Eslick Takes his Fourth Win at Mid-Ohio
LEXINGTON, Ohio (July 18, 2009) - Danny
Eslick grabbed his fourth career AMA Pro Daytona SportBike presented by AMSOIL victory
on the No. 9 GEICO Powersports/RMR Buell 1125R in Race One of the Honda Super
Cycle Weekend at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.
Eslick
started the day strong by claiming the pole in Saturday morning's final qualifying
effort. The grid was set by that result
as the weekend's basic qualifying and Superpole sessions were canceled due to a
Friday afternoon rain shower. By the end
of the race's first lap, Eslick had built up a .551 second lead over the No. 88
Monster Energy Attack Kawasaki Ninja ZX-6R of Jamie Hacking, who steadily
chipped away at the lead over the ensuing laps before taking the point in Turn
6 on Lap 7. Hacking held the lead for
two laps until mechanical troubles sidelined him for the race on Lap 9.
"I
got a good start, right off the bat and led a couple of laps," said Eslick. "I
didn't see anybody coming through, which usually happens as everybody's really
aggressive the first few laps. I knew we
had kind of pulled away and then Jamie came by. I think I was on the brakes the first time and
he came up. He came by me and we battled
back and forth for a lap or two and when he had his problem, I almost ran up
his exhaust pipe. He did a good job
getting his hand up and out of the way, so good job there. It could have been real ugly in that spot."
Graves
Yamaha teammates Josh Herrin and Tommy Aquino held an aggressive battle for
position throughout the 21-lap sprint race.
At the end of the first lap, Aquino's No. 6 Yamaha YZF-R6 led Herrin's
No. 8 Yamaha YZF-R6 to the line, but the rookie couldn't hold the position and
was passed by Herrin on Lap 2. The
Graves duo moved up the ranks as attrition hit riders Hacking and Martin
Cardenas, who was running in third position aboard the No. 36 Team M4 Suzuki
GSX-R600 before low siding at the exit of Turn 8 on Lap 5. Aquino was able to squeeze by Herrin again on
Lap 9 before Herrin used a block pass on Lap 10 to get by both Aquino and Jake
Zemke's No. 1X Erion Honda CBR600RR to take second position.
"I
think when (Tommy) passed me, he went to put a move on Jake going into (Turn) 5
on the brakes and I just decided I am going to get both these guys and just
dove in there and made a move," said Herrin.
"It wasn't purposefully a block pass, but it sort of ended up being a
block pass. I just rode defensive from
there and luckily we held on to second."
Aquino
was also able to get past Zemke, challenging Herrin for the remainder of the
race and allowing Eslick to slip away to a 2.318 second lead by the end of the
race. The third place finish was Aquino's
his first AMA Pro podium finish.
"It
was really hard," said Aquino. "I was
going as hard as I could, my tires were spent and I was just trying as hard as
I could to stay where I was at and try to take a position if I could. I am really happy with this podium. It is my
first podium with AMA Pro Racing. I really
just have to thank my team."
Zemke
turned the fastest lap of the race in Lap 6 at 1:28.160 and ran as high as
second before finishing fourth. Chaz
Davies rounded out the top five on the No. 57 Factory Aprilia Millennium
Technologies Team Aprilia RSV1000R.
Points leader Cardenas recovered to finish 12th and holds the
championship lead over Eslick 264-244.
Saturday's
race can be seen on SPEED Sunday at 12:00 p.m. ET (9 a.m. PT). Race Two for Daytona SportBike in this
weekend's Honda Super Cycle Weekend presented by Dunlop Tires goes off Sunday
at 2:00 p.m. local time.
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