Buell’s Danny Eslick was back in winning form as he out-powered the Yamaha Factory duo of Josh Herrin and Tommy Aquino to take his fourth victory of the 2009 Daytona SuperBike season during Race 1 at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in Lexington, Ohio.
Eslick's last win was during Race 2 of Round 3 at Road Atlanta. He now moves into second in the points standings.
By the end of Lap 1 Eslick had amassed a half second lead over Kawasaki's Jamie Hacking. Hacking managed to chop away at the advantage and eventually overtook the Oklahoma native on Turn 6 on Lap 7. The championship runner-up led until mechanical problems on his Ninja ZX-6R sidelined him two laps later.
Graves Yamaha teammates Josh Herrin and Tommy Aquino waged an aggressive battle throughout the 21-lap race. By the end of Lap 1 Aquino led Herrin, but Herrin retook the position from the rookie on Lap 2. The duo moved up two places on Lap 9 when Martin Cardenas (Team M4 Suzuk) low-sided out of third position and Hacking dropped out of the lead.
After Aquino snuck past his teammate, Herrin retaliated with a block pass that pushed him ahead of Aquino and second-placed Jake Zemke (Erion Honda).
Herrin explained the shifty maneuver, "I think when (Tommy) passed me, he went to put a move on Jake going into (Turn) 5 on the brakes and I just decided I am going to get both these guys and just dove in there and made a move. It wasn't purposefully a block pass, but it sort of ended up being a block pass. I just rode defensive from there and luckily we held on to second."
Aquino also got past Zemke to once again challenge Herrin, which helped Eslick take a 2.318 second lead in front and win the race. Aquino's third-place result would be his first podium in AMA Pro Racing.
"It was really hard," said the rookie. "I was going as hard as I could, my tires were spent and I was just trying as hard as I could to stay where I was at and try to take a position if I could. I am really happy with this podium. It is my first podium with AMA Pro Racing. I really just have to thank my team."
Zemke finished fourth, despite clocking the fastest lap of the race and running as high as second. Chaz Davies rounded out the top five on the Aprilla RSV1000R. Cardenas recovered to finish 12th and maintain his Daytona SportBike points lead over Eslick by 264 to 244.
Tommy Aquino giving Eslick some post-race retaliation.
1. Daniel Eslick (
Buell 1125R) - 01:28.432, 21 Laps
2. Josh Herrin (
Yamaha YZF-R6) +2.317
3. Tommy Aquino (
Yamaha YZF-R6) +2.365
4. Jake Zemke (
Honda CBR600RR) +4.744
5. Chaz Davies (
Aprilia RSV1000R) +7.653
6. Steve Rapp (
Yamaha YZF-R6) +8.421
7. Taylor Knapp (
Buell 1125R) +18.154
8. Chris Peris (
Honda CBR600RR) +18.284
9. Jason DiSalvo (
Suzuki GSX-R600) +20.303
10. Shawn Higbee (
Buell 1125R) +39.115
11. Aaron Gobert (
Aprilla RSV1000R) +39.449
12. Martin Cardenas (
Suzuki GSX-R600) +40.933
13. Ricky Parker (Yamaha YZF-R6) +43.901
14. Michael Beck (Yamaha YZF-R6) +43.975
15. Damian Cudlin (Yamaha YZF-R6) +44.524
