Cycle News

DAYTONA SPORTBIKE ROUNDS 7-8/JULY 20, 2014 MID-OHIO SPORTS CAR COURSE/LEXINGTON, OHIO P90 AMA GO PRO DAYTONA SPORTBIKE SERIES On the restart it was Gagne over Lewis, DiSalvo, Beach and Gerloff in a five-rider break. On lap 10 DiSalvo, who'd been pushing hard to move forward and gotten by Lewis, moved up to pass Gagne and take over the lead. Meanwhile, Lewis and Gerloff were locked in a torrid contest for third. With a couple of laps to go Gerloff dove in to try for the pass going into the tight left hander of turn seven. His bike shook it's head a bit as he entered the turn and he nudged his way un- der Lewis, but wasn't completely in control and both of them ran wide. The end result was Lewis was hung out to dry. Gerloff lift- ed his boot as a sign of apology to Lewis, but he wasn't about to give the position back. "I kind of got hung up behind Jake Lewis," Gerloff later ex- plained. "I wasn't able to draft him at the end of the straightaway and it's always a struggle to find anywhere else I could pass him. I made kind of a sketchy move on him [Lewis]. I thought I was far- ther in front of him than I really was and I kind of accidently stood us both up. I'm glad we both stayed up. Sorry to him, but I was able to hold on the last couple of laps and get on the podium." Bobby Fong earned an excel- lent fifth place on his Latus Mo- tors/Castrol/Triumph Racing entry, holding off former factory Suzuki Superbike rider Blake Young on the GN Gonzalez ma- chine. CN RACE ONE 1. Jake Lewis (Yamaha) 2. Jake Gagne (Yamaha) 3. Danny Eslick (Triumph) 4. Garrett Gerloff (Yamaha) 5. Dane Westby (Yamaha) 6. JD Beach (Yamaha) 7. Jason DiSalvo (Triumph) 8. Bobby Fong (Triumph) 9. Blake Young (Yamaha) 10. Jake Zemke (Honda) RACE TWO 1. Jason DiSalvo (Triumph) 2. Jake Gagne (Yamaha) 3. Garett Gerloff (Yamaha) 4. Jake Lewis (Yamaha) 5. Bobby Fong (Triumph) 6. Blake Young (Yamaha) 7. Kyle Wyman (Yamaha) 8. JD Beach (Yamaha) 9. Tomas Puerta (Yamaha) 10. Dane Westby (Yamaha) SOONER SLAM There was some controversy between Oklahomans Dane Westby and Danny Eslick during the red flag break of the second Daytona SportBike race. Eslick was one of the riders (along with Westby and Jake Zemke) who went down after a coolant line busted on Westby's machine. The two got into a heated discus- sion before the restart. The argu- ment stemmed in part to the first DSB race where Eslick put his hand on Westby's shoulder during the race. "We were pitted next to each other and he asked me if I wanted to start some shit," Eslick said of their face-to-face confrontation during the red flag in race two. "I said, 'No I was just coming over to see if you were alright.' He was still heated from the first race. We were going down the back straightaway and sometimes he likes to do an aggressive move and do a lot of blocking or diving up the inside. As I was going up the inside of him in the kink he was coming over so I just put my hand on his shoulder, you know an old dirt track move to say, 'Hey, buddy I'm here, don't come over on me.' So he was just mad from crashing and reflect- ing back to the first race. He started ripping on me and telling me I was riding like an idiot. "That first race I was there trying to stay with the lead pack and he comes stuffing it in one of the sec- tions where you have to go single file or you're just going to lose them. I said a few things… he's trying to be a hero and this and that. I under- stand we're all trying to win it, but two guys can work together to catch that lead pack and then sort it out at the end. I respect him for trying to ride hard and in the heat of the mo- ment we both said some things that were probably a little inappropriate. I don't know what went out on the Fan's Choice [online streaming], but hopefully it wasn't anything too bad." Eslick went on to say his Riders discount Racing Triumph suffered either a bent front wheel or brake rotor. "Every time I got on the brakes the thing would just start hopping. All I could do at that point was salvage any points I could. I had to do what I could to get something. It's going to be a Hail Mary now to pull off the championship, but you never know what can happen."

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