Eleven turns, 3.6 kilometres and a thunderous American crowd await the Red Bull Honda team at the next stop on the MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship calendar. Injuries and other issues have plagued the team’s season so far, but coming off a promising Brno round both Leon Camier (Red Bull Honda World Superbike Team) and Jake Gagne (Red Bull Honda World Superbike Team) can face the second half of the season fresh and psyched up, ready to push their Fireblades up the rankings.

As the saying goes, there’s no place like home. Jake Gagne made his WorldSBK debut at Laguna Seca last year for the Red Bull Honda team before securing his full-time ride this season. Nearly one year on, he returns with several rounds of precious experience under his belt.

Last year he took points in both races, despite landing in Laguna with no previous WorldSBK experience. Results haven’t always accompanied the 24-year-old, but after a season-best of twelfth at Brno and with his vast experience around the Californian track, Gagne could be a force to be reckoned with on Saturday and Sunday.

The young American will attempt to build on last year’s US Round: “It will be really nice already having ridden Laguna Seca and having some good data to build on. We’ve been making some definitive progress the last few weekends so I think it’s time to make another good step up and put it all together”.

From one side of the team box to another, as Leon Camier arrives in Laguna Seca for his third round since coming back from injury. The British rider – who still hasn’t finished outside the top-10 this year – is slowly but surely getting back to full fitness: “Physically I'm feeling better, my shoulders and ribs have come on a lot so now we need to get out there and see if we can close the gap to the guys at the front”.

Camier is tenth in the championship despite having missed 6 out of 14 races in 2018, and all the development hours that come with it. But improvements could come at Laguna – potentially making Camier a very dangerous rival: “At this track it's really important to have a good feel with the bike. There's some developments we've made on the chassis side that I think will help me on the Fireblade this weekend”.

Will the Fireblades climb up the grid this weekend? Find out thanks to the WorldSBK VideoPass.