MotoAmerica: Josh Herrin Makes It Four Wins In A Row With A Dominating Performance In The Pacific Northwest.
Prior to Saturday’s Superbike race one at Ridge Motorsports Park, Josh Herrin had never won three Superbike races in a row. On Sunday, he made it four straight, with a dominating victory in the Pacific Northwest.
If Warhorse HSBK Racing Ducati’s Herrin was good on Saturday, he was even better on Sunday as he rode away from his challengers, never put a wheel wrong, and cruised home with five seconds in hand. The win was Herrin’s 20th career AMA Superbike victory, a win that puts the defending class champion in a tie for eighth with two-time World Superbike and three-time AMA Superbike Champion Fred Merkel.
For the second straight day, second place went to Tytlers Cycle Racing’s Cameron Beaubier with the five-time MotoAmerica Superbike Champion pleased with what he felt was the result he could get with the package he was dealing with. Although Beaubier’s two second-place finishes cost him the lead in the championship, he goes to his home track of WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca in two weeks with high hopes.
Attack Performance Progressive Yamaha Racing’s Jake Gagne was third for the second straight day, making for identical podiums on both days in the Superbike class. Gagne is getting closer to being the Gagne of old and he turned in another solid ride on Sunday, finishing 2.8 seconds behind Beaubier. 
Richie Escalante was fourth, one spot better than his Saturday result as the Vision Wheel M4 ECSTAR Suzuki rider showed good speed all weekend and ended up slightly less than 10 seconds behind race-winning Herrin.
Real Steel Honda’s Hayden Gillim was fifth for his best finish of the season thus far as his Honda CBR1000RR-R SP continues to improve.
Gillim was well clear of BPR Racing’s Bryce Kornbau with sixth also a high-water mark for the Californian and his Yamaha YZF-R1. Real Steel Honda’s JD Beach was seventh, which earned him the win in the Superbike Cup for those racing Stock 1000-spec motorcycles in the Superbike class.
Gagne’s teammate Bobby Fong struggled with mechanical ills on his Yamaha YZF-R1, and he barely topped Thrashed Motorcycles’ Max Flinders and BPR Racing’s Deion Campbell at the finish line with half a second covering the threesome that rounded out the top 10.
The top-five finishers were mounted on five different brands of motorcycles: Ducati, BMW, Yamaha, Suzuki and Honda.
Notable non-finishers were Jones Honda’s Ashton Yates, with the Georgian crashing for the second straight day, and FLO4LAW/SBU Racing’s Benjamin Smith failing to score a point over the course of the weekend as he also crashed out on Sunday.
After four rounds and eight races, Herrin leads Beaubier by eight points, 159-151. Gagne is third with 125 points, eight more than his teammate Fong. Escalante sits fifth with 81 points.
Superbike Race Two
- Josh Herrin (Ducati)
- Cameron Beaubier (BMW)
- Jake Gagne (Yamaha)
- Richie Escalante (Suzuki)
- Hayden Gillim (Honda)
- Bryce Kornbau (Yamaha)
- JD Beach (Honda)
- Bobby Fong (Yamaha)
- Max Flinders (Yamaha)
- Deion Campbell (Yamaha)
Quotes
Jake Gagne – Third Place
“It was good progress for me, just like my riding. Obviously, Bobby (Fong) has been showing that the bike is capable of running up there. He’s been smoking me. I feel like I kind of am getting closer to trying to remember how to ride after farting around all last year. Honestly, I’m happy with how I rode because I feel like I haven’t ridden that hard in a while. I had a lot of moments out there, especially today. Hats off to Josh (Herrin). He was railing. Cam (Beaubier) too. I kind of just tried to keep them in sight. At least Cam for a little while. I had a few moments out there. Hats off to the team because they’ve stuck behind me after last year and even these first couple rounds where we haven’t been so fast. But we’re trying to be smart about it. Like I said, I’m happy with how I rode. I got to ride hard. It’s going to be tough to beat these boys, but I’m ready for it and excited to go to Laguna and have a little bit of momentum.”
Cameron Beaubier – Second Place
“Coming in, I knew this was going to be one of the tougher tracks we are going to come to this year. All said and done, two second places… I’m stoked with. Especially being able to even fight for the win yesterday. Honestly, after yesterday I was hoping for a little more out of myself today. But I can say I rode as hard as I could. I didn’t have anything for Josh (Herrin). I was taking a lot of risks on the front, just trying to stay with him. There came a point he was probably seven-tenths up the road, and I just stopped lunging forward on the brakes. I was like, ‘I need to bring this thing home.’ He was on another level today. It was a tough race, though. I had Jake (Gagne) only one second, 1.5 behind me pretty much the whole race. So had to keep my head down. Big thanks to the team, Tytlers, for just putting in so much work this weekend. They flipped my bike upside-down. Especially this year, we haven’t really changed too much on the thing. It’s been working really good since we rolled it off the truck at all three of the first races. We made some big changes, and we learned a lot this weekend. So, thanks to those guys for working so hard. Laguna up next, one of my favorite places to go race. I’m looking forward to it.”
Josh Herrin – Winner
“It was weird yesterday. I don’t know what was going on after that win. I just was feeling down in the dumps. The only thing I can think of is I wasn’t feeling great, but then today it was like the same point in the race. I saw the exact same number, plus 1.2. As soon as I saw that yesterday, I just lost focus and slowed down too much. I thought I had a good cushion, and I just over-slowed and Cam (Beaubier) caught up. It was weird. I was obviously happy for the win, but not anything like today. Today I felt like I rode good. The team did a lot of work last night to try and think of anything we could get to just help me feel more comfortable on the brakes because Cam obviously was catching me a lot on the brakes. I’m stoked. Four wins in a row is huge. I’m going into Laguna with more momentum than I’ve ever had on a Superbike and more confidence than I’ve ever had. To have it be Laguna is just special. TJ Dillashaw was in our pit today so I couldn’t back down like I did yesterday. I had to fight to the end and not show him that I was weak like I was yesterday. So, I’m stoked. Happy to go to Laguna and happy to get home and see my kiddos. That’s for sure.”
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