CHAMPIONSHIP
VOL. 52 ISSUE 26 JUNE 30, 2015 P111
race," Beach said after race
one. "Of course I've had a
couple moments, but we need
to push them as hard as we
can. There's always a chance
that something might happen.
Today I was lucky my feet stayed
on, but tomorrow I could do the
same lap times. I might be mak-
ing more mistakes. I think it's just
a race-by-race case.
THE BEST OF THE REST
In race one, Beach's teammate
Garrett Gerloff had a crack at
him, but was unable to stay with
him and settled for second.
"I was behind JD and did my
fastest lap in the beginning,
faster than qualifying behind
JD," Gerloff said. "I felt good. I
felt like I could be there for the
whole race, but I just started
making silly mistakes and JD
wasn't making any, so he just
started to pull on me a little bit
and I was getting more and more
frustrated in my head; made
some more mistakes. I thought
I had the pace to be battling
for the win. I know I do. Just
got some things to work on for
tomorrow."
Herrin came out on top in the
battle for third after Latus Motors
Racing Triumph's Bobby Fong's
engine blew.
"I had just pulled out of the
slip stream right whenever his
motor cut out," Herrin said "And
I thought for a second that he
had maybe hit his kill switch or
something. That's what it sound-
ed like. If it would have been like
a second earlier I think I would
have plowed into the back of
him, so I was kind of grateful that
he did it a little bit later. He was
on the side of me."
Although the podium posi-
tion was important for the title
chase, Herrin was disappointed
in himself for making a costly
error—forgetting to do a practice
start on the warm-up so that his
crew chief can adjust his clutch
lever before the start. Either way,
he wasn't sure he had the pace
for Beach anyways.
"Yeah. I don't know if I would
have had the patience to keep
up with JD the whole race but
that race is my fault," Herrin
said. "And then I had to mess
with it the whole first two laps,
Herrin said. I got around every-
body except for Garrett and JD
by the third or fourth turn but
they had such a big gap at the
beginning right there. I haven't
had the pace that they've had
all weekend so I wasn't able to
catch them. So it was just kind
of a shame. That one was defi-
nitely my fault. I know the guys
are going to be disappointed for
sure because he told me about
five times to make sure I do the
practice start. I've just been so
stressed out because I wasn't
up to pace this weekend and I
totally forgot."
Herrin managed to find his
pace after Fong's motor blew,
renewing the former AMA Super-
bike Champion's confidence to
fight back in race two.
"I just all of a sudden found
a lot of time, like a second," he
said. "I was just consistently
knocking out low 54s and catch-
ing Garrett. I think if we would
have a couple more laps, which
is everybody's story in that situ-
ation, but if we would have had
a couple more laps we might
have been able to catch up to
them. But we got some valuable
points. We're a little ways back
now so we've got some work to
Beach's teammate
Garrett Gerloff
(foreground) tried
to keep pace
with Beach, but
ultimately dropped
back and settled
for second.
