English
Italiano
Warhorse HSBK Racing Ducati NYC’s Josh Herrin made up for a dismal Saturday at Circuit of The Americas with a straight-fight win over three-time Medallia Superbike Champion Jake Gagne in Sunday’s finale in the MotoAmerica Superbikes at Texas.
A day after his Ducati Panigale V4 R failed him in race one, the bike was perfect on Sunday and so was Herrin. After all, you don’t beat Gagne and his Fresh N Lean Progressive Yamaha Racing YZF-R1 unless you’re at the top of your game.
Herrin led off the start and stayed out front for all 10 laps of the red-flag-interrupted race with Gagne on his tail the entire time. At the finish it was Herrin four seconds ahead with Gagne giving up the chase on the final lap. The pair were the only riders to lap in the 2:09s with Gagne getting the fastest lap of the race with his 2:09.746 to Herrin’s 2:09.776.
Third place went to Tytlers Cycle Racing’s PJ Jacobsen with the New Yorker some five seconds behind Gagne.
Wrench Motorcycles’ Bobby Fong was a come-from-behind fourth and closing on Jacobsen, ending up some six seconds adrift of the BMW.
Vision Wheel M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Brandon Paasch ended up fifth, five seconds ahead of Aftercare Scheibe Racing’s Ashton Yates, who had Tytlers Cycle Racing’s Stefano Mesa nipping at his heels and just .341 of a second behind at the finish line.
Mesa’s teammate Corey Alexander was in the fight for seventh when he made a great save of what looked like a certain crash on his BMW M 1000 RR. Alexander was well clear of Team Brazil’s Danilo Lewis with Thrashed Bike Racing’s Max Flinders rounding out the top 10.
Among the non-point scoring riders were two of the three podium finishers from yesterday – Fresh N Lean Progressive Yamaha’s JD Beach and Vision Wheel M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Richie Escalante with both riders crashing. For Beach it was his second crash of the day as he also crashed in the first portion of the race, prior to the red flag. Escalante, meanwhile, crashed out of third place while right behind Gagne.
Westby Racing’s Mathew Scholtz was in the wrong place at the wrong time and was collected by the sliding Beach. None of the riders suffered injury.
There were three different manufacturers on the podium and four different makes in the top five: Ducati, Yamaha, BMW and Suzuki.
With just the two races from New Jersey Motorsports Park remaining on the schedule, Gagne and his insurmountable 382 points have wrapped up the championship with Herrin solidifying his hold on second place. Herrin is 28 points ahead of Jacobsen, 261-233.
Photo courtesy MotoAmerica by Brian J. Nelson
Superbike Race 2
