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AMA GO PRO DAYTONA SPORTBIKE SERIES Laguna Seca was pretty special a couple of years ago, but anything with Daytona involved is pretty in- credible. That trophy is going to sit up proud right in the middle of my house – maybe right on the coffee table." He knew his lead was big and he backed off just a tad on the final lap, but still managed a 1:52.096. "I was just worried about some- thing," he admitted. "There were funny sounds you start hearing. It was really comfortable. Not any big deal just riding another lap." And the 73rd Daytona 200 was one devotees of the history of the sport are sure to enjoy. It marked the return to the British-made Tri- umph to Daytona's victory circle. It was 1967 when Triumph last enjoyed the fruits of victory in the 200. That was the year Gary Nixon raced a Triumph T/100R to vic- tory. That's many, many racing generations ago; in fact it was nearly 20 years before Eslick was even born. Never mind that Triumph was most- ly absent, indeed not even in business during the intervening years and forget the fact that the new Triumph has, at best, tenuous ties to the original incarnation of the classic British motorcycle brand. This was a victory by a Limey motorcycle ridden by Gary Nixon reincarnated dammit! It's reason for celebration. The British brand is back. Daytona Draft-Fest Early in the 200 it was typical Daytona 600 racing, with a lead pack as large as 10 riders hang- ing together for a good portion of the first half of the race. Eslick led the pack into turn one to start the race, but it was Dane Westby leading the first lap. Garrett Ger- loff then drafted into the lead for lap two, Eslick on lap three and so it went. Lap after lap a new leader. Even DSB newcomer To- mas Puerta had his turn leading the classic old race. But as the race wore on it was mainly Eslick and Westby sharing the lead at the start-finish line. Even after the first set of pit VOL. 51 ISSUE 11 MARCH 18, 2014 P59 Briefly... Danny Eslick's win was his first in the Daytona 200. It was also the fourth Daytona 200 win for Triumph. Previous winners on the brand in- clude Don Burnett (1962), Buddy El- more (1966) and Gary Nixon (1967). It marked Eslick's 13th-career Dayto- na SportBike victory. He's currently fourth on the all-time DSB wins list, one win away from tying Josh Herrin. Five former Daytona 200 winners were in the field for the 73rd edi- tion of the event. The riders were John Ashmead, Jason DiSalvo, Joey Pascarella, Steve Rapp and Jake Zemke. Zemke was the top finisher among the former winners. He fin- ished eighth on the GEICO Honda. Zemke was also the top finishing Honda rider. Ricky Orlando, 57 of Boulder, Colo- rado, returned to race this year to build on his unofficial all-time Day- tona 200 mileage record. Orlando overcame a crash in the chicane dur- ing practice and made the race on his Kawasaki. Orlando finished 22nd out of the 38 starters. Orlando took over the unofficial record in 2011 from the late Rick Shaw. Neither Daytona International Speedway nor AMA Pro Racing actually tracks the all-time Daytona 200 mileage record. The record is periodically updated by for- mer winner and Daytona 200 book author Don Emde, thus the unofficial designation. 1989 Daytona 200 winner John Ashmead experienced an engine failure during the first day of practice on his Peter Brady Kawasaki ZX-6R. Fellow racer Paul Schwemmer was Ashmead's mechanic and pulled an continued on next page Eslick knows how to celebrate.