Herrin Keeps Mid-Ohio Pole

Henny Ray Abrams | July 17, 2010

LEXINGTON, OHIO, JULY 17 – Team Graves Yamaha’s Josh Herrin will start the weekend’s two Daytona SportBike races from the pole position on the strength of his Friday qualifying lap.Herrin laid down a marker of 1:28.732 mins. on a warm Friday afternoon at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. That was the target the 29-rider field was aiming for and none could reach it, including Herrin. The Yamaha rider’s Saturday best was a 1:29.416, but he was ready to up his pace if his pole time was in jeopardy.”Today we just had a couple little things that we wanted to work on and tried a different set of tires, see how they’d work on the track, because we hadn’t used them all weekend,” Herrin said. “I told them if anybody got down into the 28’s I’d go out and push pretty hard, but nobody ever got down to that. So we just kinda cruised around, got our set-up ready, found the tires we wanted to use and look forward to going into the race.”I figured like the first lap that I went out I was breaking in new brake pads. And I came in after the second lap and told ‘em the track wasn’t really as good as it was yesterday and just told them all that. It got better towards the end, but it still wasn’t to the point that it was yesterday, I thought, so I figured I was pretty comfortable there.”Geico Powersports/RMR Suzuki’s Danny Eslick came closest to Herrin’s time. The Oklahoman, who’d taken his first pole here last year, lapped the 2.4-mile road course in 1:29.064 mins. He’d gone to third with about ten minutes to go in the session and on the next lap turned his fast time.Latus Motors Racing’s Steve Rapp (Duc) finished third today after sitting on top during the middle of the 40-minute session. Rapp’s fast lap of 1:29.255 mins. came on Friday. His Saturday best was slightly slower, a 1:29.300M4 Monster Energy Suzuki’s Martin Cardenas was second today and fourth overall. His fastest lap was only .005 secs. off Rapp’s.Vesrah Racing’s Chris Fillmore was fifth today (1:29.524) and fifth overall. The lap was slightly faster than the 1:29.658 run by Team Graves Yamaha’s Tommy Aquino on Friday. Aquino finished sixth fastest.Project 1 Atlanta’s Clinton Seller qualified seventh fastest at 1:30.116 mins., with Bobby Fong’s Saturday best of 1:30.222 filling out row two.

Results:

1. Josh Herrin (Yamaha) 1:28.732

2. Danny Eslick (Suzuki) 1:29.065

3. Steve Rapp (Ducati) 1:29.256

4. Martin Cardenas (Suzuki) 1:29.260

5. Chris Fillmore (Suzuki) 1:29.524

6. Tommy Aquino (Yamaha) 1:29.658

7. Clinton Seller (Yamaha) 1:30.116

8. Bobby Fong (Ducati) 1:30.222

9. Dane Westby (Yamaha) 1:30.249

10. P.J. Jacobsen (Suzuki) 1:30.257