We caught up with Josh Herrin just as the Graves Motorsports-rider and his dad pulled into the Mid-Ohio paddock for the final race of the ’06 season. Though the Supersport championship was already well underway when Herrin joined the series mid-year—he had to wait to turn an AMA-legal 16—his string of strong performances have him sitting just outside the top 10 in points. With a quick Yamaha lined up for next year’s series, ’07 should be better than Christmas for the kid from Dublin, Georgia.

Though he has yet to sign a contract, Josh Herrin will be with Yamaha again in 2007. LCA photo

RRX: Thinking back to the beginning of this year, what did you hope to accomplish in your first AMA season?
Josh Herrin: Well, me, myself, I was hoping to get top three in every race, but I wasn’t expecting any better than top 10. I mean, I wasn’t going to get mad at myself if I only finished in the top 10. We were also hoping to get in the top 10 in [overall] points by the end of this year, because after Road America, me and Chuck were talking about it and we were kind of thinking it was possible. We were hoping we could do that by the end of the year, because that would have been a good accomplishment.

Even having missed the first four rounds?
Yeah. But somebody told me that right now, unless somebody DNFs this weekend or something, I can’t get it into the top 10, but I’m not sure. I’ll just have to ride like [I can] anyway and see.

Well, you’ve been inside the top 10 at every race except VIR, got a third at Miller Motorsports Park, and impressed a lot of people. How are you feeling about what you have accomplished so far?
Pretty happy. The last couple races we had a little bit of bad luck, but we worked our way through it and everything worked out good in the end, and nothing horrible has happened [laughs]. And I’ve definitely learned a lot this year, just riding with all the AMA guys—Roger and Eslick especially—and the race at Miller, I learned a lot from that … a lot toward riding ability, but a lot of other stuff, too.

Like race strategy, maybe?
Yeah [laughs], a lot of that—a lot toward race strategy. All the guys are really fast, and Michael Beck’s been catching up a lot; we’ve been dicing it up a lot at the last couples races, and me and him had a lot of fun at Road Atlanta. And Roger and Eslick, they’re pretty fun to ride with, too. Eslick gets pretty crazy, and there’s a lot of just hoping you’re going to make it through the corner.

What’s your team situation for next year?
Well, I don’t have a contract yet, but we’ll be riding Yamaha next year, and that’s all I can say right now—that’s what I was told. We haven’t signed anything yet, but we’re supposed to be getting a contract this weekend. We’re still talking a lot about it, the details of it—like which class or classes I’m going to be riding—and hopefully by the end of this weekend, I’ll be able to tell you what we’re doing.

It's a long shot, but it is possible for Herrin to finish in the top ten in the Supersport class. Brian Nelson photo

Okay, sounds good. Has your riding style changed much since you started competing in the Supersport class?
Not so much the style I have on the bike but the way I ride the bike, that’s changed. In the beginning of the year I think I was riding the bike a lot like a two-stroke, and downshifting the gears really fast, and I’ve been trying to get over that stage, trying to help the motors out a little bit.

Are you interested in bigger bikes right now?
Yeah, I’m kind of interested, and we were thinking about trying one of the bigger bikes at the end of this year, but we don’t want to rush into anything. We want to make sure that I’m really focused for next year and not struggling with anything, but we’ll see how it goes. There’s a chance, but most likely we won’t.

What are your goals for next season?
Next season I want to consistently finish in the top five and maybe get on the box a couple times. Like, Miller was pretty fun. I knew after qualifying that I could run up there, because I usually drop at least a second in the race, so I knew I could run with those guys, even though I knew it was going to be tough. And at the end I almost got second, so I was really surprised, but yeah, that was fun. I want to do that again.

I imagine you’ve been learning a lot about tires and setup this year, too.
Yeah, I have. Dunlop helped us out a lot this year, and they’re really great. And last year we didn’t really do any of the setup, and this year we struggled a lot in the beginning to set up the bike the way that I like it, but toward the end of the season—when we started to be able to go to the tests and everything—I really started to learn a lot more about setting up the bike, and I’m learning that that’s really important once you get up to this stage in racing. If you don’t set your bike up just the way you want it for the race, then you’re going to have some problems.

Josh didn't move up to the AMA until mid-season, but he's already turning a few heads. Brian Nelson photo

And what about learning to communicate with your mechanics—has that also been a big thing for you this year?
Yeah, definitely. This season, it was pretty hard for me to communicate with some of the guys, because we were switching mechanics a lot, and I wasn’t ever really explaining myself to just one guy, so every weekend—not every weekend, but every once in a while—I would have to learn to communicate with another one of the mechanics, so that might have not helped me a little bit, but now we’re up to speed with the mechanics and everything’s going a lot smoother.

Do you have any mentors at the track?
Well, I used to talk to [Josh] Hayes a lot in the beginning of the season, and he was helping me out a lot in the beginning of the year, but not so much anymore. So it’s pretty much just Chuck and my dad now, but I really want to thank Yamaha and Graves Motorsports and all my other sponsors for this year.

What are you going to do during the off-season?
I think I’m going to get a road bike and start training a lot, and get more in shape for the races, and ride dirt bikes a lot, and hopefully we’ll be able to get a bike to go do some track days and stuff on, so I can keep in shape.

Okay, have a great last race of the season, and keep in touch ‘til ’07 starts.
Thanks, Laurel—I will. I’m pretty excited for everything coming up.