MILLVILLE, NJ, SEPT 3 – Danny Eslick had two races to clinch his second Daytona SportBike championship. He only needed one.
The RMR Geico Suzuki rider had ballooned his championship lead to 45 points ahead of the final double-header of the season at New Jersey Motorsports Park. A math degree wasn’t needed to know that Eslick would win the title unless some catastrophic happened. It didn’t. Eslick didn’t win the race, nor did he finish second or third, but he didn’t have to. He finished sixth, but title rival Josh Herrin (Monster Energy Graves Yamaha) only finished second, which meant the 2011 Daytona SportBike title would be Eslick’s, along with the inaugural DSB title that he also won here in 2009.
“It hasn’t set in again yet,” Eslick said after amassing an insurmountable points lead heading into Sunday’s season finale. With a race to go, Eslick had 259 points to Herrin’s 225. “First, I didn’t think we were far enough up there. I knew I had to be within a few spots of Josh (Herrin), even if he didn’t win. But for some reason I just wasn’t thinking that we got the job done today. And then I came in and was looking around. Team was saying, ‘Yeah.’ I waited until I looked at an official and they said, ‘Yeah,’ and gave me the checkered flag. Then it kinda started to sink in a little bit.”
Eslick won the championship by scoring well in most races after being taken out of the Daytona 200 by a tire failure. “Shortly after I got done sliding on my butt at Daytona, my RS Taichi leathers, we kinda just made a joke about it that the past two champions had come out of Daytona with either negative or zero points, so make that three in a row now,” he said of his championship in 2009 and the 2010 title won by Martin Cardenas.
Eslick only won three of 12 races and his first didn’t come until the race one at Barber Motorsports Park. It was a pivotal race. Herrin had won three in a row coming to Alabama, then had a mechanical failure in the race that Eslick won. He’d rebound with a win in the next race, but Eslick was second. The championship was on.
It would be decided in the next three races. Eslick went 3-1 at Mid-Ohio, then won at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca. Herrin’s Mid-Ohio score was 2-6, but the killer was yet another mechanical failure at Laguna Seca. In the five weeks between races, Herrin had plenty of time to think about what might have been and what he needed to do. After qualifying ahead of Eslick, but not on the pole, he acknowledged his title shot was a longshot, but he had to try.
Trying equally hard was Tommy Aquino (Yamaha Extended Service/Pat Clark Sports). Aquino had qualified on pole for the first time this season and was ready come race time. He was a strong second in a pack of five when leader Dane Westby (M4 Suzuki) ran off the track trying to pass a lapped rider early on the final lap. Then it was up to Aquino to ride one clean lap, which he did, to earn his first Daytona SportBike race win.
“I mean, those last five, four laps, I kinda put it in my head that this is the best chance I have,” he said. “Dane (Westby) wasn’t going to give me an inch.” Aquino said he was lining Westby up for a last lap pass in turn six. “I kinda lined him up like a few laps ahead of time to see where I was strong and I was going to go for it, no matter what. Before I even had a chance I got in the lead and then led the lap from there. Tried to put in a flawless lap and I did the best I could and it was good enough.”
Aquino beat Herrin by .114 sec. RidersDiscount.com/Jake Holden Racing Yamaha’s Cameron Beaubier was third at .144 sec., with Cory West fourth on the Vesrah Suzuki, also less than a second behind. Next came West’s teammate Taylor Knapp and then Eslick, alone in sixth to secure the championship after having run near the front earlier on.
“I had a couple moments there - I don’t know, probably three-quarters of the way through the race - that definitely kinda opened my eyes up and figured I’d better back it down a notch,” he said. It came on the 16th lap while he was in second, after which he’d lose positions on the next three laps. “So I backed it down. I hung in there for a little bit. Then, was it Taylor? Cory and Taylor both came by me and put some pretty aggressive passes on me. I was like, whoa, I didn’t think you guys were going to do that, pull a move like that one. No, it wasn’t anything bad, it was just from my point of view it was a little more risk taking than I wanted to do.”
AMA Pro New Jersey Daytona SportBike race results:
1. Tommy Aquino (Yamaha)
2. Josh Herrin (Yamaha)
3. Cameron Beaubier (Yamaha)
4. Cory West (Suzuki)
5. Taylor Knapp (Suzuki)
6. Danny Eslick (Suzuki)
7. Jason DiSalvo (Triumph)
8. PJ Jacobsen (Ducati)
9. Tyler OHara (Yamaha)
10. Santiago Villa (Suzuki)