On the final day of the Indonesian round of the FIM Superbike World Championship, former MotoAmerica Superbike rider Garrett Gerloff recovered from a disappointing result in the morning’s Superpole Race to produce a solid eighth-place result in Race 2 for his GYTR GRT Yamaha WorldSBK Team.
In the Tissot Superpole Race, Gerloff was forced wide in the hectic opening lap, which caused him to drop from 10th back to 18th position. From there, the Texan focused on making his way through the field despite the race only being a 10-lap sprint. He showed excellent pace and fought his way back to a 13th-place result.
Race 2 saw Gerloff enjoy a clean start from 10th on the grid, and he was able to gain one position on the opening lap. The 27-year-old joined the top-five battle, passed BMW’s Scott Redding on lap five, and overtook Kawasaki’s Alex Lowes on lap eight. He unfortunately ran wide on lap 11, which dropped him from seventh back to 10th. Undeterred, he recovered from the setback and crossed the finish line in eighth.
“Overall, the pace wasn’t too bad.” Gerloff said. “We were unfortunate in the Superpole Race, while in Race 2, we had some good battles. Anyway, we know we had more than this, so we’re a little bit disappointed and, in the last feature race, I made a mistake that cost me a lot of positions. That’s a shame, but it’s already time to look forward to the next round, the last one with this team, and I really want to say farewell to them with a great weekend. Let’s go for it!”
Gerloff and his GYTR GRT Yamaha WorldSBK Team will return to action next weekend at Phillip Island in Australia, for the final round of the 2022 season. It will also be his final round with the team before moving to the Bonovo Action BMW team in 2023.
