Team Suzuki Press Office – September 9.
Toni Elias: GSX-R1000, 4-4
Josh Herrin: GSX-R1000, 7-7
Yoshimura Suzuki Factory Racing had a challenging weekend at the MotoAmerica Superbike Championship ninth and penultimate round at New Jersey Motorsports Park in America and despite missing the podium, Toni Elias’ placings were solid enough to hold a 16-point lead going into the season finale.
Elias scored a pair of fourth-place finishes on his Yoshimura Suzuki GSX-R1000 Superbike and teammate Josh Herrin scored seventh in both Saturday and Sunday’s races.
The entire Yoshimura Suzuki crew worked hard to find a good bike setup for the New Jersey circuit, but that perfect combination proved elusive.
Said Elias: “It was a tough weekend, maybe the toughest I’ve had in a long time. We tried to improve and change things, but it seemed it was impossible to improve. I went six seconds faster in the race today than yesterday, but still it was not enough to improve my position.
“I see things in a positive way, and we are still leading the championship by 16-points going into the final round. I’d rather be ahead than be behind. We will analyse and if we have to change our setup completely, OK, we will do it. We will go and play as hard as we can at Barber and see what happens.”
Herrin found himself running further back in the field than he’s accustomed to.
“It wasn’t a weekend to remember,” Herrin said. “We tried tons of different things and just weren’t able to find the sweet spot. Sometimes you go through weekends like this. I’m definitely ready to put this behind us and move on to Barber. I know our bikes work well at Barber, so hopefully we can go there and finish strong.”
The final round of the 2019 MotoAmerica Superbike Championship comes at Barber Motorsports Park in Birmingham, Alabama, on Sept. 20-22th where Elias won both Superbike races last year.
