#joshherrin

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Josh Herrin Wins A Wet One At NJMP

Attack Performance/Herrin Compound Yamaha’s Josh Herrin showed once again that if the conditions are iffy, he’s a difficult man to beat.

Herrin mastered the conditions today in a very wet Championship of New Jersey at New Jersey Motorsports Park, the Georgian backing up his victory from a few weeks ago in Pittsburgh with a textbook display of wet-weather riding that earned him a second Motul Superbike victory on the season. The win was the sixth of his AMA Superbike career and his first in the rain.

In typical Herrin fashion, he started quickly but was surprised after the first lap to have the lead that he did.

“I was scared,” Herrin said. “Warm-up lap, I was scared. Start of the race, I was scared. We got a really good start and I came across the start/finish line thinking I was about to get blasted by everybody. I looked back, which I never do, and saw a big lead. I was thinking, ‘well, maybe somebody is passing me on the right.’ I looked, no one was there. So it was weird. Both Pittsburgh and here were two races where at the start of the race I was sitting on the grid like a little baby complaining about having to race in the conditions that we’re racing in, and somehow I just pulled something out of my ass and go. I don’t know where it came from, but it was there and I’m not going to complain about it. I had a lot of fun. I hope it’s dry tomorrow because we had good pace on Friday. Cam (Beaubier) beat us on Friday, but I just felt so good. I want to prove that we can run up there in the dry. Richard (Stanboli, his crew chief and team owner) and all the guys at Attack have been working so hard all year. We’ve been behind the eight-ball straight from the start of the year. It just feels really good to get a win for them, even if it’s in the wet. I want to do it in the dry and just give it to them.”

Herrin beat Yamalube/Westby Racing’s Mathew Scholtz by 37.1 seconds with the South African backing off the pace at the end of the race when he saw the gap he had on Monster Energy/Yamalube/Yamaha Factory Racing’s Cameron Beaubier.

“I didn’t have the (tire) warmers on so I kind of knew the first three or four laps would be sketchy, but then I got past Cam (Beaubier) and Toni (Elias),” said Scholtz, who earned his second pole position of the season in the morning in Superpole session. “Josh (Herrin) was pretty far up. He pulled his usual trick of going out flying and he has a fire lit under his arse. So I tried to catch him. I had a few huge, huge moments. The bike just didn’t feel the same as the one in practice and in Superpole, so maybe we have to go back and look at what we did. But I’m just very happy to be back up on the podium. Kind of got to the halfway point of the season after being the top privateer guy and challenging the factory guys every single round to barely finishing in the top five, six. So I think we’ve been making the bike better suiting of the Dunlop tire, but I think that the wetter conditions suit me. I lived in Europe for four or five years and got a lot of practice there.”

Beaubier was some 18 seconds adrift of Scholtz and in championship-winning mode, which meant he wasn’t taking any chances. Especially after having a big highside crash in the wet Superpole session. With Yoshimura Suzuki’s Toni Elias crashing out of third place, Beaubier has his hands on the title with a 72-point lead and only 75 points left on the table. He will likely earn his third MotoAmerica Superbike Championship in tomorrow’s second Motul Superbike race at NJMP.

“I don’t know if I’ve ever been this nervous going into a race,” Beaubier said. “The conditions are bad. I had crashed earlier and the last time I was out there I was laying on the ground in Superpole. So I just didn’t know what was going to happen in the race. My crash wasn’t a crazy crash. It wasn’t very big or nothing, but we ended up having to change the motor because the throttle got stuck wide open, just to be safe. So hats off to my guys for busting their butts and getting that changed in-between Superpole and the race, because there’s not a ton of time. Maybe a couple hours. But everything looked perfect. I felt like I got off to a decent start the first lap. I was somewhat close to (Josh) Herrin and then he pulled a pretty big gap there in the last section. I couldn’t do anything. Then Toni (Elias) came by. Then I could hang with Toni for a while, then I saw on my board I had three seconds or something like that to fourth, and that was Matty (Scholtz). I was like, ‘okay, we’re in a good spot.’ Then all of a sudden I come around the last lap and it was plus 0. I’m like, ‘what the heck?’ Matty comes blowing by both of us, and then he just left us. So, I kind of tippy-toed around from there. I was trying to go but I just couldn’t. I was sliding around. I think we made a little mistake. We went out on a tire in the race that we scrubbed in Pittsburgh. I think it might have hurt a little bit of something. I’m really not sure. I could be crazy too, I don’t know. I just didn’t have the grip I felt like I had in the first two practices, nowhere near. So, it’s definitely something that we need to keep in the back of our head, but I smell that championship, that’s for sure. We’re a few points out. I’m just going to do everything in my power to play it safe tomorrow and try to wrap this thing up.”

