Herrin Over Eslick In SportBike

Paul Carruthers | March 28, 2010

FONTANA, CA, MAR. 28 – Graves Motorsports Yamaha’s Josh Herrin worked on his last-lap strategy the entire race, prodding and probing to see exactly where he could get to Danny Eslick on the run from the final corner to the checkered flag at Auto Club Speedway. Turns out he knew what he was doing and he saved his best for last, getting a great drive out of the final corner to beat race-long leader Eslick to the line by .028 of a second.The win was Herrin’s second of the year to go with his victory in the Daytona 200, and it made up for what for him was a disappointing fourth in yesterday’s Daytona SportBike final.”I have a lot of family and friends come out to this one,” Herrin said. “It was hot today and windy yesterday and we wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for the fans so thanks to them for coming out. I was actually trying to get the most laps led without actually leading the race and I think I almost got it, but he ended up edging us out. I saw what we had for him on the last lap and the Yamaha obviously had some power on him.”Eslick, who led 15 of the 21 laps at the stripe, finished a close second for the second straight day, the Geico Powersports Suzuki rider getting beaten yesterday by M4 Monster’s Martin Cardenas. Today, however, Cardenas eliminated himself from contention when he crashed on the 14th lap in the final corner. The Columbian remounted to salvage 10th place.Third went to Latus Motors’ Steve Rapp, the Californian riding his Ducati hard the entire race and capitalizing on Cardenas’ blunder. Rapp barely held off Project 1 Atlanta Yamaha’s Dane Westby, yesterday’s third-place finisher, at the line.DNA Energy Drink’s Bobby Fong made big improvements over yesterday to finish fifth today, 8.1 seconds off the leader. Fong got the better of a near-race long battle for fifth over Graves Motorsports Yamaha’s Tommy Aquino and Vesrah Suzuki’s Cory West. Those three were separated by just half a second at the finish line.Chris Fillmore, Clinton Seller and Cardenas rounded out the top 10.After three of 18 rounds, Herrin leads the Daytona SportBike Championship by eight points over Eslick, 79-71. Westby is third with 64 points.

SportBike Final

1. Josh Herrin (Yamaha)

2. Danny Eslick (Suzuki)

3. Steve Rapp (Ducati)

4. Dane Westby (Yamaha)

5. Bobby Fong (Ducati)

6. Tommy Aquino (Yamaha)

7. Cory West (Suzuki)

8. Chris Fillmore (Suzuki)

9. Clinton Seller (Yamaha)

10. Martin Cardenas (Suzuki)