Fong’s First by a Fraction
Cycle News Staff | August 14, 2010
ALTON, VA, AUG 14 – DNA Energy Drink CNR Motorsports Ducati’s Bobby Fong won his first ever Daytona SportBike race in a virtual dead heat with M4 Monster Energy Suzuki’s Martin Cardenas in the red flag-interrupted final on Saturday afternoon at Virginia International Raceway.The 23-lap race was stopped on the 15th lap when David White’s crashed Kawasaki lay in the middle of the track between turns three and four. Scoring reverted to the end of the 14th lap, with the final turning into a nine-lap shootout.The race came down to the last lap with Cardenas leading out of the final corner and looking set set to win his seventh race of the year. But as the Colombian was speeding to the line he looked over his shoulder to see Fong making a mad charge to the stripe. The pair crossed the line side by side with Fong declared the winner by .001 of a second.The victory was his first ever; his previous best was a second at Mid-Ohio.Third on the day went to Geico Powersports/RMR Suzuki’s Danny Eslick, who took advantage of a mistake by his closest championship challenger to move into a commanding championship lead.Eslick started from the pole, led the most laps, and was in the lead when the race was stopped for a fallen motorcycle on the 15th of 23 laps. Eslick also led off the re-start before getting shuffled back less than four laps from the end.He would finish third, picking up 22 crucial championship points, while his title rival, Team Graves Motorsports Yamaha’s Josh Herrin, had an off day. Herrrin got knocked down at the start, remounted, pitted for repairs, then crashed later in the race. That dropped him to third place in the standings with five races remaining.Eslick leads with 286 points to 277 for Cardenas and 264 for Herrin.
Daytona SportBike:
1. Bobby Fong (Ducati)
2. Martin Cardenas (Suzuki)
3. Danny Eslick (Suzuki)
4. Tommy Aquino (Yamaha)
5. Steve Rapp (Ducati)
6. Michael Beck (Ducati)
7. Michael Barnes (Yamaha)
8. Kyle Wyman (Yam)
9. Fernando Amantini (Kaw)
10. Dane Westby (Yamaha)
