Herrin bounces back with win

From AMA Pro Racing

ALTON, VA - Josh Herrin was able to bounce back from the disappointment of Saturday's AMA Daytona SportBike race at Virginia International Raceway, that ended for him almost as soon as it started, with a victory on Sunday.

Once again, this race was action all the way with the usual players and more taking the fight to the front for the entire 23-lap race. 

After winning Saturday's dramatic photo finish race, Bobby Fong had a short day on Sunday when he went down in turn one moments after the start, his DNA Energy Drink Ducati too damaged to continue. Meanwhile, GEICO Powersports Suzuki rider Danny Eslick was again battling with Team Graves Yamaha rider Herrin, Cory West on his Vesrah Suzuki, Steve Rapp with his rapid Team Latus Motors Ducati and Herrin's Team Graves Yamaha teammate, Tommy Aquino. 

As quickly as things started to happen, Herrin came by the line on lap five indicating that he was feeling some rain. Moments later, after taking the lead, Eslick also put up his arm to let the field behind him know that moisture was making conditions potentially too dangerous to continue without a potential change to rain tires. The race was red flagged and after a short break, the brief shower passed and the field reformed for the restart. 

Again, Herrin and Eslick had strong starts and headed the field. Martin Cardenas in particular had a tough start and dropped back to ninth on his M4 Monster Energy Suzuki. But as usual, Cardenas began one of his patented charges to the front, which took him right back to the middle of the action by lap 15 and he was up to third with one lap to go.

Herrin was strong out of the last corner and he would lead and the line but then Eslick would out-brake everyone to regain the lead. Rapp was back up in his usual position up front and he would grab the lead only to have Eslick or Herrin re-pass him again and again. West was right in the middle of the action too and if not for him running wide in turn one on the last lap, he was one of at least five riders that could have won this race. 

Going into the last lap, the first four were separated by under a tenth of a second at the line and Herrin, West, Eslick, Cardenas and Rapp all hurtled into turn one for the last time. Cardenas and West went wide and had run off course, leaving Herrin, Eslick and Rapp to battle it out. Eslick was leading, but Herrin got back by and as they came to the line, Rapp grabbed second from Eslick. Herrin's margin of victory was 0.174 over Rapp and only 0.241 over his championship points rival Eslick. 

"The race was really good," Herrin said. "Every time somebody passed me it seemed like it was somebody different. Danny rode an awesome race, my bike was a little faster today so it was a little bit easier to get those extra points."

Herrin was able to lead the most laps and with the win, he made up some valuable ground on points leader Eslick.

"I figured it'd be pretty close to the same deal as yesterday and then Josh was up in there," Eslick said. "I knew Cory would be strong again today so there was quite a few of us up there. That little bit of drizzle was kind of sketchy. It was hard to tell if it's coming down harder that it was. We were just trying to be a little bit cautious there. I think it was a good call, to figure out what was going on. It turned out pretty good, it presented a good race after the restart. It was a lot of fun, there at the end, it got pretty wild."

Rapp was happy to be back on the podium again, his seventh appearance this year.

"When I was out front, I gave it my best shot," he said, "and then when they started coming back by again and it's like, 'Well there's no point, obviously I can't get away so I'm going to ride with them for a little bit, see if they make a mistake.' It worked out pretty good."

P.J Jacobson ran well on his Celtic Racing Suzuki and he took a solid fourth ahead of Cardenas.

Michael Beck had another good day on his DNA Energy Drink Ducati and took sixth. West recovered to finish seventh ahead of Paul Allison on the Chronic Motorsports Yamaha. Aquino had an off-track excursion and finished a disappointed ninth ahead of Fernando Amantini on his Team Amantini Kawasaki.

Jodi Christie of Keene, ON was 12th on the Jodi Christie Racing / Durham Honda Powerhouse Honda CBR600RR.

Rockwall Engineering Yamaha rider J.D. Beach took his seventh win in the competitive AMA Pro SuperSport class. With Huntley Nash finishing second on his LTD Racing Yamaha, it enabled Beach to capture his AMA Pro SuperSport Young Gun East Division championship. 

"I didn't think I was going to win the championship when the season started," said Beach. "I was riding good at the end of the season last year but I knew Huntley was going to be stepping it up this year. I wasn't sure what division Joey was riding in. I knew Cameron [Beaubier], I was excited because I kind of got him the ride for Rockwall. After I got him the ride I realized that he was probably going to be kind of fast, so I kind of made a mistake there but I did what I knew how to do and rode consistent and rode to the best that I could. Not too crazy, but crazy enough to win, and it just ended up this way.

"If the team does go to New Jersey we're going to be running SportBike."

Danny Eslick took the win in the AMA Pro Vance & Hines XR1200 series ahead of Travis Wyman and teammate Jake Holden. Eslick, riding his RMR Bruce Rossmeyer Daytona Racing Harley-Davidson XR1200 led the way to his third out of three XR1200 series victories.

Daytona SportBike Race Results (Top 15)
1. Josh Herrin (Team Graves Yamaha) Yamaha YZF-R6 23 Laps
2. Steve Rapp (Team Latus Motors Racing) Ducati 848 +0.174
3. Danny Eslick (GEICO Powersports ·RMR ·Suzuki) Suzuki GSX-R600 +0.240
4. P. J. Jacobsen (Celtic Racing) Suzuki GSX-R600 +2.591
5. Martin Cardenas (M4 Monster Energy Suzuki) Suzuki GSX-R600 +10.774
6. Michael Beck (DNA Energy Drink CNR Motorsports Ducati) Ducati 848 +13.444
7. Cory West (Vesrah Suzuki) Suzuki GSX-R600 +21.096
8. Paul Allison (Chronic Motorsports) Yamaha YZF-R6 +26.772
9. Tommy Aquino (Team Graves Yamaha) Yamaha YZF-R6 +31.697
10. Fernando Amantini (Team Amantini) Kawasaki Ninja ZX-6R +34.341
11. Santiago Villa (RoadRacingWorld.com Suzuki) Suzuki GSX-R600 +51.557
12. Jodi Christie (Jodi Christie Racing) Honda CBR600RR +59.481
13. Kris Turner (Turner`s Cycle Racing) Suzuki GSX-R600 +1:02.103
14. Reese Wacker (Wacker Racing LLC) Suzuki GSX-R600 +1:02.320
15. Michael Morgan (Autolite RIM Racing) Suzuki GSX-R600 +1:02.503
Race Time: 1:01:13.444
Margin of Victory: 0.174
Best Race Lap: Martin Cardenas (1:27.864)

Daytona SportBike Standings (Top 15)
1. Danny Eslick 307
2. Josh Herrin 295
3. Martin Cardenas 293
4. Steve Rapp 256
5. Cory West 193
6. Tommy Aquino 186
7. Dane Westby 172
8. Bobby Fong 153
9. Clinton Seller 134
10. Chris Fillmore 134
11. Fernando Amantini 111
12. P. J. Jacobsen 106
13. Michael Beck 78
14. Kris Turner 59
15. Lenny Hale 54
31. Jodi Christie 17
60. Marie-Josee Boucher 3