Yoshimura Suzuki’s Roger Hayden passed Genuine Broaster Chicken Honda’s Cameron Petersen on the final lap for fourth. It was Petersen’s best finish of the year in fifth, just .116 of a second behind the Suzuki. Such was Herrin’s performance that Petersen was the last rider on the lead lap.

Cambr/KWR’s Kyle Wyman finished sixth, well clear of Monster Energy/Yamalube/Yamaha Factory Racing’s Garrett Gerloff. M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Jake Lewis crashed, remounted and finished eight with Thrashed Bike Racing’s Max Flinders ninth. Scheibe Racing BMW’s Danny Eslick was 10th.

Beaubier now leads Elias by 72 points, 345-273, after his 15th podium finish of the season. Herrin is third, 20 points behind Elias. Scholtz is fourth, 43 points behind Herrin and 24 points ahead of fifth-placed Gerloff.

“I was pushing and catching (Mathew) Scholtz for second place,” Elias explained of his crash. “I was trying to gain extra points in the championship and ended up just pushing too hard.”

Supersport – Gillim’s Battle, Beach’s War

In Saturday’s Supersport race, Monster Energy/Yamaha Extended Service/Graves/Yamaha’s JD Beach clinched the 2018 Championship with his second-place finish and 12th podium in 13 races. For the Kentuckian, it was the second MotoAmerica Supersport Championship of his career.

Rickdiculous Racing’s Hayden Gillim notched the win on a wet NJMP track for his second victory of the season, and Quicksilver/Hudson Motorcycles’ Richie Escalante completed the Yamaha podium sweep.

“I’ve been working my butt off this year,” Beach said in reflecting on his championship year. “It’s been really good. We’ve been lucky at times and good at times. We put the whole year together. Today was stressful. One of my goals going into this year was to win in the rain. I really wanted to win the race, but once Hayden (Gillim) got by me, I knew that was out the window. So, I was just trying to finish the race. It was the longest race of my life. Being in the wet already takes forever. I was just counting out laps. We got to halfway and I was like, ‘we’ve got 10 laps to go?’ It feels amazing. We definitely still have some more racing to go. I still want to try and get some more race wins, so I’m kind of enjoying this for now but will get back to work tonight and really enjoy it after the season’s over.”

Gillim was happy with the victory, his second of the year and first since Road Atlanta in April.

“The race win at Road Atlanta was really good, and it was a win in the wet again for me today,” Gillim said. “Honestly, I want the races to be dry right now because I really want to beat these guys in the dry. The races are so good in the dry, it’s hard to not want to do that. It’s hard not to want it to rain, too. I’ve always done really well in the rain. It was a tough one today. JD (Beach) got a rocket-ship start like he always does. It’s tough to pass in the wet, especially at a track like this. It definitely was a little bit colder in the race, so the tires didn’t have as much heat, so we were slipping and sliding a whole lot more. It took some time to figure it out, but I was able to get by JD and then at that point it was just trying to stay focused. It’s so hard in the rain to stay focused. One little thing, you see a bird fly by and you get all distracted because you’re just going what feels like so slow. It was good. I was happy to get back up here for the whole Rickdiculous Racing team. It’s been a long time coming. Hopefully, we can go for it again tomorrow.”

Liqui Moly Junior Cup – Olmedo Wins Crashfest

The wet conditions played a huge factor in Saturday’s Liqui Moly Junior Cup race as the championship leaders all crashed out unhurt, including points leader Alex Dumas. The attrition started early and often as polesitter Ashton Yates also crashed his Yates Racing Kawasaki on the opening lap. KTM Orange Brigade/JP43 Training rider Dumas was in the catbird seat and in the lead group, poised to wrap up the championship based on merely finishing the race. However, the French Canadian went down in the wet and postponed his title celebration for at least another day.

Meanwhile, the MonkeyMoto/AGVSPORT racing team swept the podium aboard their Yamaha R3s, with Kevin Olmedo taking the win, Marc Edwards finishing second, and Jay Newton coming home third.

