Henny Ray Abrams | August 16, 2009
Team Graves Yamaha’s Josh Herrin scored the first Daytona SportBike double-header sweep of his career by adding a Sunday win to his Saturday success at Virginia International Raceway in Alton, Virginia.In the lead pack from the start, and leading briefly on lap nine, Herrin tracked down Roger Lee Hayden (Monster Energy Attack Kawasaki) and passed him on the inside at the entrance to the top of the roller coaster downhill on the 20th lap.With nothing but clear track, Herrin upped his lead to .804 secs. on the 21st lap, went over a second on the next lap, and finished with a margin of victory of 1.874 secs.Bruce Rossmeyer Daytona Racing/RMR Buell’s Danny Eslick rebounded from 12th on Saturday to finish second today, adding greatly to his championship lead over M4 Suzuki’s Martin Cardenas. Riding with a broken bone in his right hand, Cardenas finished 11th. Eslick goes to the season finale at New Jersey Motorsports Park with a lead of 17 points, 357 to 340.Herrin’s teammate Tommy Aquino gave Yamaha a one-three finish by taking his third podium of the season, just .076 sec. behind Eslick, with Latus Racing’s Taylor Knapp (Bue) another .092 sec. back.Then came Hayden, who swapped the lead with Herrin early, then led laps 10 through 19. Hayden ran wide in the turn four left on the 22nd lap, dropping to fifth.Hayden was later penalized half of his prize money for the weekend and ten points for avoidable contact at the start. From the second row, Hayden ran into second fast qualifier Zemke on the front row prior to the green flag of the rolling start.Paradigm Racing’s Bobby Fong (Yam) was a close sixth to Hayden, with Erion Honda’s Jake Zemke fading to seventh after leading early in the race.Zemke’s teammate Chris Peris was eighth followed by Monster Energy Attack Kawasaki’s Jamie Hacking, and Dane Westby (Yam).
Results:
1. Josh Herrin (Yamaha)
2. Danny Eslick (Buell)
3. Tommy Aquino (Yamaha)
4. Taylor Knapp (Buell)
5. Roger Lee Hayden (Kawasaki)
6. Bobby Fong (Yamaha)
7. Jake Zemke (Honda)
8. Chris Peris (Honda)
9. Jamie Hacking (Kawasaki)
10. Michael Beck (Yamaha)
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.
