With a lead of 46 points in the 2024 Steel Commander Superbike Championship, Warhorse HSBK Racing Ducati’s Josh Herrin has almost reached the summit. He is one step from planting his flag at the top of MotoAmerica’s Mount Everest as the best of the best.
What’s his plan for this weekend’s two Steel Commander Superbike races at New Jersey Motorsports Park, the final two Superbike races of the season? Is he feeling any extra pressure? Is his strategy to try to win both races, or will he be conservative and do what it takes to clinch the title without overdoing it? What will this second career AMA Superbike Championship mean to him?
We asked Herrin all those questions, plus a few more, and here’s what he had to say:
Q:
You’re going into the final round, there are just two races left in the season, and you have a 46-point lead. Is your mindset any different heading into this weekend? Are you doing anything different in your preparation for this final round?
Herrin:
We came out to Scranton, southern Pennsylvania, to do a track day yesterday at Pocono with the team. It’s kind of nice because I’m just trying to have fun instead of overthinking everything going into the race. So, it’s been kind of a nice way to start the week and not be flying on Wednesday and doing all that stuff. Griffin hasn’t really been to many races this year, which has been a bummer, but it’s been to just try to stay focused at the races, which I hate to admit, but I think it has been a little bit easier at the races. Obviously, I want him there, but it has made it to where I can just really focus on the race weekend. Because he’s at the age where he’s getting upset when I leave, so it makes it difficult sometimes. So, this weekend he’s coming because we have a lot less pressure. We just need to finish and get five points. It will be nice having Griffin at the race to just take my mind off things and let me have fun with him.
Q:
Are you going in there wanting to win both races?
Herrin:
No. For race one, my goal is to just do whatever I need to do to wrap up the title. So, be calm. I think what I’ll probably do is start the race like normal, and then whatever gap is going to happen during the race, whenever that happens, then just relax and finish the race out and just do whatever I need to do to wrap it up. If we’re able to wrap it up on Saturday, great. Then Sunday, I’m just going to do whatever I need to do to win the race because I want to end the year with a win.
Q:
Will your pitboard have any additional information on it this weekend, or do you just know what you need to do, and you don’t need to have it on a board?
Herrin:
I know what I need to do. If Cameron wins, I need to finish… I don’t know off the top of my head right now, but I think it’s 10th or 11th. I need five points, if Cameron wins. If he comes in second, I don’t even need to finish the race. So really, I just need to make sure I’m in the top ten, and I’m good. The rest will play out.
Q:
This isn’t really a situation where there could be team orders, but you have such a good relationship with your teammate Loris Baz. Have you guys talked about this at all? He could win these races.
Herrin:
Yeah. We have been throughout the year. For this weekend, if Loris wants to go out and win, that’s great. I hope he can go out and win. I’ve put myself in a situation where I don’t think it really matters, at least not for race one. Like I said, I need to finish top ten. If Loris is in front of me, that’s not going to affect me. It’s just, if I get towards guys that are in 10th, 11th. But there’s no need for team orders this weekend or anything like that. I think Loris is going to go do his own race, and if he’s around me, he’ll be a little bit more careful. It’s not like he’s going to go dive-bomb me during the race or anything.
Q:
For a lot of your career, you’ve been the only rider on the teams for which you’ve raced. But, you have had a few teammates in the past. Is Loris Baz the best teammate you’ve ever had?
Herrin:
I don’t like answering that question because it makes it seem like I didn’t like my other teammates. If I could choose a teammate out of anybody that I’ve had in my whole career, yeah, Loris would be the guy that I would choose. The other teammate that I’ve had that was similar that I really liked was Joe Roberts, just because we spent so much time together. We got along so well. He was like a little brother to me. Like I said, it’s not like I’ve had terrible teammates, but Loris has been somebody that I feel like is the best teammate I’ve ever had, and just enjoy life with. Having his girlfriend, Joyce, here to just help us out. They both help out with a lot of things. Whenever Rachel can’t be there and Joyce is getting everything ready for us, or things like that. It’s been great having him as a teammate, and I hope that next year stays the same.
Q:
It really makes a difference for you to have stability and to be on a team for longer than a year. Do you think that’s played a factor in your success this year?
Herrin:
Yeah, for sure. I would say that’s a huge part of why this year has been as good as it has been. It’s a combination of being on the team now for three years but also having the same bike for two years in a row in the same class. I think that is huge to have those two things. So even if it was two years in a row with the same bike and same team, it made a huge difference for me. I’ve always wanted that stability but it’s hard to get that in our sport in America. The sport is getting better now, so it’s becoming more possible to spend multiple years with the same team. That’s been a huge benefit for me these past few years.
Q:
Let’s talk about COTA. Did you want to win both races and wrap up the championship down in Texas?
Herrin:
Yeah. I had a plan. I knew where I needed to finish to win. If I could beat Cameron in one of the races and then get a second and a third, just be on the podium and beat him in one of the races, I would win. I did what I needed to do, especially battling with him in race two to get Sean (Dylan Kelly) to finish in front of him. So, then, all I had to do was just beat him in race three to win the title. I was trying anything I could to win there.
