Rennie Scaysbrook | December 16, 2016
Number one again for Josh Herrin. Next year, he’ll once again be gunning for the Superbike crown.
Photography by Brian J Nelson
Josh Herrin bounced back in 2016, sealing his second big bike title in four years in North America with the privateer Meen Motorsports team. We caught up with the 2016 MotoAmerica Superstock 1000 Champion at the recent Yamaha Wall of Champions unveil.
CN: You had some pretty epic battles this year with Claudio Corti and the fully-fledged Superbikes – how did you view the season?
JH: I thought it was great. I think we were struggling big time on the bike at the beginning of the year, especially in testing. But we found something in the bike and it just clicked. That’s why we were able to get that run of seven races in a row and ultimately lock up the championship pretty early.
Battling with Corti was pretty sick and Bobby (Fong) was up there too, and (Danny) Eslick was there towards the end of the season, which brought back good memories. We had a lot of good battles everywhere and it was nice having the superbikes as a motivation to push a little bit harder in the beginning. Really, the only thing that I used the Superbikes for was just to try and get a gap on the Superstock guys I was racing against at the beginning of the race, and it worked out really good for that. I think the Superstock platform is really good. The bikes are a lot of fun to race. There’s not too much electronics, which I think is really good. Most of the time we ended up turning everything off and if you watch the races you can tell we were sliding around.
“Battling with Corti was pretty sick and Bobby was up there too, and Eslick was there towards the end of the season, which brought back good memories” – Josh Herrin
Did you run with no traction control?
Pretty much. I turned the power down a little bit but I didn’t have any kind of TC program. Whatever the modes were that come stock with the bike, I just put it in C mode instead of A mode and race on that. The top speed is the same but it just took longer to get there. It ended up making the bike a lot smoother to ride. And just for us, not having the electronics like the Superbikes had, the bikes were a little bit more out of control so it wears you out. I could keep up for a few laps but I was pushing more than those guys and it just wore me out. Putting it in that lower power mode helped that too, just being able to finish the race strong and not be fighting the tire as much.
Moto2 in 2014 was a trying time for Josh Herrin. He wants to get back to Europe and make amends.
You’ve gone from AMA superbike champion here to Moto2, and then had to come back here. Then you’ve won another championship now. How have you seen your career go so far? You’ve certainly covered some miles.
I think it’s been good. My expectations were a lot higher whenever I went to Moto2, but that’s just the way it goes sometimes. That’s life. Plans change. I hope I can get an opportunity to go race in Europe again. If it doesn’t, I’m happy here, but I’d like to go and prove it was just a bad year. I think if we had the full two years in Moto2, like we were supposed to, and learn the tracks and the bikes and the travel, it would have been better. Plus I would have liked the Kalex chassis instead of the Suter.
The Suter was really hard to get the setup. Once you get the setup and you have your base setup, then it’s fine because you can keep it the same and just tweak it. I was so off that I couldn’t ever get the bike working right. The closest we got was Indy in the middle of the year and I was a half second off, or something like that.
So we got there, but then we always had bad luck in the races and never really got the confidence going. We were always racing just to finish the race, instead of pushing hard to try and get results. Then I just wound myself up.
Coming back here to the U.S. was what I needed. I needed to get my confidence back up. In 2015 I really did that. Then this year is a big boost of confidence. The plan is to race Superbike next year with the same team and we can try and become the first privateer team to get some race wins in superbike.
I see a goal of mine is the way that Wayne Rainey took his career. He won the Superbike championship here and went over to Europe, didn’t do good, came back, did well here again, and got another chance. Maybe that’ll happen, maybe it won’t. I’m not comparing myself to Wayne, but maybe that’s just how it goes. You need to go over there and learn, make some mistakes, and go back and try it again with a clearer head.
Herrin wants another Superbike title to prove 2013’s win wasn’t just luck, “I want to say I freaking earned it,” he says.
You just touched on stepping up to superbike again next year – looks like it’s back to the future for you.
Yeah, I’ve got to the “I’m back” on my leathers again. When I won the superbike championship in 2013, there’s no way that it was given to me, but it wasn’t earned the way I would have liked it to be earned. I’ve said that a few times before.
Why’s that?
Just because Josh Hayes made some mistakes and maybe he thought some of the mistakes that he made weren’t the right calls by AMA. I don’t want that in the back of my head when I’m 50 years old, looking back on my career. I want to say I freaking earned it and I took it from those guys. And to say we weren’t on a factory team, or even a well-funded privateer team in Meen, I think that would be really sick.
Have you had a ride on the Superbike yet?
No, not yet. We’re still ironing out all the details, contract-wise. I’ve ridden some track days on my bike from last year, so I’m keeping on the bike, but I haven’t ridden the Superbike yet. Hopefully if we end up going that way it’ll be probably the beginning to mid-January before we get on it.
The action from Laguna Seca was wild, with Corti (77), Eslick (69) and Herrin (2) trading paint and places constantly.
Do you know if any of the other guys in the superstock grid are going up to Superbike?
I hope that (Claudio) Corti and those guys are. I think one of their main things that they wanted to request was that MotoAmerica opened the rules up so they could run the swingarms and electronics, and they did that. I’m hoping with MotoAmerica doing that that they actually stay truthful and run the Superbike. I’ve heard that Honda is going to be back in superbike with Jake Gagne and the Road Race Factory, so that will be cool having them there. Jake was already in Superbike, but it’s just cool having another manufacturer in.
I think superstock is a small step. Now with the new forks and, swingarm and electronics in Superbike, I guess it’s a bigger step, but I don’t think they’re going to make that big of a difference, lap time-wise. I think the bikes that we were on in superstock were pretty competitive if you just add the electronics. You’re capable of doing well in superbike on that bike.
Watching you at the start of the year when you were hanging it out was good fun.
Yeah! Towards the end of the year I was like, “okay, I got to chill out.” Once we got to Barber I was like, “just try to stay in their wheel tracks. Don’t try to pass them!”. At the beginning of the year, I wanted to prove I should be there. So if I could lead the race on a superstock bike that was going to open some eyes. But I didn’t want to do any dumb moves. That was the main thing, but once we started getting midway through the season I decided to chill a little and show that I’m not immature anymore and I can just sit there if I needed to. If the opportunity presented itself then I’d take it, but I didn’t make any dumb moves.
VIR served as the season highlight for Herrin, as he slid his way to the front of the Superbike pack.
Aside from the championship, what was the highlight of the season?
Probably at VIR where I ran in front of the superbikes – that was really cool. The track was so greasy that day and me not having the TC on I think helped. The Superbike guys, whenever their rear tire would start spinning the TC would kind of hold them back. I was just going forward.
I was in control, but just watching the race it was like, holy shit, how’d I not eat it!? It looked crazy. That race, and Road Atlanta with Corti was pretty sick when we were back and forth and hitting each other.
The race that decided the championship at Laguna Seca was pretty crazy too. The other riders were making some hairball moves. My goal was just to finish on the podium. But once I got in that race mode I was like, “screw that, I got to race these guys.” I don’t want that same thing going through my head if I win and I didn’t fight for it. I want to fight for it the whole time. I think that was a pretty crazy race.
That was a pretty controversial weekend, that one.
Yeah, we ended up getting our bike torn down at the end of the weekend. I think just because they (Aprilia) were bitter about the whole championship, really. I didn’t get to celebrate on the podium or anything. When I won my first championship in Superbike, there was no TV coverage so I didn’t get on TV. Then, when I won this race I didn’t get one interview on TV. So it was like, man! It’s always for some stupid reason! Hopefully next year we have a good year and maybe get a TV interview!
