LEEDS, ALABAMA, SEPT 25 – Team Graves Yamaha’s Josh Herrin boosted his title hopes by taking the point for pole position in final qualifying for the Daytona SportBike double-header at Barber Motorsports Park.Herrin closed the points gap on Geico Powersports/RMR Suzuki’s Danny Eslick to 10 from 11 in the 40-minute morning session. Eslick was a factor until he crashed entering turn two, running into Herrin. Herrin survived, but Eslick was done for the session and out of luck if he wanted to add to his title lead.Going into this afternoon’s race, Herrin trails Eslick by 10 points, 356 to 346. M4 Monster Energy Suzuki’s Martin Cardenas, the third fastest qualifier, is two points behind Herrin.”Right as soon as I like I went to turn to the right, like I was trail braking a little bit and I tipped it in and it was just like, stood me up,” Herrin said. “I thought I was going down, but when I didn’t I was happy about that.”Herrin doesn’t see himself as a strong qualifier, so he was happy for the point. “So it’s a big motivator going into the race. It’s going to be good. But at least we have that one extra point just in case. If I didn’t get it, there’s a chance we could’ve tied and then, I think, Martin (Cardenas) would’ve got the win.”Herrin’s pole lap was 1:28.374 mins. Eslick was second at 1:28.546, with Cardenas only .020 sec. slower.”The bike is working really good. The set-up I think is good for the race,” Cardenas said. “No, the qualifying was good, was trying to get the pole because every point counts right now, but unfortunately, I couldn’t do it. Josh (Herrin) and Danny (Eslick) were a little bit faster than me, but I think we have a good bike to race and hope for a good race and no mistakes.”Project 1 Atlanta’s Clinton Sellers filled out the front row.”I’m just going to try to race my race,” he said. “Obviously, the three other guys got a lot more speed than I do so we’ve got to let them do their deed, but definitely going to be clean and neat and get the best position I can.”
Daytona SportBike Qualifying:
1. Josh Herrin (Yamaha) 1:28.374
2. Danny Eslick (Suzuki) 1:28.546
3. Martin Cardenas (Suzuki) 1:28.566
4. Clinton Seller (Yamaha) 1:28.617
5. Tommy Aquino (Yamaha) 1:28.696
6. P.J. Jacobsen (Suzuki) 1:29.114
7. Steve Rapp (Ducati) 1:29.167
8. Cory West (Suzuki) 1:29.334
9. Chris Fillmore (Suzuki) 1:29.394
10. Dane Westby (Yamaha)1:29.398
