The Championship Picture: Supersport
Darryn Binder exiting the Museum Turn at Barber Motorsports Park
Darryn Binder has found tremendous success with Celtic/Economy Lube + Tire/Warhorse Ducati in his first season of competing in MotoAmerica. Not only has the 28-year old from South Africa won eight races in his first full season racing in Supersport, he has backed that up with five second place finishes and a fourth place finish in the Daytona 200.
Rahal Ducati Moto with Desnuda Organic Tequila’s Josh Herrin has been the only other rider to consistently take the fight to Binder this year winning six races of his own, but Binder has still managed to open a healthy 35 point gap in the championship standings. If Herrin is going to catch and pass the championship leader he is going to have to not only win both races this weekend at Circuit of the Americas but also need Binder to make a mistake or two.
The problem is, Binder has really only made two mistakes in races this year, and he made them both in Race 2 at Laguna Seca. During that race Binder went far off the racing surface in the corkscrew before having a lowside in turn two on the next lap. That was Binder’s only finish outside the top four, but he still brought home points by finishing 11th.
Josh Herrin is easily capable of winning the remaining races this year, but is Darryn Binder going to make the mistakes that would allow him to catch up?
Even if Josh Herrin wins the remaining four races on the schedule Darryn Binder would still win this championship by 15 points if he finishes each of those races in second.
There is a huge gap of 94 points between Herrin in second and Kayla Yaakov holding third in the championship standings for Rahal Ducati Moto with Droplight. However, only three points behind Kayla is Josh Hayes. Winning Race 2 at VIR has really helped the BPR Yamaha R9 rider leapfrog past M4 Ecstar Suzuki’s Tyler Scott and close the gap to the top three in the championship. Scott is still within striking distance 21 points behind Hayes, and it’s only another 14 points to the Strack Racing rider of Blake Davis.
At 51 years old Josh Hayes is still going strong winning Race 2 at VIR.
Looking at the rest of the Supersport standings there is another close battle in the top ten between Alessandro Di Mario and Brendan Ketelsen. Ketelsen is coming off his best finish of the season in Race 2 at VIR by scoring his first Supersport podium with a third place finish. At the previous round at Laguna Seca, Di Mario did the exact same thing when he got his best finish of the season in that Race 2 by getting his first Supersport podium with a third place finish. Now, the two young riders are sitting seventh and eighth in the championship with only seven points between them.
With four races remaining in the season, Binder has put himself in a position where simply continuing to do what he has done all year will be enough to secure the Supersport championship. Behind him, however, there is still plenty left to decide. From Yaakov and Hayes fighting over third to Di Mario and Ketelsen separated by only seven points, there is no shortage of movement still possible in the Supersport standings as the championship heads to COTA.
