Cycle News Staff | August 15, 2010
Team Graves Yamaha’s Josh Herrin came out victorious in a rousing battle of five riders-reduced to three on the final lap-in Sunday’s Daytona SportBike race at Virginia International Raceway.The race began under the threat of rain, a threat that materialized on the fifth of 23 laps. Just as quickly as it started it stopped, the track dried and the final 18 laps were gridded from the running order at the end of lap four.The stalwarts in the pack were Herrin, Latus Motors Racing’s Steve Rapp (Duc) and Geico Powersports/RMR Suzuki’s Danny Eslick. The late-comers were Vesrah Racing’s Cory West and M4 Monster Energy Suzuki’s Martin Cardenas, who was lucky to erase an eight second deficit from the early laps when he was gridded on the third row of the re-start.Throughout the race the passing action mostly came in turn one, with whomever led across the stripe certain to be gobbled up on the brakes.So it went lap after lap until the final lap when the order changed dramatically. The order at the stripe was West, Eslick, Cardenas, Herrin, Rapp. Then Eslick shot into the lead as Herrin made his move on the inside. Cardenas ran off the left edge of the track and into the grass. He would rejoin the race and finish fifth. Almost immediately afterwards, West also ran off, but with a not so gentle nudge from Herrin. West would finish seventh.Eslick led Herrin and Rapp for most of the lap. It was in the turn 14 downhill Roller Coaster where Herrin made his move, up the inside and into the following sequence that leads onto the front straight.Herrin sped to the victory by .174 of a second, with Rapp drafting by Eslick to take second by .066 of a second.Celtic Racing’s P.J. Jacobsen finished an eventful fourth. The New York teenager had crashed on the first lap of the first start, but was able to remount and continue.He finished eight seconds in front of Cardenas, with DNA Energy Drink CNR Motorsports Ducati’s Michael Beck sixth and West seventh.Eslick continues to lead the championship with 307 points to 295 for Herrin and 293 for Cardenas.
Daytona SportBike:
1. Josh Herrin (Yamaha)
2. Steve Rapp (Ducati)
3. Danny Eslick (Suzuki)
4. P.J. Jacobsen (Suzuki)
5. Martin Cardenas (Suzuki)
6. Michael Beck (Ducati)
7. Cory West (Suzuki)
8. Paul Allison (Yamaha)
9. Tommy Aquino (Yamaha)
10. Fernando Amantini (Kawasaki)
