Page 47 - GRID4

Herrin showed decent speed throughout the early stages of the weekend, but he really found another gear in Superpole. The twenty-seven year old qualified in sixth place on the grid with a 2:14.363, placing him at the back of the second row on the inside of the first corner. As the lights went out to signify the start of the first race, the Californian made the best of his starting position and fought his way into
the top three on the opening lap. He roughed up some of the heavy hitters throughout the first couple
of corners, eventually making his way past Cameron Beaubier in an attempt to stay in touch with the Suzuki duo in the lead. One lap later, he lost the position to Beaubier and fell back to fourth place with the M4 Ecstar Suzuki of Jake Lewis glued to his rear fender. The two of them remained within one second of each other for the remainder of the race, clocking practically identical lap times as they
rode their own race with a sizeable gap up the road towards the leading pack. As the checkered flag approached, Herrin’s lap times dropped a smidge as he began to come under pressure from Lewis as well as the chasing duo of Bobby Fong and Mathew Scholtz. The four of them were separated by just one second at the finish line, but he managed the race brilliantly as he held on for fourth position at the finish line. Pit lane opened for the second race and Herrin wasn’t able to get his bike started -- he did everything he could to bump start the R1 and eventually got it fired just in time to join the grid before the warm up lap. He was penalized for missing the sighting lap and was forced to start from the back of the grid, but he still managed a magnificent start that saw him knocking on the door of the top ten within the first couple of corners. The race was red flagged and he was able to restart from his normal grid position, creating a fiery battle with Josh Hayes for the first couple laps of the restart. Herrin pressured the wily veteran into a mistake at the start of the sixth lap that gave him a comfortable gap in fourth position, but his motor blew up one lap later as he approached turn one, forcing him to run off into the gravel. He scrambled to tear one of his boots off after hot oil seeped through the material, marking a disastrous end to a weekend where Herrin showed incredible pace.
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JOSH HERRIN | MOTUL SUPERBIKE
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