After his first-career MotoAmerica Supersport win, Olmedo, who is from El Salvador, said: “I saw that on the track it’s slippery but on every lap I saw that I feel good. I tried to carry more corner speed, and I saw that the track is good in the rain. So for my first time on this track I feel pretty good. I want to say thank you to my family, too. I want to say thank you to AGVSPORT, also Graves Motorsports, MonkeyMoto.com, and all the sponsors that gave me this opportunity to ride here.”

Twins Cup – Turner Takes It

In what was arguably the best race of the day, Saturday’s Twins Cup feature event concluded in a photo finish with Turner’s Cycle Racing’s Kris Turner edging out LWT Racing’s Brian McGlade for the win by .003 of a second, with both riders aboard Suzukis. Syndicate/AP MotoArts’ Jason Madama, who crashed early on in the 14-lap event, remounted his Yamaha and raced all the way back up to third. Championship leader Chris Parrish also crashed his Ghetto Customs Suzuki and remounted, but he only managed to finish seventh. As a result, Parrish now leads the point standings by just two points with one race left on the schedule to decide it all.

“I came out of turn nine, and I was in the lead, and I was like, there’s no way that they’re going to be able to pass me to the finish line from here,” Turner said. “I went into the last turn, and I thought, ‘We’re gold, there’s no way.’ I was so excited and then, out of the corner of my eye, I saw him and I was like, ‘You’ve gotta be kidding?’ We were looking at each other after the finish line and thinking, ‘Who won?’ I’m not in the points chase. I’ve got nothing to lose. I kind of got a bad start, and I saw the other guys go down in the first turn, so I just kind of put my head down and I came through the second turn in third place. I almost crashed four or five times, and it wasn’t skill that saved those crashes. It was all luck. I had a lot of fun, though. It’s been a long time since I last raced in the rain. I want to thank my dad. I wouldn’t be here without my dad.”

Motul Superbike

Josh Herrin (Yamaha)

Mathew Scholtz (Yamaha)

Cameron Beaubier (Yamaha)

Roger Hayden (Suzuki)

Cameron Petersen (Honda)

Supersport

Hayden Gillim (Yamaha)

JD Beach (Yamaha)

Richie Escalante (Yamaha)

Anthony Mazziotto III (Yamaha)

Nick McFadden (Suzuki)

Liqui Moly Junior Cup

Kevin Olmedo (Yamaha)

Marc Edwards (Yamaha)

Jay Newton (Yamaha)

Damian Jigalov (Kawasaki)

Joseph Blasius (Yamaha)

Twins Cup

Kris Turner (Suzuki)

Brian McGlade (Suzuki)

Jason Madama (Yamaha)

Bart DeFrancesco (Suzuki)

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Josh Herrin Wins Race One At PittRace

Last year when MotoAmerica visited Pittsburgh International Race Complex for the first time, Josh Herrin was a spectator up on the hill after his team pulled out of the series. Well, what a difference a year makes. Today, Herrin won his first Superbike race in five years, the Attack Performance/Herrin Compound Yamaha rider mastering iffy wet/dry conditions to win the first of two Motul Superbike races of the Championship of Pittsburgh.

Herrin, who won the AMA Superbike Championship in 2013 with four race wins, took the lead from Yoshimura Suzuki’s Toni Elias with a hard pass in turn one, looked over his shoulder at the end of the lap and saw no one. From there he put his head down and pulled away, beating Monster Energy/Yamalube/Yamaha Factory Racing’s Garrett Gerloff by 2.3 seconds with the Texan on a charge in the latter laps. Ironically, Herrin was actually one of the riders who was vocal about not starting the race in those conditions.

“I just know that in the past there was some guys that if they didn’t feel comfortable they’d step forward and let people know and kind of get the other riders to really speak their opinion,” Herrin explained. “I just wanted to make sure these guys were vocal about what they felt like was a safe decision. Obviously, the race went well. There was nothing that went wrong, but it was pretty sketchy conditions. On the warm-up lap I just made sure I drug my foot over on the track and made sure where the spots were wet so I knew on the first lap I could go at the exact spot I needed to, and I think it really worked out. I found some good lines the first couple laps. I just put my head down. I think I kind of just psyched myself out. I was kind of scared at the beginning and not confident at all. I made kind of a close pass on Toni (Elias). I didn’t mean for it to run in there as much as I did. I got on the side of him and he released the brakes, I released the brakes and we kind of had one of those deals going on. I just put my head down and went as hard as I could. I looked back coming around the front straight and got the gnarliest speed wobble ever. Scared the crap out of me. Saw nobody was there. I was like, ‘okay, maybe they’re on the other side of me.’ Looked over my shoulder the next couple corners and didn’t see them. Then from there just put my head down and went for it.

