Gerloff Battles Adversity, Shows Consistency In Argentina
Gerloff’s dogged determination helped him recover from a string of bad luck with heavy traffic on his opening laps. Photo courtesy of GYTR GRT Yamaha WorldSBK Team.
It seems that former MotoAmerica Superbike rider Garrett Gerloff’s destiny at Circuit San Juan Villicum in Argentina was stone-cold, lead-pipe locked at right around 12. The GYTR GRT Yamaha WorldSBK Team rider was 12th in Friday’s Free Practice 1, improved to 10th in Free Practice 2, took a few steps backwards with a 13th-place finish in Saturday’s Free Practice 3, returned to 12th in Superpole, finished out his Saturday with a 13th-place result in Race 1, was 14th in Sunday morning’s Warm Up, notched a 13th-place finish in the Tissot Superpole Race, and concluded his weekend with a 12th in Race 2. All told, in his eight on track excursions, Gerloff’s average finishing position was 12.375. And it wasn’t easy for the always congenial Texan.
In the Tissot Superpole Race, Gerloff lost a couple of places in the opening lap, but he didn’t give up and began to work his way through the field. On lap eight, he made a perfect double overtake of both GoEleven Ducati’s Philipp Oettl and BMW’s Scott Redding to record a 13th-place result.
Similar to what happened in Sunday morning’s Superpole Race, the Double-G also lost positions at the start of Race 2. He dropped to 17th, but once again, he was able to work himself back up to 15th by Lap 12. Once again, Gerloff showed great pace towards the end of the race, and he eventually crossed the finish line in 12th.
“Well, the result is not fantastic, even though I felt a bit better than yesterday on the bike,” Gerloff commented. “Unluckily, it wasn’t enough to make a strong impression, and starting from P12 didn’t help at all. We struggled with rear tire grip, which also didn’t help our chances. Let’s stay positive for the remaining rounds, I’m sure we can enjoy a good end to the season.”
Gerloff and his GYTR GRT Yamaha WorldSBK Team will now relax and regroup before flying to Indonesia for the penultimate round of the 2022 season in Mandalika on November 11 through 13.
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