Reigning AMA National roadracing Champion Josh Herrin continues his re-write of Daytona’s Record Book, earning his third straight and fourth career win in the historic 200-mile event at Daytona International Speedway on Saturday, March 8. Aboard the Celtic/Economy Lube/WarhorseBrew Watches/Binky/Watson Services works-supported Ducati, pre-race favorite Herrin was comfortably in control for most of the event.
A pace setter throughout the three-day event and second quickest Qualifier in yesterday’s Time Attack session, Herrin turned his focus from his regular Panigale v4 Superbike to once again contest the middleweight division on the 955 twin Desmo in the non-Championship Daytona race. His result moves the 34-year-old up to a total of four successes in the 200, one win shy of the top two in the rankings: Scott Russell and Canadian hero Miguel Duhamel.
Herrin diced for the lead in the early going and was solidly ahead when rain forced a race stoppage with almost one hour completed in the lengthy event, shortly after the first series of Pit Stops for tires and fuel at around lap 18.
A crash at the restart an hour later forced another Red Flag, and once again Herrin joined the drafting group disputing the lead, before pulling clear after the one remaining Pit Stop. His major opposition was the same as in 2024, with the Mission-backed GSX-R750 of Richie Escalante second and his team-mate with Vision Wheels/M4/Ecstar Suzuki third, these two dicing for second spot late in the 57 lap Feature race.
In the post race Media Conference, Herrin was asked to explain why he was confident enough to turn a lap at 1:47.879 (a new race lap record for the middleweight Supersport category around the banked 3-5 mile long road course) with just seven laps left to go in the twice restarted race:
“For sure not,” he answered – “I was pushin’ my own wind (by himself), and the way the Chicane is now, it slowed us down a few tenths.”
“I’m honestly speechless – getting mentioned in the same sentence as Russell and Duhamel is something special. If I could be cemented in history with those guys, that would be great.”
“And the gap, from my first to last win, 14 years – that is amazing too. Our Team is so strong, Ducati really didn’t want us to do this race, a bunch of people didn’t want us doing it, but we just pushed through, and our bike has been just so strong for the past four years.”
“This is one of the last races my wife Rachel will ever get to, since she has twins in her belly, and she is ready to pop! So again, something special there too.”
“The pit stop really scared me,” explained Herrin of his only pause in the second “leg” of the rain-interrupted 57 lapper.
“The front wheel stand got stuck and cost us maybe a second and a half. But we were there. And I pride myself with in handling these things. I was worried Tyler was maybe going for a heater and would try to break away if he knew we had a problem. It was a weird last stint; when I saw they caught me, I decided to wait and see what they could do.”
This late race interlude saw Herrin ease off his searing pace, then pick it back up and keep the battling Suzukis a few seconds behind.
Early in the race, Trevor Daley on the OneSpeed Suzuki was well in the top twenty, clear of fellow Canadian Dylan Bauer’s Goatshop Yamaha in terms of time but close together in the rankings, with the third entered Canadian, Alex Michel, also near these two on his Speed Factory Kawasaki.
At the restart, Daley was solidly in the top 16, and Michel and Bauer diced for a lengthy period not too far behind with Bauer eventually getting the edge through the infield against the very fast Ninja.
In the results, Daley netted a solid 14th, an improvement on his 20th placing in his 200-mile debut last season. Daytona rookie Bauer grabbed 16th, while Michel was not far behind in 20th. Last year rookie Pro Michel netted 28th in his Daytona debut.
In the SC Project Twins Cup race two earlier in the program, Mavrick Cyr again showed well on his Aprilia, moving into the top ten from the start even though he was nursing significant injuries to his hand and leg from a testing crash earlier this week in Savannah, GA. Part of the second slip streaming group in the early going of the 9 lapper, Cyr faded to tenth at the finish, and aims to continue in the MotoAmerica Twins Series when his injuries heal.
For more information, please visit the MotoAmerica web site.
