Photo finish favours Fong

From AMA Pro Racing

ALTON, VA - Bobby Fong took his first career AMA Pro Daytona SportBike victory at Virginia International Raceway on Saturday, edging Martin Cardenas in a photo finish.

Danny Eslick took pole position and was joined on the front row by his championship rival Josh Herrin along with six-time 2010 Daytona SportBike winner Cardenas and Tommy Aquino. 

At the start, a fast starting P.J. Jacobson shot into the lead on his Celtic Racing Suzuki, ahead of Eslick's GEICO Powersports Suzuki, Aquino and his Team Graves Yamaha, Cardenas' M4 Monster Energy Suzuki and Clinton Seller, Steve Rapp and Fong.

Herrin was hit by another rider diving into turn one and essentially, Herrin's day was done.

Back on the track Eslick, Jacobson, Aquino, Cardenas and Fong put on quite a show. Right behind this group was Rapp on his Team Latus Motors Ducati and Cory West on the Vesrah Suzuki.

On lap 15 David White, riding Grant Smith's Memory Racing Kawasaki fell in turn four and the race had to be red flagged to remove his stricken motorcycle.

At the restart, Eslick got a great start and led into turn one. Now there were six bikes running together and West was a man in a hurry. A couple of laps later, West made a major move and passed Cardenas for the lead but it was short lived as he fell before the end of the very same lap, letting Cardenas and the rest back by. 

Fong had made a couple of major moves of his own and rode his DNA Energy Drink Ducati from 10th to the lead on a couple of occasions as he and Eslick had a quite the battle along with Cardenas. As the race wound down Eslick was pushed back to third and watched as Fong and Cardenas went at it. Cardenas had the advantage and coming out to the last corner, he looked a sure winner but Fong moved to the outside as the two neared the flag and they went over the line virtually side by side. 

It took a photo review by AMA Pro Road Racing Race Director David McGrath to determine that Fong had indeed won by the absolute slimmest of margins. Fong had been knocking on the door for the last few races and after his heartbreaking fall while leading at the last round at Laguna Seca, this was a popular win for him and the CNR Motorsports team.

Herrin's misfortune enabled Eslick to take the points lead and allowed Cardenas to move into second in points ahead of Herrin.

"It feels awesome," said Fong. "We've been working at it all year long to get to the top of the box. With this class, you don't know, a person in 15th place could win it's so close and the guys are just so awesome out here."

Aquino took fourth ahead of a determined Rapp and sixth was Fong's Ducati teammate, Michael Beck.

In his U.S. racing debut Jodi Christie of Keene, ON placed 13th on the Jodi Christie Racing / Durham Honda Powerhouse Honda CBR600RR.

In SuperSport, J.D. Beach took his Rockwall Engineering Yamaha to a dominant win over Joey Pascarella on his DNA Energy Drink Yamaha and Huntley Nash on his LTD Racing Yamaha. Beach took his sixth win of the season by over 13 seconds and extended his AMA SuperSport Young Gun East Division points lead over his sidelined teammate Cameron Beaubier and Saturday's fourth place finisher, Tomas Puerta, Nash's LTD Racing Yamaha teammate.

While Beach was able to again ride off into the distance, Pascarella had to battle his way through Puerta and then had a long battle with Nash to claim second place.

"My bike is my baby, I take good care of that thing," said Beach. "We got that thing set up real good, it's a great bike, the team's great. All I have to do is get on it, twist the throttle and go."

Daytona SportBike Race Results (Top 15)
1. Bobby Fong (DNA Energy Drink CNR Motorsports Ducati) Ducati 848 23 Laps
2. Martin Cardenas (M4 Monster Energy Suzuki) Suzuki GSX-R600 +0.000
3. Danny Eslick (GEICO Powersports ·RMR ·Suzuki) Suzuki GSX-R600 +0.363
4. Tommy Aquino (Team Graves Yamaha) Yamaha YZF-R6 +1.666
5. Steve Rapp (Team Latus Motors Racing) Ducati 848 +2.220
6. Michael Beck (DNA Energy Drink CNR Motorsports Ducati) Ducati 848 +4.529
7. Michael Barnes (Prieto Performance) Yamaha YZF-R6 +8.489
8. Kyle Wyman (Harv`s Harley-Davidson) Yamaha YZF-R6 +12.343
9. Fernando Amantini (Team Amantini) Kawasaki Ninja ZX-6R +14.916
10. Dane Westby (Project 1 Atlanta) Yamaha YZF-R6 +14.940
11. Santiago Villa (RoadRacingWorld.com Suzuki) Suzuki GSX-R600 +25.807
12. Kris Turner (Turner`s Cycle Racing) Suzuki GSX-R600 +25.931
13. Jodi Christie (Jodi Christie Racing) Honda CBR600RR +35.918
14. Michael Morgan (Autolite RIM Racing) Suzuki GSX-R600 +36.354
15. Chris Fillmore (Vesrah Suzuki) Suzuki GSX-R600 +37.494
Race Time: 52:27.367
Margin of Victory: 0.000
Best Race Lap: Michael Beck (1:25.329)