GRT Yamaha’s Garrett Gerloff matched his best-career World Superbike finish today at Donington Park, the Texan ending up second behind Pata Yamaha’s Topak Razgatlioglu in the 23-lap race two in England.
Gerloff, who started fifth on the grid after finishing fifth in the morning Superpole race, was in a solid third place when six-time World Champion Jonathan Rea crashed out of his battle for the lead with Razgatlioglu. That put Gerloff second and the stayed there, ending up 2.2 seconds behind Razgatlioglu and 2.2 seconds ahead of BMW Motorrad’s Tom Sykes.
Aruba.it Racing Ducati’s Scott Redding and BMW’s Mark Van Der Mark rounded out the top five finishers.
“It feels better than you can imagine,” Gerloff said in Parc Ferme. “Trust me it’s not been exactly the start to the year that I would have hoped for. It’s been tough for a lot of different reasons, but I’ve just got to thank my GRT team for all their support and for cheering on and their positivity. Without a great team working with you, it’s really hard to get anything done so big thanks to them, big thanks to my girlfriend and to my friends and family back home for all their support and love. It feels really good to be back up on the box finally, again. It feels like it’s been a long time.”
After his seventh- and second-place finishes at Donington, Gerloff is sixth in the World Championship, just one point behind Aruba.it Racing Ducati’s Michael Ruben Rinaldi.
Today’s podium was Gerloff’s fifth of his career in World Superbike and it matched his second place in last year’s round in Estoril.