Eslick Fined, Penalized for Illegal Pass
Henny Ray Abrams | August 2, 2009
Bruce Rossmeyer Racing/RMR Buell’s Danny Eslick was fined half the weekend’s final race purse and docked ten championship points for passing on a waving yellow flag in Saturday’s Daytona SportBike race at Heartland Park Topeka.The decision from race control came late Saturday evening following protests from a number of riders who claimed that Eslick’s turn six pass for the lead of M4 Suzuki’s Martin Cardenas came under a waving yellow. Because the live television feed was on a commercial break at the time, the video evidence wasn’t immediately available. Race officials reviewed the tape in the television production trailer before making their ruling.The passage in the rulebook describing the waving yellow flag, yellow light, “Indicates serious hazards on or near the track. Proceed with caution. Passing is not allowed from the flag stations displaying the waving yellow flag until the rider is beyond the incident. Violations will be determined from corner worker reports or other evidence deemed appropriate by AMA Pro Racing.”They also said the area of the incident was covered by a standing yellow flag at the corner workers’ station.Eslick now leads Cardenas by eight points, 296 to 288, rather than 18. Cardenas crashed while battling for the lead, remounting to finish 14th.
Henny Ray Abrams | Contributing Editor
Abrams is the longest-serving contributor at Cycle News. Over the course of his 35-some years of writing and shooting photos, he’s covered events from MotoGP to the Motocross World Championship - and everything in between.
