Supersport... Seventeen-year old Graves Motorsports racer Josh Herrin electrified the Laguna Seca crowd by leading and then finishing a close second to Roger Hayden in the seventh round of the 2007 AMA Supersport Championship in Monterey, Calif. on Saturday, July 21. The finish ties his best AMA Supersport result to date and marks the first time he has ever led an AMA Supersport race. In finishing just 0.086 sec. behind Hayden, the YZF-R6 rider proved he’ll soon be a powerful force in the series.

The weekend came together perfectly for Herrin, who now has just over a year of AMA Supersport experience. He was fast in practice, qualified strongly on the third row, and got off to a great start in the race. Herrin quickly advanced to fourth behind a rapid freight train headed by early leader Geoff May, Josh Hayes and Roger Hayden. He forged past May for third on the fifth of 17 laps, then advanced again on lap six when Hayes slid into the dirt after colliding with Hayden. Herrin rode into the record books five laps later when he decisively passed Hayden for the lead in the Andretti Hairpin. From there on the talented teen led the race until the very last corner of the final lap, when Hayden whistled past under braking and narrowly took the win.

“Josh has always had the ability, and after a year in AMA Supersport he is just getting comfortable with it,” praised team owner Chuck Graves. “All of this takes time and the other guys have five or 10 years of experience. Josh learns whenever he is on the racetrack, and he is just going to get better.” Herrin added later, “Everything is coming together for us and my confidence is improving. I found the main key is to believe in yourself and believe you can run with the guys up front. I think if we can keep this confidence going, we’ll keep putting it up on the box.”

Supersport - Results, Saturday  1 Roger Lee Hayden     2 Josh Herrin - YAM     3 Steve Rapp     4 Jamie Hacking     5 Geoff May     6 Aaron Gobert     7 Martin Cardenas     8 Blake Young     9 Ben Attard     10 Tommy Hayden

Standings after round 7 of 11  1  Roger Lee Hayden 214   2  Jamie Hacking 201   3  Josh Hayes 185   4  Steve Rapp 178   5  Tommy Hayden 157   6  Geoff May 150   7  Blake Young 146   8  Aaron Gobert 138   9  Josh Herrin - YAM 135   10  Ben Attard 131

Supersport - Practice, Saturday  1 Jamie Hacking  1:27.338   2 Roger Lee Hayden  1:27.570   3 Josh Hayes  1:27.676   4 Geoff May  1:27.760   5 Chaz Davies - YAM  1:27.947   6 Martin Cardenas  1:28.020   7 Josh Herrin - YAM  1:28.045   8 Aaron Gobert  1:28.380   9 Tommy Hayden  1:28.589   10 Blake Young  1:28.605

Supersport - Qualifying, Friday  1 Roger Lee Hayden  1:27.496   2 Geoff May  1:27.607   3 Jamie Hacking  1:27.841   4 Josh Hayes  1:27.864   5 Ben Attard  1:28.346   6 Steve Rapp  1:28.582   7 Aaron Gobert  1:28.894   8 Chaz Davies - YAM  1:28.920   9 Josh Herrin - YAM  1:29.369   10 Tommy Hayden  1:29.386