015, but to think any rider can compete at the pro level in two totally different disciplines is wild. Gagne’s not the only road racer who started out as a kid motocrosser, but to be that good that many years later is impressive.
1
Number of races Gagne won this year despite crashing. At Brainerd International Raceway, while leading (naturally), Gagne crashed and found himself trapped in the middle of the track with the whole pack streaming at him at speed. It’s one of the scariest scenarios in motorcycle racing. It’s one we’ve seen end the lives of various racers, from young phenom Peter Lenz many years ago to Hugo Millán this year. But the good also tend to be lucky. Not only was Gagne not injured, but his Yamaha YZF-R1 was also not seriously damaged, and moments later Loris Baz crashed and the race was stopped. The red flag allowed the Attack Performance crew to fix Gagne’s bike, he got back in the restarted race and won.
4
Number of riders with world championship experience that Gagne beat this year. You can’t say Gagne won because the field was weak. Loris Baz finished on the podium more than once last year in World Superbike. Héctor Barberá has plenty of MotoGP experience. Gagne’s teammate, Josh Herrin, raced in Moto2. Toni Elias, who raced two rounds this year as a fill-in rider, is both a former MotoAmerica Superbike champ and a Moto2 world champion. None of them came close to challenging Gagne.
This was a typical scene in 2021: Jake Gagne pulling out to a six-second lead and expertly managing the gap to the end for another victory in MotoAmerica HONOS Superbike. Photo by Brian J. Nelson.
8
Gagne is now tied with Nicky Hayden for eighth place on the list of AMA Superbike career wins with 17. Personally, I find this the least interesting statistic, as the number of career wins in AMA Superbike has less to do with the greatness of the rider and more to do with his career trajectory. Mat Mladin holds the record with 82, because he spent so many years in AMA Superbike. Hayden has 17 because as soon as he became the AMA Superbike champion (the youngest ever), he moved on to MotoGP. Still, people pay attention to the career win list, and Gagne is likely to climb higher, since he isn’t likely to get another shot at World Superbike now that he’s in his late 20s. That means he could be racking up MotoAmerica Superbike wins for years to come.
16
Number of races Gagne won in a row. After his engine expired in the early laps of the first race of the year, Gagne went on a tear, winning the next 16 races. He didn’t lose again until the final round at Barber Motorsports Park, after he had already clinched the title, when he crashed in the rain while leading.
See the pattern? Gagne on the top step of the podium. Photos by Brian J. Nelson.
17
Number of races Gagne won in total this year. That breaks the record shared by 2020 champion Cameron Beaubier and four-time Superbike champion Josh Hayes.
244
Number of consecutive laps led by Gagne. This one is the real jaw-dropper. For most of the season, no other racer officially led a lap in a MotoAmerica HONOS Superbike race. It became numbingly familiar. Gagne on pole, Gagne getting a good launch off the line, Gagne opening up a lead of more than a second on the very first lap and from there on it was a battle for second.
445
Number of points Gagne scored this season, another record.
500+ (rough estimate)
The number of times Gagne said “hats off” to someone in a post-race victory interview. It was hats off to the Attack Performance Yamaha crew, hats off to his sponsors, hats off to his competitors who finished eight seconds behind him but he still credited with pushing him hard, hats off to the fans, hats off maybe to the Uber driver who picked him up at the airport (I probably just made up that one), etc.
Hey, when a guy has a season this close to perfect, you have to needle him about something.