“The race went smooth. I don’t think I ever really had any big moments, besides that one on the front straight. I was pretty impressed at how the tires were wet in the first part of the track, and then you could just hammer on them right away. I’ve always kind of been nervous to go from wet to dry and just get on it, but the tires worked really well. I’m pumped because I realized on the podium it’s the first time I’ve won a Superbike race in five years. So that’s a huge deal for me. Richard (Stanboli, the team owner) has been racing for I don’t know how long and never got a Superbike win. So, it feels really good to get that for him. It’s something really cool, I think. Me and Richard have a crazy relationship. I’m so pumped that I got the opportunity to work with him this year. I think both of us were able to use each other to shine a little bit more than we ever did in the past. It looks like we’re probably going to do the same thing with him next year and I’m super excited about it. We got a whole year under our belts. We’ve got some sponsors coming in now to give us some actual budget. I feel like we can have a really good year. This will help get the momentum going. I know it’s a half dry, half wet race and I never consider that a real win, but it at least gets my confidence up for the rest of the year. Hopefully, we can build off of it and have a good rest of the year.”

Gerloff was a bit tentative early in the race and it ended up costing him any real chance of catching Herrin. Still, the second-place finish was impressive for the Motul Superbike rookie and it was his second runner-up result of the season.

“Super difficult,” Gerloff said of the conditions. “If we would have had a dry one from the beginning, I would have felt pretty confident, but my past experience this year in the rain hasn’t been too bright. Just was trying to really stay on two wheels until I had kind of a feeling with what the bike was doing through that first section. From the beginning, once we got through turn six or seven, it was dry all the way back to turn two. I knew I just needed to baby myself through the first section and then hammer until turn two again. That was kind of my strategy until the dry line started forming in the first section. Once that happened I felt good. We were still a little off base, but the conditions weren’t ideal obviously. I saw myself catching Toni (Elias) and caught Toni pretty quick. He just let me by, waved me by. I was like, all right, sweet. That’s one down. Then I saw Mathew (Scholtz) up ahead and was charging, trying to catch up to him. I was wondering if it was possible but caught him at a decent rate and got around him on that last lap. I wasn’t even sure if it was the last lap until I came around and saw the checkered flag. I saw this guy (Herrin) getting held up by somebody on an orange bike and I was like, ‘man, if I got one more lap, I’m going for it.’ But it was the checkered flag. All she wrote. Overall, I’m happy and really looking forward to tomorrow. Hopefully it’s a solid day, sun, and we can get a full, clean race in. That’s what I’m excited about.”

South African Mathew Scholtz returned to the podium for the first time since VIRginia International Raceway in May, the Yamalube/Westby Racing Yamaha rider regaining some lost confidence and ending up 3.2 seconds behind Herrin and .9 of a second behind Gerloff who passed him on the final lap.

“The first few rounds of the season we put in a couple results and we looked really good,” Scholtz said. “We were contending for the podium in every single race and we changed the Dunlop tire. We kind of lost our feeling slightly, but I feel like we’ve been getting better and better every single race. I had a couple of crashes and it took me a while to kind of change my riding style to suit it, but I’m very happy to be back up here on the podium. The Yamalube/Westby guys have been working hard. The race was great. (Josh) Herrin went off flying. I tried to follow him. He was a little bit quicker at the start. I feel like I was slowly reeling him in and then he picked his pace up. I picked my pace up and we went backwards and forward. Then probably with about eight laps left I could see that (Garrett) Gerloff was catching me. I tried to up my pace, which I did slightly, but Garrett just ran me down and passed me one more time. I was really happy to be back up here. Thank you so much to everyone that’s actually stuck behind me and supported me through this hard time.”

Defending MotoAmerica Motul Superbike Champion Toni Elias ended up fourth on the Yoshimura Suzuki, some two seconds behind Scholtz and well ahead of championship leader Cameron Beaubier.

Beaubier had an eventful race or, more accurately, an eventful start. The Monster Energy/Yamalube/Yamaha Factory Racing rider entered pit lane after the sighting lap, which is against the rules, and was thus forced to start the race from the back row.

M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Jake Lewis fought back from a bad start to finish sixth with his Kentucky neighbor Roger Hayden seventh on the second Yoshimura Suzuki.

