B
efore Saturday's Superbike race
at Ridge Motorsports Park in
Washington, Josh Herrin had
never won three consecutive Superbike
races. On Sunday, he achieved four in
a row with a commanding victory. If
Warhorse HSBK Racing Ducati's Herrin
was impressive on Saturday, he was
even better on Sunday. The win marked
Herrin's 20th career AMA Superbike vic
-
tory, a win that ties him for eighth place
with two-time World Superbike and
three-time AMA Superbike Champion
Fred Merkel.
Superbike
Herrin's victory in race one was
hard-fought. It started as a three-way
contest involving Herrin, Beaubier and
Jake Gagne from Attack Performance
Progressive Yamaha Racing but
ultimately became a duel between the
top two in the championship—Herrin
and Beaubier.
Herrin led most of the race and
pulled ahead of Beaubier by a second
and a half mid-race.
However, Beaubier fought back to
take the lead on the 12th of 16 laps. The
five-time MotoAmerica Superbike Cham
-
pion maintained the lead for three laps
before Herrin overtook him again, claim-
ing the lead on the 15th lap and narrowly
defeating the persistent Beaubier.
"In the middle of the race, I saw a
plus 1.1, and I think I let it get to my
head a little bit," Herrin said. "I honestly
thought about it a little bit too much.
I didn't know if he [Beaubier] made a
little mistake and I got that gap, or if I
earned it. I kind of let off that little bit,
and you're not supposed to do that.
Just keep looking forward."
"I felt like I was there in the middle
of the race," Beaubier said. "He started
pulling on me a little bit. I went into
this race, and I was like, 'I need to get
VOLUME ISSUE JULY , P95
BY THE CN STAFF | PHOTOGRAPHY BY BRIAN J. NELSON
