Attack Performance/Herrin Compound Racing has entered American rider Josh Herrin as a wild card for the FIM Superbike World Championship round June 22-24 at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, in Monterey, California.
“We were awarded a wild card entry [in World Superbike], so we are going to do that and MotoAmerica Superbike at the same time,” Richard Stanboli, co-owner of the Attack Performance/Herrin Compound Racing team, told Roadracingworld.com Thursday at Road America. “This isn’t something we just came up with. This was the idea all along. I wanted to do World Superbike since last year when I was helping out Meen Motorsports. We had talked about doing it and I went through all the logistical stuff on my end, but in the end [Meen Motorsports] couldn’t pull it off.
“So it was already in the back of my head and when we went into this season it was always with the idea of doing this. It was always part of the plan. It’s just the plan came together so late because we’re still playing catch up, but by Laguna I think we’ll be in good shape.”
Stanboli said he plans to use his one Yamaha YZF-R1 Superbike, which was built using a fuel tank and custom swingarm fabricated in-house at Attack Performance, for the entire weekend at Laguna Seca.
“The rules are identical, for the most part,” said Stanboli. “There are a few things we have to put on, like the rpm limiter and things like that, but that’s just a matter of popping a map in. We’ll have some extra wheels for the Pirellis and extra bodywork with the different stickers. We may have to change springs in between sessions for the tires, but we’ll be working out of a garage and we won’t have to haul all of our stuff on and off pit lane.”
This will not be Stanboli’s first foray into International competition. In 2012, the engineer and former U.S. Army officer designed and built his own CRT-class MotoGP racebike in the matter of a few months and rider Steve Rapp went on to score points on the machine at the Red Bull Grand Prix of Indianapolis. Blake Young rode Stanboli’s prototype at the three American MotoGP rounds in 2013.
“I was never really interested in World Superbike, but it’s a good opportunity for us especially because the rules are so similar,” said Stanboli. “We don’t have to build a whole new motorcycle, and we get to showcase our products and get some additional exposure in the world scene.”