Bobby Fong rode the Genuine Broaster Chicken Honda to eighth in his debut with the team, right behind Hayden and some four seconds clear of Fly Street Racing’s David Anthony. KWR’s Kyle Wyman rounded out the top 10.

Even though his race started with the penalty, Beaubier’s championship didn’t suffer much as Elias only gained two points on him. That puts him 61 points ahead of the Spaniard going into tomorrow’s race two, 309-248. Herrin is third in the title chase, 33 points ahead of Scholtz, with Gerloff fifth, just two points behind the South African.

Supersport – Debise!

Valentin Debise, who missed the first four races of the MotoAmerica Supersport Championship due to injury, scored his second victory of the season aboard his M4 ECSTAR Suzuki GSX-R600. Debise led every one of the 16 laps over Rickdiculous Racing/Yamaha’s Hayden Gillim, who finished second and a little less than a second behind Debise at the checkers. Riderzlaw Racing/KWR/Yamaha rider Bryce Prince scored his first podium finish of the season as he got past championship leader JD Beach on the final lap.

“Last couple months I worked really hard,” said Debise. “I took a new coach, spent money on him, spent money on training back home in France. Finally, it paid off. So, I’m glad that I did all of this job, and now I feel that I can even improve more. The race was good. We lead the whole race. It never happened to me. So, it was hard for me to keep focused. When I saw plus 1.5 on my board, I kind of not slowing down but just being a little bit safer where I wasn’t on the edge. Then I saw one second that they were getting back on me, so I decided to push it again until the flag. I was able to keep that gap. It was great. I enjoy a lot. We still have some room to improve on my riding style, some room to improve on the bike. So, we’ll keep going and I will keep enjoying every race I go in.”

Liqui Moly Junior Cup – Dumas Is Back

In Liqui Moly Junior Cup, KTM Orange Brigade/JP43 Training rider Alex Dumas notched his seventh win of the season in a race that was red-flagged because of a crash, restarted, and red-flagged again because of another crash. BARTCON Racing/Kawasaki’s Damian Jigalov had gotten past Dumas just before the race was red-flagged the second time, but according to FIM and MotoAmerica rules, the results revert back to the previous completed lap, so Jigalov was credited with second place. MP13 Racing/Yamaha rider Cory Ventura finished third.

“Today went good,” Dumas said. “It wasn’t the pace I was trying to do, but still, I’m really happy with how the race went. Before the red flag, I felt confident. I was surprised that they didn’t pass me, and I was happy just to race with some guys. Then, after the red flag, I didn’t have as good of a start as what I had in the first race, but I’m still really happy and I won with the red flag, so I’m happy.”

Twins Cup – Madama Back In Title Fight

In Saturday’s Twins Cup race, Syndicate/AP MotoArts/Yamaha rider Jason Madama won his third race of the season in a near-photo-finish over Turner Cycle Racing/Suzuki’s Kris Turner. Chris Bays, aboard his RBoM Racing Suzuki, finished third in the red-flagged and restarted four-lap sprint to the checkers.

“I always like to come out and have a good race and I like to battle,” Madama said. “I didn’t know honestly until the last couple laps something was wrong. I knew something was wrong with his bike because he wasn’t there, and he was there the whole race. He had pace on me all weekend. Like I said on the podium, I didn’t get a whole lot of track time. I basically did about 20 laps before the race, so I learned a lot in the race. Before the red flag, I was happy to stay with the front group, and it taught me a lot instantly. Like I said, I kind of got handed the win, but I’ll take it. This is an amazing track. The track is absolutely amazing. I’m in love with it. Honestly, I just want to dedicate this win to Brian Drebber. I was supposed to talk to him today and I’m just really, really bummed about what happened. So, this is going to him.”

Motul Superbike

Josh Herrin (Yamaha)

Garrett Gerloff (Yamaha)

Mathew Scholtz (Yamaha)

Toni Elias (Suzuki)

Cameron Beaubier (Yamaha)

Supersport

Valentin Debise (Suzuki)

Hayden Gillim (Yamaha)

Bryce Prince (Yamaha)

JD Beach (Yamaha)

Jason Aguilar (Yamaha)

Liqui Moly Junior Cup

Alex Dumas (KTM)

Damian Jigalov (Kawasaki)

Cory Ventura (Yamaha)

Ashton Yates (Kawasaki)

Renzo Ferreira (Kawasaki)

Twins Cup

Jason Madama (Yamaha)

Kris Turner (Suzuki)

Chris Bays (Suzuki)

Tyler Humphreys (Suzuki)