Cycle News

SUPERBIKE SHOOTOUT SUPERBIKE SHOOTOUT SERIES ROUND 2/MAY 4, 2014 SONOMA RACEWAY/SONOMA, CALIFORNIA P80 I WANNA BE LIKE MARC Every sport has that guy who ev- eryone wants to be like. And right now even though Marc Marquez isn't a veteran – he's just in his sophomore year in MotoGP – he's at the top of his game. So around the world road racers want to be like Marc. Y.E.S. Monster Energy Graves Yamaha's Gerloff left Auto Club Speedway last weekend still chasing that first Sportbike win. But when he went to a track that he'd never been on before, straight out of the gate he was fast. Setting pole not far off the record Tommy Aquino set in 2010 with only an hour's total time on the track (a half hour practice session and half hour of qualify- ing). The 18-year old Texan was a quick study. And he was hav- ing fun - dragging elbows, going fast - Marc Marquez style. Okay, yeah MotoGP is a whole different level, but Gerloff was definitely channeling a bit of Marquez - that 100 percent effort, riding fast and loose and still getting the job done. Gerloff's only challenger was Latus Motors Racing's Bobby Fong, the rider who dominated the Pro Sportbike field at last weekend's round at Auto Club Speedway. And it was a battle that gave the fans their money's worth. "Basically it was like a cat-and- mouse game," Fong said. "I was trying to play it smart. Maybe go a little slower than normal be- cause I knew we had a big gap from third. Basically I was try- ing some strategy at the end. Obviously, I couldn't even hold the pace in the end. But I was definitely going a little bit slow- er when I was in front of Garrett because I knew he was trying to watch me and see what I had on the last lap. It's all a thinking game out there. It's not all just balls. "The bike was defi- nitely a little loose at the end. Garrett was flying out there. He was putting down some good consistent laps. A few mistakes from him, but I couldn't capitalize on his mis- takes. I just did everything I could to not throw it down the road." "What was I doing out there," a very excited Gerloff admitted on the podium. "I was just mak- ing so many mistakes left and right. Almost highsided myself a few times and ran through the dirt twice." But Gerloff wanted that win and he was stalking Fong. And he saved his best for last. "I could tell it looked like his tires were going off a little bit more than mine had," Gerloff said. "I felt like I had something for those last couple of laps and I was trying to make a move, but he was pretty hard to get around. Then I finally made a move. That last lap I just put my head down and did my cleanest lap of the race and didn't make any mis- takes. Definitely been a long time coming. Finally got back up on the top step of the podium. I'm just so excited. It definitely wasn't easy; Bobby was riding awesome the whole race. I wasn't really sure how it was going to go and it was definitely a lot closer than I Bobby Fong (50) kept Gerloff (8) honest for most of the race, the two putting on a good show for the fans.

• Cover