IN
THE
WIND
P24
TEAMLESS ESLICK FINDS OPPORTUNITIES
D
anny Eslick is a
racer without a
team this year, but
it seems the hard-
riding Oklahoman is
making the most out
of what could have
been a lost summer.
Already this season
Eslick made a solid
payday by winning
the Daytona 200 in
March. This week-
end at VIR he was
back on a Superbike
for the first time in
two years and he
loved every minute
of it.
Eslick's epic
summer of a variety of rides is
slated to continue this coming
weekend at the Springfield Mile
and then a couple of weeks
after that he'll be running at the
X-Games. Talk about making
lemonade out of lemons.
He scored a fourth and fifth
in Sunday's pair of MotoAmerica
Superbike races at VIR riding
the Turbo Turtle Racing Honda,
an ex-Chris Ulrich Superbike
from last season. Eslick liked it.
"I consider it a win for me,"
Eslick said. "I'm not at home on
the couch or on the golf course;
I'm here at the racetrack where I
belong. I appreciate the oppor-
tunity the TTR team gave me for
showing the world I haven't for-
gotten anything in the two races
that I wasn't around.
"Hopefully this can turn into a
long-term deal; I obviously want
to be out here racing with these
guys week in and week out and
not finishing fourth or fifth. But
overall for the first weekend
on this bike with this team and
crew, a fourth and fifth was a
pretty solid finish."
Now Eslick turns his atten-
tion to a couple of weekends
of flat track, first at the historic
Springfield Mile and then the X-
Games on a short Half-Mile built
inside COTA. He'll be riding an
Aaron Lindfors Harley-Davidson
of Salina, T&R Racing XR750 in
both events.
Eslick will be the first Daytona
200 winner to race the Spring-
field Mile in the same year since
Nicky Hayden in 2002.
If Eslick could qualify for the
Main at Springfield it would be
quite a feat. Although he's com-
peted in AMA Grand National
TTs and Short Tracks, he's never
qualified for a Main on a Grand
National Twin.
"I only tried to race at the
Springfield Mile once before
and it wasn't the best of week-
ends for me," Eslick added. "I've
been out playing on a 450 lately
and getting back to my roots,
and go turn left and skid that
Daytona 200 winner Danny Eslick
could be the first rider since Nicky
Hayden to win the 200 and race the
Springfield Mile in the same year.
PHOTOGRAPHY
BY
BRIAN
J
NELSON
