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Eslick takes Daytona SportBike co-lead at Topeka
(8/3/2009)
Bruce Rossmeyer’s Daytona Racing/RMR/GEICO Powersports rider Danny Eslick
earned a share AMA Pro Racing Daytona SportBike championship lead with a victory
and a third place finish during a tumultuous and emotional double-header weekend
for the Oklahoma rider and his team at Heartland Park-Topeka that was marred by
the tragic death of team sponsor Bruce Rossmeyer, who was killed in a street
motorcycle accident on the way to the Sturgis motorcycle rally on Friday.
Starting from tenth place on the grid, Eslick charged through the field in
Saturday’s Race 1 to take the lead from polesitter Jason DiSalvo (Team M4
Suzuki) on lap 8 and was later challenged for the lead by DiSalvo’s teammate,
points leader Martin Cardenas. When Cardenas crashed out of the race on lap 18,
Eslick cruised to a 1.8-second victory in the 20-lap race.
“I glanced back and Martin was all over me and that was pretty close to the
end,” Eslick said. “I did a couple of really good motocross block passes, and I
think I was going slow enough I could have put my foot down. It was 100 percent
clean, he raced me clean and we never touched once. That’s the race I've been
looking for all year, to be the points leader and all that. Martin’s a heck of
a guy, a great rider and I wish it wouldn’t have ended that way because that
would have been a heck of a battle to the checkered flag,” Eslick said. “It was
really unfortunate about the passing of Bruce Rossmeyer and we dedicate this win
to him. He was a great guy and our teammate. The family said ‘go win a
championship for us,’ so this is the first step.”
Following Saturday’s race, AMA officials determined that Eslick had made an
illegal pass under waving yellow for the lead, and he was docked 10 championship
points and half his purse winnings for the weekend.
In Sunday’s Race 2, Eslick once again worked his way up to the race lead and
engaged in a thrilling run to the checkered flag with eventual winner Cardenas
and Graves Yamaha’s Josh Herrin, who charged back up through the field after a
mid-race off-track excursion resulting from a near collision with Eslick. Eslick
and Cardenas exchanged the lead twice on the final lap, but Herrin’s daring
full-lock last-lap pass on Eslick dropped the Buell rider to third.
“Josh snuck in there the last lap. I was all over [the track]. I hit the
ground once. I don’t know how the handlebar didn’t hit the ground. It was
everything but on the ground sliding,” Eslick said. “Hats off to the Bruce
Rossmeyer/RMR Buell team. Again this weekend is for Bruce.”
With two rounds left in the season, Eslick is tied atop the Daytona SportBike
championship standings with Cardenas at 318 points each. With a pair of second
place finishes, Herrin moved up to third in the points with 261.
In Saturday’s 2-hour SunTrust Moto-GT endurance race, the Liberty
Waves/Antelope Valley H-D/Buell team of Eric Pinson and Eric Haugo finished
fourth in the Moto-GT1 class, dropping to second in the class standings behind
Crozier Motorsports 190-104 points. The James Gang/Hoban Brothers Racing team of
Paul James and Jeff Johnson finished sixth and moved up to fifth place in the
season points.
In other Buell results from the Topeka double-header, Eslick’s teammate
Michael Barnes finished 20th and 17th, respectively in Daytona Sportbike, Latus
Motor’s Taylor Knapp finished 12th and 8th, Bartels’ H-D-Buell/Higbee-racing.com’s
Shawn Higbee finished 39th and 16th, and Blue Springs H-D/Buell/Bison Racing’s
Walt Sipp finished 30th and 42nd. In American Superbike weekend results, Higbee
finished 14th and 13th and Sipp finished 21st and 18th. All were racing Buell
1125Rs.
The next round of the championship is set for August 14-16 at Virginia
International Raceway in Alton, VA.
Founded by visionary motorcycle designer and former privateer racer Erik
Buell in 1983, Buell Motorcycle Company, a subsidiary of Harley-Davidson, Inc.,
produces sport motorcycles, motorcycle parts, accessories and apparel, including
the 1125R superbike, 1125CR café racer, and air-cooled XB-series Ulysses,
Firebolt, and Lightning.
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