Josh Herrin sweeps Road America, Cameron Beaubier crashes in Race 2
Herrin led wire-to-wire in Saturday's race on his Ducati despite pressure from Bobby Fong and Cameron Beaubier, but Sunday had a different plotline. Under pressure from Beaubier, Herrin rode off course in the chicane after leading Lap 1 and handed the top spot to the current points leader, but Herrin recovered quickly and was back up front on Lap 4, where he remained until the checkers.
'The guys gave me a perfect bike this weekend,' Herrin said in a news release. 'Like Bobby said, the track didn't have the grip that it had yesterday, but it seems like when the grip is down, our bikes, the V2 and the V4, always seems to be better for us. I ran off in the chicane, and I just knew I had to put in a solid two laps to catch back up to Cam, or my race is over. I was able to do that 9.4, which I was shocked by. I don't know what my best time was this weekend, but I don't think it was anywhere close to that.'
Dan Beaver,
The decisive moment of the race occurred on Lap 8, when Beaubier laid his bike down in the carousel and retired with the crash damage.
The accident effectively erased Beaubier's points lead, which was 23 points ahead of Jake Gagne after two rounds. Third-place Herrin was in even more dire straits at 36 points behind entering Road America, but he left in second with only a two-point gap.
'Like we talked about yesterday, just getting through those first two rounds is important for us,' Herrin said. 'I think for me mentally, I got to get through them. It's like A1 for Supercross. I've just got to do it. Luckily, we had two really good races this weekend. We don't want to catch Cam because of crashes, but that's part of the game. Making mistakes is part of it. You've got to try to minimize them.'
For the second consecutive race, Herrin beat Fong to the line, this time by 8.6 seconds.
'I was kind of doing the same thing as yesterday,' Fong said. 'We always try 100 percent, but I felt like the track was a little greasy today. Either that or I just couldn't carry the momentum like I did yesterday. I was actually dumbfounded at the end of the race. I was going pretty slow with the times. ...
'I was a little more disappointed with myself that I couldn't do the same pace. I lost the draft after the first lap and was just kind of a sitting duck. The crew has been working hard. It's cool to get two second-place points. I was a little far down in the points leading up to this round. It's good to move up in the points and to keep the Yamaha on the podium is good.'
Richie Escalante improved on his fourth-place finish on Saturday to take the final podium spot despite his Suzuki losing power on the final lap.
'For some reason, this year I haven't had the best feeling with the bike, so I take time every day to feel a little bit better,' Escalante said. 'I think today I was maybe a little bit lucky, to be honest, but it's part of racing. I'm super happy to finish on the podium. In the last lap, I think I had no fuel. So almost did not finished the race. Super happy. I tried to stay close with Bob, but I made a mistake in the chicane. After that, I just maintained my pace.'
Fourth-place Benjamin Smith and JD Beach rounded out the top five. This was a career-best finish for Smith.
A pair of riders accustomed to riding up front saw their race hope evaporate early as Sean Dylan Kelly and Jake Gagne made contact early in the race. Both finished, but the incident relegated Gagne to eighth and Kelly to 14th, the last bike on the lead lap.
Gagne fell from second in the championship standings at the start of the race to fourth.
Bobby Fong's back-to-back second-place results elevated him to third in points.
Race 2 Results
Race 2 Lap Chart
Superbike Rider Points
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NBC Sports
12 hours ago
- NBC Sports
Josh Herrin crash hands fourth straight win for Bobby Fong in VIR Superbike Round 6, Race 2
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Fong's 25 points for winning the race allowed him to close to within five of the championship lead. Cameron Beaubier is 11 points further back in third, making this a three-race shootout with three rounds remaining. Josh Herrin inexplicably crashes out of the lead and hands it back to Bobby Fong during Supersport race two at VIR. But the weekend could just as easily have been a disaster for Fong, who developed electrical issues on the formation lap. 'When I got to the start/finish line, after the warmup lap, that whole warmup lap going to the start/finish line, my dash wasn't working,' Fong said. 'It was staying all red and it was black. So, I was like, 'I think I need to restart this thing.' This thing needed a battery to start. So, I did the switch on and off and it died. Then I started back up and the dash was still there. So, I had to recycle the whole program. It's very rare that it could actually start without the battery. 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If you look at Atlanta, I finished fourth, a few tenths from the podium. It took six race weekends, or I don't know how many we're at now, and a lot of close moments, a lot of good battles, a lot of good speed, but it just wasn't going. A lot of frustrating moments. Probably the most I've ever had in racing. I always managed to keep my head down and keep focused. Yesterday was extremely close, too. Finishing fourth again, a couple tenths off.' Kelly was focused forward, trying to match the Fong's pace, and was surprised by the pack that formed behind his Suzuki. 'With five laps to go, I didn't know the group was that big. I honestly thought it was Beaubier behind me. So, with five laps to go, I started hearing a bike much closer. So, I just started defending. Completely different lines everywhere. I heard a bike on my butt, bad. Then, when I go into the last corner, I go into turn 10, and I see this guy pass me. I'm like, what is Richie (Escalante) doing passing me? 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Superbike Race 2 Top-10 Bobby Fong (Yamaha) Sean Dylan Kelly (Suzuki) Richie Escalante (Suzuki) Cameron Beaubier (BMW) Jake Gagne (Yamaha) Hayden Gillim (Honda) Bryce Kornbau (Yamaha) JD Beach (Honda) Ashton Yates (Honda) Danilo Lewis (BMW) Complete Results Lap Chart Lap Analysis Fastest Segment Times Detailed Segment Times Championship Points
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