Yamaha's Josh Herrin (#8) beat Ducati's Steve Rapp (#15) in the second DSB race at VIR.
Josh Herrin took victory in the second Daytona SportBike race at VIR. The Graves Yamaha rider was joined on the Sunday rostrum by Ducati's Steve Rapp and defending SportBike champ Danny Eslick.
"The race was really good," said Herrin. "Every time somebody passed me it seemed like it was somebody different. Danny rode an awesome race, and my bike was a little faster today so it was a little bit easier to get those extra points."
It was yet another two-part race at VIR, as only nine minutes into the original race riders were forced back to the pits when rain started falling over the Virginia circuit. Twenty minutes later Team Latus Motors Ducati's Steve Rapp continued where he left off by taking the early lead in the restart ahead of Geico Powersports Suzuki’s Eslick and Team Graves Yamaha's Josh Herrin.
On Lap 6 Herrin advanced into second ahead of Eslick and was running only 0.052 seconds behind Rapp. Just a few minutes later Herrin secured the lead from Rapp as M4 Monster Energy Suzuki’s Martin Cardenas moved up to fourth, nearly two and a half seconds behind Herrin up front. Refusing to let up, Rapp overtook Herrin on the next lap as the top-three riders had less than a second between them.
Behind Cardenas was laying down the fastest laps on the circuit while in fourth. Up front Herrin once again swept by the Ducati man to re-take the lead, but it didn’t last long as Rapp came back on Lap 16 for another pass.
"When I was out front, I gave it my best shot," said Rapp. "When they started coming back by again it was like, 'Well there's no point, obviously I can't get away so I'm going to ride with them for a little bit, see if they make a mistake.' It worked out pretty good."
As the race neared its final stages the frontrunners stuck with each other, and the battle for the lead seemed possible for any of the top-five riders. After trading places a few more times, Eslick broke into the lead on the final lap with Vesrah Suzuki’s Cory West, Eslick, Cardenas and Rapp following.
"I figured it'd be pretty close to the same deal as yesterday and then Josh was up in there," said Eslick. "I knew Cory would be strong again today so there was quite a few of us up there. That little bit of drizzle was kind of sketchy. It was hard to tell if it's coming down harder that it was. We were just trying to be a little bit cautious there. I think it was a good call, to figure out what was going on. It turned out pretty good, it presented a good race after the restart. It was a lot of fun, there at the end, it got pretty wild."
In the final seconds Herrin managed to jockey himself into the lead across the finish line ahead of Steve Rapp by a mere 0.174 seconds. Eslick squeezed into third-place, followed by Jacobsen and Cardenas in fourth and fifth respectively. Winner of Race 1, Ducati’s Bobby Fong had an unfortunate crash before the restart which prevented his participation in the rest of the event.
Danny Eslick (#1) had the lead snatched away in the final moments and had to settle for third.
1. Josh Herrin (Yamaha)
2. Steve Rapp (Ducati)
3. Danny Eslick (Suzuki)
4. P.J. Jacobsen (Suzuki)
5. Martin Cardenas (Suzuki)
6. Michael Beck (Ducati)
7. Cory West (Suzuki)
8. Paul Allison (Yamaha)
9. Tommy Aquino (Yamaha)
10. Fernando Amantini (Kawasaki)
11. Santiago Villa (Suzuki)
12. Jodi Christie (Honda)
13. Kris Turner (Suzuki)
14. Reese Wacker (Suzuki)
15. Michael Morgan (Suzuki)
2010 Daytona SportBike Championship Points:
1. Danny Eslick, 307
2. Josh Herrin, 295
3. Martin Cardenas, 293
4. Steve Rapp, 256
5. Cory West, 193
