Rispoli Over Gerloff in Shortened SuperSport Race

Henny Ray Abrams | September 4, 2011

MILLVILLE, NJ, Sept 4 –

Newly crowned SuperSport champion James Rispoli (ANT-Racing.com/STAR School Suzuki) won the red flag-shortened SuperSport East race in a thrilling battle with Saturday’s SuperSport winner Garrett Gerloff (Graves Motorsports/Monster Energy Yamaha) on a sunny, warm afternoon at New Jersey Motorsports Park.Gerloff had been impressive in winning Saturday’s race in his professional debut, turning laps that would have put him at the front of the Daytona SportBike class. He and the rest of the up-and-comers were at it again on Sunday, though in a much different order and with Hayden Gillim (Yamaha), who’d stalled on the line on Saturday, in the thick of it. Rispoli got the holeshot while Gerloff gated badly, finishing the first lap in sixth place. His progress to the front was steady and on the seventh of 19 scheduled laps passed Gillim for second.

Along the way he lapped in 1:24.063 mins., which was half a second under Tommy Aquino’s DSB pole time of 1:24.526 mins. And he’d lower it two laps later to 1:24.059 mins.Early on the seventh lap Gerloff took the lead, but had a big moment in turns 11 & 12 and fell back to second. He continued to press Rispoli, but was second when the race was stopped on the 15th lap. Scoring reverted a lap with Rispoli winning by .083 sec. with Gillim third at .384 sec.Dustin Dominguez (Latus Motors Racing Triumph) was a distant fourth with Corey Alexander (Vesrah Suzuki) a close fifth.Then came Markbilt Racebikes’ teammates Eric Stump (Yamaha) and Miles Thornton (Yamaha).SuperSport Results: 1. James Rispoli (Suzuki)

2. Garrett Gerloff (Yamaha)

3. Hayden Gillim (Yamaha)

4. Dustin Dominguez (Triumph)

5. Corey Alexander (Suzuki)

6. Eric Stump (Yamaha)

7. Miles Thornton (Yamaha)

8. Stefano Mesa (Suzuki)

9. Benny Solis (Honda)

10. Elena Myers (Suzuki)