Eslick wins eventful SportBike race

From AMA Pro Racing

LEXINGTON, OH - Just when everything was falling into place, the entire apple cart was overturned on Sunday in AMA Pro Daytona SportBike action at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.

Last year's Daytona SportBike champion Danny Eslick took a hard-fought victory and with this year's championship points leader Josh Herrin suffering a dramatic fall on the last lap, Eslick and his GEICO Powersports team have pulled themselves right back into the thick of the championship battle. Herrin and his Team Graves Yamaha team now lead Eslick by only two points, 249-247.

The 21-lap race at Mid-Ohio began somewhat like Saturday's event, with furious action at the front involving Eslick, Herrin, Martin Cardenas (M4 Monster Energy Suzuki), Bobby Fong (DNA Energy Drink Ducati), Herrin's Team Graves Yamaha teammate Tommy Aquino and Team Latus Motors Ducati rider Steve Rapp. These six riders once again made a break and dueled back and forth, exchanging the lead lap after lap, sometimes two or three times per lap. 

Under partly cloudy but hot and humid conditions, something had to give and it happened as the leaders were finishing the 11th lap. Coming through the Carousel corner, Cardenas went down and Herrin had to take evasive action, allowing Fong, Rapp and Aquino quickly by. Eslick was in front and didn't really know what happened until after the race but this gave him the break he needed to consolidate his second win of the season and vault him right back into the chase for the championship. In a great display of courage, Cardenas picked up his Suzuki and continued to the finish, and his persistence was rewarded as he ended up fifth at the flag. 

Another rider who stayed the course all day was Aquino, who raced hard with Fong, Rapp and Herrin as well and took home a solid fourth place finish. Gathering his second consecutive podium finish was Fong. It was only the hard riding of another Ducati rider, Rapp that prevented Fong from another second place. Rapp, who started strong Saturday but ran into some mechanical issues, came back Sunday and contended all the way and took a well deserved second place for his Team Latus Motors team.

In a cruel twist of fate, as Herrin headed into turn six at the end of the long Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course backstraight for the last time, his motorcycle seemed to twitch and he was down. Rapp and Fong were quickly by as Herrin struggled to pick up and restart his Yamaha. He did so and to cheers from the appreciative crowd, he slowly rode back around on the damaged bike to post a 19th place finish, thereby scoring two valuable points. 

P.J. Jacobsen ran well again but was passed on the last lap by Cardenas; Jacobsen still had a solid weekend on his Celtic Racing Suzuki. 

Cory West took seventh on his Vesrah Suzuki, Josh Day, the 2009 SuperSport Young Gun East Division Champion ran well again on his Four Feathers Racing Yamaha, finishing eighth. After making a change in his Dunlop tire choice, Fernando Amantini took a nice ninth place finish aboard his Kawasaki followed by Kris Turner in 10th on his Turner Cycle Racing Suzuki.

The AMA Pro Daytona SportBike riders will reassemble next weekend in California for the Red Bull U.S. Grand Prix. The Daytona SportBikes will race on Sunday, prior to the MotoGP event.

In a repeat of Saturday's dominant performance, J.D. Beach and his Rockwall Performance Yamaha teammate Cameron Beaubier once again ran away from the field in  Sunday's AMA Pro SuperSport race at the Honda Super Cycle Weekend Presented by Dunlop Tire at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. 

This time, Beach had to battle back from fourth place as the field swept into the first turn but once he took the lead on lap four, he was never headed again and swept to a 12.942-sec. victory over Beaubier and LTD Racing Yamaha rider Huntley Nash.

The Mid-Ohio SuperSport event was a combined East and West Divisional Young Gun event and with his sixth place finish on Sunday, Joey Pascarella clinched the West Division Young Gun Championship with 172 points.

The series now moves to the West Coast for next weekend's race at the Red Bull U.S. Grand Prix. The AMA Pro SuperSport race will be on Saturday.

Daytona SportBike Race Results Not Available

Daytona SportBike Point Standings
(Top 15 plus Canadians)
1. Josh Herrin 249
2. Danny Eslick 247
3. Martin Cardenas 222
4. Steve Rapp 190
5. Cory West 164
6. Dane Westby 157
7. Tommy Aquino 137
8. Bobby Fong 122
9. Chris Fillmore 115
10. Clinton Seller 113
11. P. J. Jacobsen 88
12. Fernando Amantini 77
13. Lenny Hale 54
14. Kris Turner 42
15. Russ Wikle 37
55. Marie-Josee Boucher 3