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DAYTONA SPORTBIKE AMA GO PRO DAYTONA SPORTBIKE SERIES ROUND 1/MARCH 15, 2014 DAYTONA INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY/DAYTONA BEACH, FLORIDA P62 My Own Race: 69 DANNY ESLICK 1ST Danny Eslick became the ninth consecutive first-time winner of the Daytona 200. The race hasn't had a repeat winner since Mat Mladin in 2004. He also closes out the 600cc era of Daytona 200s, which started in 2005 as next year's race will feature Superbikes again. He reflected on the win by citing his crew and his support team back home in Oklahoma. He also paid tribute to a fellow racer who recently passed away. "Hats off to the crew. [Crew chief] Richard Stanboli is the guy I worked with like 10 years ago in my first year in the AMA. So in a big, roundabout way, this is payback for that first year," said Eslick. "It's awe- some. I've gotten the pole before and, my very first 200, I got fourth. So there's been a lot of hard work and a lot of years passed by to get this victory. It really means a lot. There's been a lot going on at home, losing people close to me. This one is for Tommy Aquino and some good friends from home. So it means a lot." Eslick said he was unaware of the crash with Dane West- by and Jason DiDalvo, that broke up the four-rider battle for the lead. "I had no clue what was going on," he said. "Me and Dane were together after a pit stop, but after my last stop I never saw anybody. I looked back and I saw Jake [Gagne] and I was plus-two. I looked back to see exactly what that two seconds looked like. I hit the kills switch and the thing died on me and I thought, 'Oh man.' I thought the fuel can hit dump or something. That bike was making a lot of noise in those last 10 laps." 32 JAKE GAGNE 2ND Jake Gagne upheld Yamaha honors nicely with his second- place finish, his best ever in the 200. While his bike made plenty of power, his team is using new suspension not yet completely sorted out and that may have hampered him a bit in the more technical sections of the track. He was also lucky to avoid the incidents that happened all around him. "I was definitely struggling a little bit in the infield," Gagne explained. "It separated when I saw Dane [Westby] go down in front of me, Garrett [Gerloff] went down in front of me, something happened to [Jason] DiSalvo. I thought, 'Man we have just got to survive this thing.' My pit stops were amazing. So quick I didn't even have time to drink any water. The second lap out I blew the second horseshoe and that cost me running with Danny. I tried to make a little run at him, but it was just too sketchy out there." 85 JAKE LEWIS 3RD Jake Lewis is coming on strong and his podium on the Motosport.com/Meen Yamaha hinted at him being a force all season. One error early cost Lewis the benefit of the draft. "I got off to a pretty good start and was running with the lead pack," Lewis said. "I had a few little problems and couldn't run the pace of the leaders. I made a big mistake leading onto the first banking, lost the draft and after that I was all by myself. The whole second stint was great. I was chasing Bobby Fong and was in sixth. Then another great pit stop by the team, I think it was the fastest of the race, so that was good for us. In the third stint people were mak- ing mistakes and pit stops got a few people and I was in third. There was a pretty good gap back to fourth so I rode conservative." 50 BOBBY FONG 4TH Bobby Fong had a crash early in the first day of practice that set him back for the entire weekend. He recovered to ultimately score a strong result. "We turned a horrible weekend into a pretty good weekend," Fong said. "I had definitely one of the best bikes out there. The first two days were horrible. I had a crash and with this one-bike rule you can't do anything about it, so basically all my sessions were just junk. The final qualifying I treated like my first practice. After the pit stop I lost the first five guys and I was a sitting duck. As soon as you lose that draft you're almost a sec- ond off every lap because you're pushing your own wind. Last year I got third, but I consider this a better accomplish- ment for us for how tough we struggled at the beginning of the weekend." 8 GARRETT GERLOFF 5TH Gerloff was one of the pre-race favorites on the factory Ya- maha, but a crash put an end to his hopes of winning the 200. He and his team rallied though and he leaves Daytona in a solid third in the points, but that couldn't console him on this day. "It was really tight before the first pit stop," Gerl- off said. "I think I came in second, but was the first one out. I put my head down to get as big of a gap as I could while we were separated. On the second lap out I was going into turn five, the right-hander, and I was one gear too tall. I was in third, but I should have been in second. In trying to slow down I was just using too much front brake and tucked the front. I got up and tried to click off the best laps that I could. I was so disappointed. I wanted to win this for my team. They worked so hard. I'm devastated." 33 KYLE WYMAN 6TH Wyman turned in a strong performance in his Daytona 200 debut. He rode a clean race on his own Yamaha to fin- ish sixth. "It was so much fun," Wyman said with a grin. "I was running in the top 10 the whole time and battling with some people I've looked up to for a long time. I just can't say enough about KWR/Millennium Technologies turning triple duty this weekend. I started off battling with Joey [Pascarella] and Jake [Zemke]. Talk about two guys who know their way around this place. We must have had a blis- tering pit stop because after that I didn't see them again. I pretty much rode by myself the entire last stint. The race went quicker than I thought it would. The last eight laps I

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