Champion Profile: Garrett Gerloff, Graves/Yamaha
Reigning MotoAmerica Supersport champion is back to defend his crown
MotoAmerica/Matthew Miles
MotoAmerica’s 2016 Supersport championship was a seesaw battle if ever there was one. Garrett Gerloff won six of the first eight races while Monster Energy/Yamalube/Y.E.S./Graves/Yamaha teammate JD Beach, the reigning number one, took top honors in race one at New Jersey Motorsports Park, as well as the final seven events. When the dust settled, the 21-year-old Gerloff had earned his first national title by four points, 326 to 322.
Today was a good day, I still can't believe it! 2016 @motoamerica SSP Champion 🏆 PC: #brianjnelson A post shared by Garrett Gerloff (@garrettgerloff) on Sep 11, 2016 at 8:39pm PDT
This year, one of this country’s most successful and experienced middleweight road-racing pairings face a new challenge in the form of a heavily updated, if not all-new, YZF-R6. When new rules last season mandated a return to stock triple clamps and shock linkage, Gerloff took to the revised setup like a bear to honey.
Gerloff is defending his crown but makes no bones about wanting to move up to bigger bikes. “I loved the Yamaha Superbike that I rode after the race at New Jersey in 2015,” he said. “It really lit a fire under me. I was thinking, ‘This bike is amazing. I want to be on this thing.’ I want to race against Josh Hayes and Cameron Beaubier and Roger Hayden and Toni Elias.”