Josh Herrin and Loris Baz Secure Title Points in the First Round of the 2024 Steel Commander Motoamerica Superbike Championship
Sunnyvale, Calif., April 21, 2024 — The opening round of the 2024 Steel Commander MotoAmerica Superbike Championship at Road Atlanta was a rainy encounter for the Warhorse HSBK Racing Ducati team with hard racing but successful in earning title points for the team.
Current Daytona 200 Champion Josh Herrin qualified third and led the first seven laps of race one on Saturday until he was on the receiving end of a hard pass and into the gravel trap. However, Herrin worked his way back to fifth place by the finish.
Additionally, impact followed just after the finish in race one. Herrin’s teammate, Loris Baz, who had just finished sixth, was run into by another rider at high speed. The resulting impact destroyed both machines, with Baz suffering an injured ankle.
Race two on Sunday, with a blanket of cloud and heavy rain, gave Baz some physical reprieve as he toughed out the conditions to take seventh on the day to leave Georgia sixth in the points.
Herrin completed his weekend with a ninth-place finish in race two and sits one place behind his teammate at seventh in the championship standing. The series continues to Barber Motorsports Park in a month’s time.
Josh Herrin (Warhorse HSBK Racing Ducati–#2)
“Yesterday’s race was going good until we got run off the track,” Herrin said. “The bike was feeling good. After we went off the track, we went half a second per lap faster, every single lap, than anyone on the track for the last 10 laps of the race.”
“Today just wasn’t our day. We know we have what it takes to be successful, but we have some homework to do to capitalize and get the most points we can for the next race.”
“Thank you to all our sponsors and team members for all their hard work over the weekend. We’ll push hard at the next round at Barber.”
Loris Baz (Warhorse HSBK Racing Ducati–#76)
“It was a limitation weekend, especially for today after the crash we had yesterday at the finish line of race one,” Baz said. “I was very sore this morning, so for today, I was just praying for rain. That at least made it possible for me to race.”
“I couldn’t do the warm-up in the morning because of the crash, but I started the race as calm as possible. I needed to figure out how to ride with my injured foot, and I started to increase the pace because of the full wet conditions. As I went faster, I had a moment where I had some pain in my ankle, so I decided to bring it home and be safe. That meant seventh for us today. As I say, it was damage limitation, and now I will try to recover as much as possible before round two in a month.”
Round two of the 2024 Steel Commander MotoAmerica Superbike Championship will be held at Barber Motorsports Park in Birmingham, Alabama, from May 17 to 19.
