Cycle News

INTERVIEW JOSH HERRIN P86 with a group from the beginning – makes it a bit easier. It's still really hard but – pretty much any rider, because they've all been there before, so at least you can jump to a kind of quick time. This one's [Mugello] been a little – I wouldn't say easier, but not as tricky to learn. I remember it a bit quicker. Usually it takes five or ten laps to remember each corner. This one right away I remembered it. It may sound silly, but I think it's because of all the time I spent playing the video game before we came here. It is very difficult. I think if we were racing at tracks I'd been racing on my whole life I'd be right up there. It's pretty hard to come to a new track and expect to do well. Q: In terms of technique, have you had to up your game? A: I wouldn't say improve, but just adapt. Because of the Su- perbike 1000 for two years I still feel I'm carrying over some bad habits from that bike. I'm still try- ing to point and shoot it, and cor- ner speed is kinda down. I blame the 1000 for that. I used to be re- ally smooth, and now I am more aggressive. Q: Do you have a dirt-track background? A: Not like the Haydens or the Roberts family but I rode some big tracks before, and we've al- ways had a flat track in our back- yard. But I've been road-racing since I was six years old, so it's always been streetbikes, and flat- trackers just for fun and try and improve my skills a little. I don't do it as much as I used to… I separated my shoulder two years ago, so it's been kinda put on the back burner. You always have that fear, because it isn't what I get paid to do. Q: You did get hurt after Austin. A: That was on a Supermoto bike. That I would never stop do- ing. I do that every day when I'm home. That was just a stupid ac- cident. Somebody fell in front of me and I had nowhere to go. I was going 10 mph, and because it was so slow the leathers just grabbed. There was no sliding. At my house – we have a half- mile road-race track. We used to have an oval track, but we re- placed it with a dirt-track section for the Supermoto. We do that, and go-karts. We have 14 acres, in Georgia. I grew up in California and my dad was spending a lot of money going road racing there. He has his own company, builds houses and stuff. The pace and lifestyle there was too quick and he wasn't getting home until late at night, so he moved out there and got some property, and built the track. Q: Do you go back between GP races? A: I have been. The plan was to do two or three rounds then go back for a week. But we have a lot of friends racing over here so there's always a place to stay if I need to. We were planning to go home after this, but I'm going to

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