Q:
In my mind, Superbike race three at COTA was one of the most intense motorcycle races I’ve ever seen. Definitely one of the best Superbike races I’ve ever seen here in America. It was incredible. That was Moto2-like all the way. It’s ironic that three former Moto2 riders, with each one having followed the other into Moto2—you, Cameron Beaubier, and Sean Dylan Kelly—were all on the podium and were all battling it out on Sunday in that third race. That was an incredible show of talent.
Herrin:
Yeah. That was a fun race. That’s all I was trying to do was have fun. When I’m comfortable and I can make passes like that, like when I was going around the outside of Elias in Road America, things like that. When I’m comfortable on a bike and with a team I want to be on, I can have fun. When I have fun, I can ride better than I ever do. That’s all I was trying to do in that race was just have fun and try to win.
Q:
Some people would look at that and think, “He’s being pretty risky. He’s really hanging it out there.” But that’s where you feel most comfortable, isn’t it?
Herrin:
If you think, you overthink. This Saturday, I’m not going to go and push like crazy. I’m going to go ride pretty normal and pretty conservative. That’s going to be an even more difficult race than COTA race three. Whenever I’m just riding like myself and don’t think about it—I’m always thinking about the championship—but if I just go out and ride my race and try to win, it’s easy to keep it in the back of your head a little bit. But when you’re riding conservative and thinking, “All I need to do is finish sixth or better,” there’s more pressure and more stress to do that. I feel like, for whatever reason, it’s going to be more difficult for me to just finish top ten than it would be if I said, “I need to win.” Because you just start thinking about everything.
Q:
With the Fast By Ferracci tribute livery you and your team ran at COTA and what it meant to Eraldo Ferracci and that team, and wearing those leathers—you didn’t look exactly like Troy Corser, but it was close—did that put any extra pressure on you? Or were you just like, “No, this is a celebration. I’m okay, it adds to the whole thing”? Or, “I’ve got to win this thing and wrap it up for Eraldo.” Where were you with all that?
Herrin:
I think it did add extra pressure because I didn’t want to look stupid. Like, we got those leathers thinking ahead that we would wrap it up there. But it also helped provide a little bit of a distraction. Instead of, “I need to win because we have these leathers on,” it put the pressure somewhere else, instead of thinking about the championship. It gave me more of the motivation to win the race and not think about the championship. I knew that we needed to win the race to win the championship, but it was like, “I want to win the race because of this bodywork being on our bike.” I think about it and I’m like, “Maybe we should have just waited until New Jersey to run it,” but I feel like the timing was right. It was fun there. We had DRE on Monday, which was the Ducati event, and it was cool to wear those leathers. I wanted the photos in those leathers to be at COTA just because it’s such a special track.
Q:
Let’s talk about New Jersey and the fact that Warhorse is in New York and also, there’s the Pennsylvania connection with Eraldo Ferracci and also with Mount Airy Resort and Casino in the Poconos. You guys unveiled your livery in the Poconos at the beginning of the season. So, New Jersey Motorsports Park is really the home track for the team. It will be pretty special to win this championship in New Jersey, won’t it?
Herrin:
Yeah, for sure. It’s neat that we get to do it here. On Monday after the race weekend, the DeNaples Family, who are our sponsors and own Mount Airy Resort and Casino, invited us to go there Sunday night and just hang out as a team for a day or two. So, yes, it’s real;ly cool to be able to bring it to New Jersey and wrap it up here.
Q:
This will be your second AMA Superbike Championship. How will this one compare with the Championship you won in 2013?
Herrin:
This one was 100% earned, and it wasn’t just because (Josh) Hayes had a bunch of jumpstarts or anything like that. I feel like we all equally had to go through some shi*t this year. I had terrible results in the rain. I crashed out at Barber Motorsports Park. There was a lot of stuff that made this year difficult. I still was able to earn it how I wanted to. That’s one of the reasons why I was racing so hard on Sunday at COTA. I didn’t want to win the title and finish in fourth place or something. Now we’re going to do that in New Jersey, but I’m in a situation where I can do that on Saturday, just relax and then finish the year hopefully with a win.
Q:
I’m going to have you assess yourself. Do you think this is the best Josh Herrin there has been thus far in your career? Is this the best you’ve ever been as a racer?
Herrin:
I don’t know if it’s the best I’ve ever been. I feel like it is. I would like to say yes. But I know that this is the best combination I’ve ever had. The biggest thing, there’s been teams that have wanted this before, but I feel like, right now, this team wants me to win just as bad as I want to win. Where, in the past, it was maybe there was another rider that was the guy that they were counting on to win. So, it wasn’t that same feeling. I’m not saying that the team didn’t want Loris to win or anything, but in this moment, I would say they wanted both of us equally to win. This is just like a family. So, I feel like, more than anything, it’s the combination right now, the total package, and everything working in my favor. I don’t know if I would say that this is the best I’ve ever been as a rider. Like I said, I’d like to say that, but it’s the best total package that I have right now. It took a really long time to find it, but now that I have it, I’m going to do whatever I can to not let it go.
To purchase tickets for MotoAmerica events, click HERE
For information on how to watch the MotoAmerica series, click HERE
