Photography by Larry Lawrence
BRASELTON, GA. (April 18, 2015) – Josh Herrin returned to winning Saturday in a big way in the MotoAmerica Supersport Race 1 at Road Atlanta. Herrin raced his Wheels in Motion/Motosport.com/Meen Yamaha R6 to a narrow .428-second victory over Yamalube/YES/Graves Yamaha’s Garrett Gerloff. COTA winner JD Beach took third and that was good enough for him to take over the series lead by a single point over Gerloff. It also gave Yamaha a sweep of the podium finishers.
Gerloff led early, but Herrin took over on the third lap as the trio of Herrin, Gerloff and Beach made an early breakaway.
Something happened to his MVAgusta and Hayden Gillim pulled out after just a few laps.
Gerloff and Herrin battled back and forth for the lead in the middle stages. With Beach not far back in third. Dave Anthony was in fourth, holding off Tomas Puerta just inside the top five. Then a massive gap back to sixth-place Kyle Wyman.
In the closing laps it was clear that one of the leading trio would take the win, but you got the feeling every lap was simply a rehearsal for the white-flag lap.
As it turned out Herrin had a little extra in his pocket and pulled out a flawless lap to actually open a gap on Gerloff at the checkered flag.
“Coming from last year it was hard to find the motivation,” Herrin said of his ill-fated run in Moto2. “My mechanic gave me a book to read and that’s helped turn things around. I think MotoAmerica is doing a great job and hopefully we can get this thing back to where it needs to be.”
Road Atlanta Supersport Results, April 18, 2015
1. Josh Herrin, Yam.
2. Garrett Gerloff, Yam.
3. JD Beach, Yam.
4. David Anthony, Suz.
5. Tomas Puerta, Yam.
6. Cameron Petersen, Yam.
7. Tucker Lancaster, Kaw.
8. Ben Young, Yam.
9. Kaleb De Keyrel, Yam.
10. Corey Alexander, Yam.
Points
1. Beach, 41
2. Gerloff, 40
3. Herrin, 34
4. Anthony, 29
5. Young, 21
