Josh Herrin top of The Pile As The 2023 Daytona 200 Kicks Off
Herrin leads after Thursday’s track action with Xavi Fores an impressive ninth on his Daytona debut
Sunnyvale, Calif., March 9, 2022 — Current MotoAmerica Supersport Champion Josh Herrin (Warhorse HSBK Ducati NYC) bought the heat on the opening day of track action for the 2023 Daytona 200 at the Daytona International Speedway.
The Georgian native played it cool in the opening session, only completing six laps as the Warhorse HSBK Ducati NYC team sorted a few issues with the front-end of his Ducati Panigale V2, but come first qualifying, Herrin used all his experience on the high banks to rocket his way to a 1:49.043s lap, time, some 0.409s clear of Suzuki’s Hayden Gillim and Richie Escalante.
Herrin completed 15 laps for the day as he used his competitors as yardsticks in the drafting challenges that are intrinsic to a fast lap of the iconic 3.5-mile venue.
It was also a successful day for the 2023 MotoAmerica Supersport debutant, Xavi Forés. The man with the most international racing experience in the 2023 Daytona 200 field shaved an impressive 3.5 seconds off his lap time between sessions one and two to finish the day in ninth overall, the Spaniard completing 18 laps for the day.
Herrin’s time means he’s the man they’re all chasing as he goes for back-to-back Daytona 200 pole positions when Qualifying 2 starts at 10:10 am EST tomorrow, March 10, with the all-important Time Attack that will determine the grid positions scheduled for 1:15 pm EST.
2023 Daytona 200 Qualifying 1 Top 5
P1 – Josh Herrin (Ducati) 1:49.043
P2 – Hayden Gillim (Suzuki) 1:49.452
P3 – Richie Escalante (Suzuki) 1:49.459
P4 – Brandon Paasch (Triumph) 1:49.477
P5 – Joshua Hayes (Yamaha) 1:49.737
P9 – Xavi Forés (Ducati) 1:50.283
Xavi Forés (Warhorse HSBK Racing Ducati New York – Ducati #12):
“This morning, I said, maybe I go back home,” Fores said with a laugh. “This morning was crazy, we don’t have this kind of banking in Europe and it was the first time for me to experience that. In the second session, I dropped three seconds from my best lap time in the morning, so I was quite happy to finish in ninth place and be in the top 10 on the first day. For sure, we need to improve my feeling with the bike. I am not used to riding on the MotoAmerica Dunlops and don’t have the same feeling as I did with the Pirelli’s. I ride a lot with the edge of the tire and the Dunlop tire doesn’t like that, so I need to improve picking up the bike early in the corner to get on the throttle, but once I gain experience with this style I hope to be at the front.”
Josh Herrin (Warhorse HSBK Racing Ducati New York – Ducati #1):
“I’m super happy with today,” Herrin said. “We lost a bit of time in the opening session but in the second session I got a draft from Xavi. I let him go ahead because I wanted to let him follow me a little bit to help, so I used him for the draft at the beginning of the lap so he could get a tow on his flyer, but it helped me to get that time. And then at the very end, I also used Josh Hayes as a draft to try one more lap—I don’t know if my faster one was the first or the second one but the bike’s feeling really good, I’m really happy and looking forward to the rest of the weekend.
