Two-time MotoAmerica Supersport Champion and four-time Superbike race winner Garrett Gerloff enjoyed his best race-week Saturday so far as the lone factory rider for the Kawasaki WorldSBK Team.
Competing in round five of the FIM Superbike World Championship at the Autodrom Most in the Czech Republic, the Texan achieved both his best Superpole qualifying result and race finish in his short time aboard his #31 Kawasaki ZX-10RR.
Bright and sunny conditions greeted the riders and teams on day two of the event, and it was a welcome change from Friday’s rain-dampened proceedings. Following thew morning’s FP3 session, in which GG31 was 17th-quickest, he and the team improved the bike’s set-up, which resulted in an eighth-place result in Superpole, and garnered a starting position in the middle of the third row of the grid.
After the completing lap one of the 22-lap Race One, Gerloff was 10th, but he was able to move himself up to ninth two laps later. He slipped back to 12th as the laps wound down, but he fought hard and moved back up to 11th, which he maintained all the way to the checkered flag.
“That was a lot better Saturday than I have had all year,” the Double-G said. “I am really happy to be speaking about that. I qualified on the third row, in eighth place, which is not bad and probably the best qualifying I have had. We can all be happy about that. In the race, I did not feel too bad, but I was missing something from the beginning. I kept getting passed by other riders. I hate that, but I was trying my best, and I think we have a good idea what to do for tomorrow for that not to happen again. Let’s see on Sunday.”
Gerloff scored some important championship points in Race One, and he will have two more chances to do so again on Sunday. Following the morning warm-up session, he’ll line up for the 10-lap Superpole Race at 11 a.m. local time followed by the afternoon’ s event-concluding 22-lap Race Two at 3 p.m. local time.
