VOLUME ISSUE MARCH , P93
"It seemed like everything
was against us, but we worked
as a team and got settled down
and even Xavi's [Xavi Fores, Her-
rin's teammate, who retired from
the race four laps in with bike is-
sues] guys from Germany came
over at the end to help us. It was
a very eventful race and I can't
believe we were able to pull it
off. After how the race went in
2022, in my mind I needed to
get the win for the team and for
Ducati. It's such a special mo
-
ment and that I was able to do it
on the V2 before we step up to
the V4 R in Superbike this year."
"I pushed as hard as I could
for a while, and I could see
I was kind of maintaining,"
going to be a sprint to the finish,
and I didn't think I had the legs
to get the win. They told me
Cam [Peterson] was a lap down.
They told me Brandon [Paasch]
had a 20-second penalty. I
thought that I had lapped Blake
Davis at one point, but it must
have been somebody else. I
was just super confused. I didn't
know if I needed to try to beat
Cam or if I needed to try to beat
Brandon. I didn't know what
was going on. I just had a lap
where I said, 'You know what? It
doesn't matter. I need to just try
to win, no matter who's there.'
Because if for some reason the
guys in the pit were wrong, then
I'd be screwed.
Jacobsen landed fifth place,
Hobbs took sixth on a rebuilt
GSX-R750 from Geoff May
(Disrupt Racing Suzuki), Eslick,
Briton Matt Truelove (TSE/True
-
love Brothers Racing Yamaha)
and Jason Farrell (Farrell Perfor-
mance Kawasaki) rounded out
the top 10.
Herrin's victory on the Ducati
Panigale V2 was the Italian
marque's second win in the 200
with Jason DiSalvo winning on a
Team Latus Ducati 848 EVO.
"I was freaking out," Josh
Herrin said when asked about
the race being red flagged and
restarted. "When they added
five laps, I was panicking be
-
cause at that point I knew it was
Jacobsen crashes in the infield. A red flag meant
the New Yorker could rejoin the fight for the win.
