Eslick Wins Daytona SportBike

Henny Ray Abrams | August 1, 2009

Danny Eslick took over the Daytona SportBike championship points lead with his third win in a row, today’s win coming just two days after the death of team sponsor Bruce Rossmeyer.Bruce Rossmeyer, the main sponsor of the Bruce Rossmeyer/Richie Morris Racing/Geico Insurance team, was killed on Thursday in a motorcycle accident in Wyoming while riding to the Sturgis rally.”They told us, the family said, go win a championship for us, so this is the first step,” Eslick said.Starting eighth, back on row four of the rolling start, the Oklahoman quickly made his way through the field. Third on the fifth lap, he took over second on the sixth and set out for leader Jason DiSalvo (M4 Suzuki, who he passed on the eighth lap. DiSalvo then took himself out of contention when he overshot the turn eight chicane on the tenth lap.That same lap DiSalvo’s teammate Martin Cardenas took over second and set out for Eslick, who had a 1.3 secs. lead. Cardenas ran him down and dove up the inside in the turn eight left on lap 17. Eslick powered past on  the front straight kink on the next lap to re-take the point. Cardenas crashed soon after, handing the victory to Eslick.Eslick’s win, his sixth race of the year, was by 1.81 secs., but only because of a victory wheelie. Taking the white flag he had a cushion of 3.641 seconds.With five races remaining, Eslick leads Cardenas 306 to 288. Monster Energy Attack Kawasaki’s Jamie Hacking, who withdrew from racing over safety issues following Friday practice, remains third with 241.The Cardenas crash elevated the battle for third into a battle for second. Waged for much of the race between Team Graves Yamaha teammates Josh Herrin and Tommy Aquino, the fight went to Herrin. Aquino was .188 secs. back in third to score his second podium in three races.Factory Aprilia Millennium Technologies’ Chaz Davies was alone in fourth after dropping Bobby Fong, who was equally alone in fifth.DiSalvo recovered from overshooting the chicane to finish sixth.Erion Honda’s Jake Zemke held off Chris Fillmore for seventh.Monster Energy Attack Kawasaki’s Roger Hayden overcame a dismal start to finish ninth, just edging out Erion Honda’s Chris Peris.

Daytona SportBike:

1. Danny Eslick (Buell)

2. Josh Herrin (Yamaha)

3. Tommy Aquino (Yamaha)

4. Chaz Davies (Aprilia)

5. Bobby Fong (Yamaha)

6. Jason DiSalvo (Suzuki)

7. Jake Zemke (Honda)

8. Chris Fillmore (Yamaha)

9. Roger Hayden (Kawasaki)

10. Chris Peris (Honda)

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.