Re the sacking of Josh Herrin, here's a few words I wrote for about him back in May for US magazine Roadracing World...



HERRIN: "IF I'M RIDING AROUND IN 30th THEY'LL WANT TO GET RID OF ME"

Josh Herrin isn’t the first AMA champ to try his luck at GP racing. He is merely the latest of a long and illustrious line that includes King Kenny Roberts, Freddie Spencer, Eddie Lawson, Wayne Rainey, Scott Russell and Ben Spies.

But there is a big difference between Herrin and that roll call of legends. While they all came into GPs riding factory or semi-factory machines, due to their successes in the US, Herrin has landed in the Moto2 class, almost certainly the toughest, nastiest championship in Grand Prix history; a veritable nest of vipers.

Moto2 is ridiculously close and unforgiving – just a couple of tenths of a second separate riders from racing glory and imminent unemployment. At Le Mans, the top 20 riders on the grid were separated by 1.06 seconds. At Daytona, with a similar 1m 37s lap, the fastest 20 qualifiers were separated by 7.3 seconds.

This is the world in which the reigning AMA champ finds himself. And he’s not finding it easy: he qualified 27th fastest in Qatar and Texas and 30th at Le Mans, 2.002 seconds off pole. Fifteen of the riders in front of him at Le Mans were Grand Prix winners. In the race he was 22nd on his Suter, his first finish of the year. No wonder he’s finding his first international season soul destroying.

“The past ten years I’ve not really been outside the top five, so it’s hard to come here and be 30th; it’s terrible for your confidence,” says Herrin, sitting in the AirAsia Caterham hospitality unit at Le Mans. “I enjoy riding the Moto2 bike, but it’s definitely difficult to enjoy it when you’re at the back.”

Herrin admits he’s surprised by the ferocity of the competition in Moto2, where all riders use identical Dorna-prepared Honda CBR600 engines which are allocated randomly every three races.

“Obviously coming into it I expected to be closer to the front, but the reality is we’re closer to the back. It’s a lot harder than most people in America think it is. People in America expected a lot of me coming into this, but the people that are already here know it’s really hard. Now my goal for the first year is to try and get into the top 15.

“Most of the reason Moto2 is so tough is that everyone is so equal. The bikes are pretty much exactly the same; each chassis has its ups and downs, but overall there’s not much of a difference.”

Another problem is lack of circuit knowledge. Most Moto2 riders have been on the GP trail for five to ten years, revisiting the same tracks each season and getting to know them intimately. Herrin reckons he can learn a new circuit in one session, but getting to know its race-winning tricks can take years.

“Finding the best lines and knowing how to push it to the limit in all the different corners takes a while, so that’s one of the hardest things. Even at Austin, where I did ten or 15 laps in testing on a street 600, when I showed up there on the Moto2 bike it was like I’d never been there before.

“But if the situation was flipped and we were racing at Laguna in my first year, I know I’d be in the top 15, the top ten or better.”

Herrin is finding the task of learning European tracks a little different.

“Le Mans is so narrow. At the last corner everyone is running over the kerbs to get more track. That’s what they’re doing, so that’s what you have to do, even if it isn’t really safe. In the US we don’t usually use the kerbs because the paint on the kerbing isn’t sticky. Whenever MotoGP came to Laguna, we had the good paint [MotoGP homologation includes non-slip kerb paint], so we could use the inside kerb out of Turns 2 and 4. But other than that we don’t really use the kerbs at home, so I’ve got to adapt. That’s what I’ve been doing at my supermoto track at home – riding over the kerbs to try to get used to it.”

Herrin doesn’t only have to learn Moto2 and 18 new racetracks; he also has to learn a whole new way of life, flying around the world, living out of a suitcase for weeks on end.

“That’s the other hardest thing, the travelling. I’ve been lucky to travel around the US and now I’m travelling all over the world. It’s cool but even though I’m really trying to like it, it’s been pretty difficult. So far I’ve been back home to the US every race but now we [Herrin and his fiancée Teesha] may stay in Europe for a while: we have friends in Italy and my crew chief lives in England.”

If all that wasn’t enough, he is also battling injury. His Austin crash mangled his left shoulder, wrecking previous surgery. “Before I broke the collarbone at Austin I’d had surgery for a separated shoulder. They used a tightrope system – wires and miniature plates with holes drilled in the collarbone – and the Austin crash broke the wires and ripped out all the previous stuff.”

No wonder then that Herrin is concerned with his future in Moto2, almost certainly the most pitiless race series ever, in which it’s become commonplace for underperforming riders to get the sack midway through the season, regardless of contract

“I’ve got a two year contract with the AirAsia Caterham team, with options after the first year. But if I’m riding around in 30th all year they’ll want to get rid of me. The team is being supportive, but I do feel the pressure; they tell you that you’ve got to go quicker.”

If Herrin – one of only a few Americans to make it into GP racing in recent years – fails to make the grade, what effect will that have on future US hopes for GP glory? It will have a major effect, because if the AMA champ can’t cut it, teams won’t bother looking across the Atlantic, they will focus even more on finding talent in the Spanish and Italian championships, from where the vast majority of GP talent comes.

“I don’t think US riders aren’t as good anymore,” concludes Herrin. “I just don’t think they get given the shots like they did in the old days. I think they need to fix something in GP racing, so at least one American goes every year. American riders are more than willing to go, it’s just the money – trying to get money to pay for a ride and for the travel.”



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