CHAMPIONSHIP
VOL. 52 ISSUE 26 JUNE 30, 2015 P113
do. A lot more hungry than I was for
tomorrow than I was for today. I'm
excited for tomorrow's race."
WHEEL OF MISFORTUNE
It was all going well for Fong in race
one, until disaster struck—his engine
gave way in the heat of the battle
with Herrin for that last podium spot.
"Basically we swap the motor
every three rounds and this was
my third round so it was due for a
mechanical failure," Fong said. "It's
the first one of the season and we
don't have many of them. But it just
let go on the front straightaway when
I shifted into sixth and I just heard
this big noise. Just pulled the clutch
in and pulled off."
Fong's unhappiness was palpa-
ble. The Californian abandoned his
machine off the side of the track in a
less than caring manner.
"Unfortunately, it was an impact
zone, but it won't happen again," he
assured sheepishly.
Fong's luck turned around in race
two and he beat Gerloff to take sec-
ond, his best finish this year.
"I'll take second place," Fong
said. "We just didn't have the pace
for JD today. He's been riding great
all weekend. We did the best we
could and my bike was feeling really
good. I felt like I had the pace at the
end of the race. Just kind of saving
energy, conserving tires. But I'll take
second and move into Laguna and
hopefully get the W."
Whatever cloud that was over
Fong moved to Herrin in race two.
"I was going down the straight-
away and lost power," he said.
"Something sounded weird and it
was going super, super slow. I knew
it was the last lap so I was just trying
to get around and get any points
that I could and it just shut off right
before turn seven. I tried turning
it back off, turning it back on, but
there was never anything from the
starter. It was just silent and wouldn't
turn back on."
In Herrin's case, the misfortune
had heavier consequences—it
moves him all but out of reach of
Beach for the championship.
"It seems like no matter what we
do, tried for so many years to get
this 600 title and there's always so
much bad luck on this bike," he
said. "There's obviously some good
times on it but we always seem to at
the end of the year get something
Escalante's crew to patch the bike up
enough for him to limp the bike home
in fourth and salvage some valuable
points.
The privateer Yamaha rider had a
much healthier bike than race one
and gave Roberts a run for his money
early on in the race but was unable to
hold him off and ultimately settled for
second. Prince repeated his third-
place finish to join the pair on the
podium.
Joe Roberts
(27) led the
way in the
Superstock
600 class.
