MOTOAMERICA SUPERSPORT CHAMPION GARRETT GERLOFF
P176
INTERVIEW
"In the middle of 2016 I real-
ized I was actually in a position
to win a professional champion-
ship," he says. "I hadn't even
been close to that position in
years past. The stress of it af-
fected my riding, but after I got
the championship, it was like this
huge weight had been lifted off
my shoulders. Winning the title
had been something I'd wanted
for so long—it was something that
haunted me."
Gerloff had a point to prove
in 2017. The polite, well-spoken
22-year-old from Spring, Texas
had a brand-new motorcycle in
the 2017 Yamaha YZF-R6 and
harbored a burning desire to
crack into the European racing
scene. But without the Mo-
toAmerica Superbike ride many
believed he deserved, his only
means of showing his new-found
confidence came via another
year in Supersport against a
depleted field but with three
staunchly fierce opponents in
teammate and former champion
JD Beach, Frenchman Valentin
Debise and Californian Benny
Solis.
In reality, the championship
distilled to another year of the
Monster Energy Graves team-
mates trading wins at the front
of the field. Debise's charge
ran out of steam by the midway
point of the championship after
he clinched his final win of 2017
at round five in Utah—ironically
when Beach collided with Gerloff
while fighting for first place—while
true privateer Solis was ultimately
never able to crack a win in 2017.
By the conclusion of that Utah
round, Gerloff's march to a sec-
ond consecutive title was far from
assured. Beach was one point
clear at 172, and the next round
was at one of Gerloff's bogey
tracks—Mazda Raceway Laguna
Seca.
But for Gerloff, there was
something different at Laguna
this year—namely the round black
things covering the wheels—as
"THE BEGINNING
OF THE YEAR
I WANTED TO
DEFEND MY
CHAMPIONSHIP—
I KNEW I WANTED
TO RIDE THE
SUPERBIKE—BUT
I DIDN'T REALLY
HAVE A COMPLETE
DIRECTION."
Gerloff and team-
mate JD Beach once
again proved to be
the class of the field,
but it was the Texan
who would trump the
Kentuckian.
