PHOTOGRAPHY BY BRIAN J NELSON
In textbook Daytona fashion, Danny Eslick beat rival Josh Herrin across the line at the Daytona International Speedway to take home back-to-back Daytona 200 victories.
The 74th running of the historic event—now sanctioned by the American Sportbike Racing Association (ASRA)—was plagued with red flags and traffic, but there was no shortage of thrill factor as it came down to the last lap between TOBC Racing Suzuki’s Eslick and Wheels In Motion Motorsport.com Meen Motorsports Yamaha’s Herrin. And as it tends to happen at Daytona—Herrin led out of the chicance, but Eslick drafted past on the high line up against the wall and crossed the finish line first by .086 of a second.
“That’s probably the first 200 in history that didn’t have pit stops,” Eslick said. “I don’t even know what to say about that… those last couple of laps were pretty crazy. I thought I was all by myself and looked back and there’s big number two. So I kind of eased up. I knew he was going to catch me and I didn’t want him to catch me right there at the end. He did right what I wanted, he went by me and I drafted pass him across the line. It was just kind of textbook draft passing at Daytona.”
As for Herrin, he was disappointed to miss out on the win, but looks to the upcoming MotoAmerica season with his new team.
“We really got killed with those red flags,” Herrin said. “I know my team’s been practicing a ton getting the pit stops down. We we’re able to do both fuel and both tires under 15 seconds and I really feel we would’ve shined there and got a good gap. Luck just didn’t go our way, I rode as hard as I could it just wasn’t good enough.
“Just want to thank the whole Wheels In Motion Motorsport.com Meen Motorsports Yamaha Team. They really did a phenomenal job, I’m coming off of the worse year of my career so far and these guys couldn’t help but make it any better. I’m proud to call them my team and go into the MotoAmerica series with them.”
Geoff May on his self-ran-crowd-sourced effort dubbed Project Mayday rounded out the podium in third. May was in the hunt for the win until a problem after his final pitstop with five laps to go saw a piece of the quick dump came off in the gas cap. May was in the second horseshoe when gas exploded all over him. Fortunately he was able to get the gas cap secured and keep racing, but he was too far off of the leaders with no time to catch them to battle for the win. Although it wasn’t a win, May was happy with the result and dedicated the podium spot to his fans that got him there.
“That’s Daytona for you…” Geoff said. “I want to thank you guys for getting me here. This is for you guys. Hey, we’re on the podium out of the back of the van. This is for you.”
Daytona 200 regular Bostjan Skubic from Slovenia finished fourth on the Inotherm Racing Yamaha ahead of Canadian Darren James on the Ruthless Racing Yamaha. In sixth was Sean Dwyer on a privateer Yamaha.
Tuned Racing Yamaha’s Bryce Prince was in the hunt for fourth after that last restart, but fell back to finish seventh. In eighth was Ryan Christian (who’s machine was not listed) ahead of Kristofer Knopf on a Yamaha. Rounding out the top 10 was Full Spectrum Racing Yamaha’s George Letakis.
Steve Rapp, on the other Tuned Racing Yamaha, was also in the hunt for the win until the final restart when Rapp was meatballed for a restart infraction.
Provisional 2015 Daytona 200 Results
1. Danny Eslick (Suzuki)
2. Josh Herrin (Yamaha)
3. Geoff May (Yamaha)
4. Bostjan Skubic (Yamaha)
5. Darren James (Yamaha)
6. Sean Dwyer (Yamaha)
7. Bryce Prince (Yamaha)
8. Ryan Christian
9. Kristofer Knopf (Yamaha)
10. George Letakis (Yamaha)
