Barber Daytona Sportbike
In the AMA Pro Daytona Sportbike class at Barber Motorsports Park, Martin Cardenas captured his series high ninth motorcycle racing win of the year to take his first AMA Pro Racing championship by eight points over last year’s champion, Danny Eslick and his GEICO Powersports Suzuki team.
Cardenas, on his M4 Monster Energy Suzuki took a solid motorcycle race victory over Eslick and Dane Westby in another classic Daytona Sportbike race.
Sunday’s AMA Daytona SportBike race was also impacted by wet weather and after the Project 1 Atlanta Yamaha team riders Clinton Seller and Dane Westby took up station at the front, Martin, running third, was the one who was firmly in control of the championship.
His main motorcycle racing rivals, Eslick and Team Graves Yamaha rider Josh Herrin had a coming together at one point and both were back from the comfortable looking Cardenas.
All of that changed dramatically on lap 14 when both Westby, who was now leading and also Sellers, had spectacular accidents which brought out the red flag.
In the blink of an eye, Martin’s ten second advantage over Eslick and Herrin was gone. Restarting the race with nine laps left, it was Herrin who led with Martin right behind him and Eslick in third.
Eslick made a major move and went from third to first and now he was in position to take the 2010 racing championship.
Martin now found himself in fourth, behind Dane Westby as well as his main championship rivals. The big moment came on lap nineteen when Herrin made a major move on Eslick in turn four and the two touched as Eslick dove back under Herrin as they went through the middle of the corner, Herrin went off and in a moment, Cardenas was by and into the lead he would not relinquish.
Eslick recovered to run second ahead of Westby who had been slightly delayed in the melee as well. As hard as Danny tried, he just couldn’t run Martin down, right at the end, Danny had a big moment and Martin was able to take the checkered flag and the championship by 1.687 seconds.
Herrin recovered to finish eleventh and wound up third in the championship with 377 points, twenty-eight behind Cardenas and twenty behind Eslick.
Danny Eslick says: “I hate to lose the number one plate but Martin just beat us today, we raced as hard as we could and gave all we had.”
Martin Cardenas says: “I have to thank my M4 Monster Energy Suzuki team, they work so hard and are the best team I have ever worked with, I feel so good for them.”
Another rider who thanked his team was Dane Westby, after he went down, his Project 1 Atlanta Yamaha team and also the Pat Clark Motorsports team all pitched in to fix his Yamaha in record time so that he was able to re-start the race and end up third.
Dane Westby says: “I can’t thank everyone enough. I took quite a flight there, and they finished fixing the bike about two seconds before it was time to go so to end up third is pretty great.”
Chronic Motorsports Yamaha rider Paul Allison featured after the restart and he took fourth ahead of Vesrah Suzuki teammates Chris Fillmore and Cory West. Team Latus Motors Ducati rider Steve Rapp finished seventh ahead of Tommy Aquino, Clinton Seller and Kyle Wyman, all riding Yamahas.
AMA Superbike Weekend Daytona SportBike Race 2 – Daytona SportBike September 5, 2010 New Jersey Motorsports Park Millville, NJ Race Time: 32:30.972 |
Pos | No. | Rider(s) | Team | Bike | Interval | Gap | Best Lap | Points |
1 | 1 | Danny Eslick | GEICO Powersports ·RMR ·Suzuki | Suzuki GSX-R600 | 23 Laps | WINNER | 1:24.294 | 0 |
2 | 8 | Josh Herrin | Team Graves Yamaha | Yamaha YZF-R6 | 0.509 | 0.509 | 1:23.921 | 0 |
3 | 36 | Martin Cardenas | M4 Monster Energy Suzuki | Suzuki GSX-R600 | 0.739 | 0.230 | 1:23.895 | 0 |
4 | 54 | P. J. Jacobsen | Celtic Racing | Suzuki GSX-R600 | 0.815 | 0.075 | 1:24.105 | 0 |
5 | 6 | Tommy Aquino | Team Graves Yamaha | Yamaha YZF-R6 | 1.249 | 0.434 | 1:24.237 | 0 |
6 | 2 | Dane Westby | Project 1 Atlanta | Yamaha YZF-R6 | 21.184 | 19.935 | 1:24.143 | 0 |
7 | 30 | Bobby Fong | DNA Energy Drink CNR Motorsports Ducati | Ducati 848 | 31.329 | 10.145 | 1:24.210 | 0 |
8 | 210 | Paul Allison | Chronic Motorsports | Yamaha YZF-R6 | 35.049 | 3.719 | 1:24.929 | 0 |
9 | 60 | Michael Beck | DNA Energy Drink CNR Motorsports Ducati | Ducati 848 | 36.379 | 1.329 | 1:25.786 | 0 |
10 | 16 | Russ Wikle | Wikle Racing | Suzuki GSX-R600 | 39.491 | 3.112 | 1:25.729 | 0 |
11 | 133 | Kyle Wyman | Harv`s Harley-Davidson | Yamaha YZF-R6 | 39.526 | 0.035 | 1:25.449 | 0 |
12 | 114 | Mike Selpe | ShipAnyCar.com/ Markbilt Racebikes | Yamaha YZF-R6 | 1:02.625 | 23.098 | 1:26.448 | 0 |
13 | 7 | Fernando Amantini | Team Amantini | Kawasaki Ninja ZX-6R | 1:02.663 | 0.038 | 1:25.983 | 0 |
14 | 32 | Santiago Villa | RoadRacingWorld.com Suzuki | Suzuki GSX-R600 | 1:05.623 | 2.959 | 1:26.738 | 0 |
15 | 78 | Reese Wacker | Wacker Racing LLC | Suzuki GSX-R600 | 1:18.728 | 13.104 | 1:27.021 | 0 |
16 | 175 | Sam Rozynski | Chronic Motorsports | Yamaha YZF-R6 | 22 Laps | 1 Lap | 1:29.853 | 0 |
17 | 91 | Brent Lyskawa | Bruce Transportation | Yamaha YZF-R6 | 21 Laps | 1 Lap | 1:26.872 | 0 |
18 | 55 | Chris Fillmore | Vesrah Suzuki | Suzuki GSX-R600 | 20 Laps | 1 Lap | 1:24.260 | 0 |
19 | 811 | Michael Morgan | Autolite RIM Racing | Suzuki GSX-R600 | 17 Laps | 3 Laps | 1:27.310 | 0 |
20 | 57 | Cory West | Vesrah Suzuki | Suzuki GSX-R600 | 16 Laps | 1 Lap | 1:24.234 | 0 |
21 | 461 | Abe Stacey | Southern Motorsports | Suzuki GSX-R600 | 14 Laps | 2 Laps | 1:29.527 | 0 |
22 | 15 | Steve Rapp | Team Latus Motors Racing | Ducati 848 | 13 Laps | 1 Lap | 1:24.079 | 0 |
23 | 47 | David Anthony | Four Feathers Racing | Yamaha YZF-R6 | 10 Laps | 3 Laps | 1:26.408 | 0 |
24 | 13 | Melissa Paris | MPH Racing ·Inc. | Yamaha YZF-R6 | 9 Laps | 1 Lap | 1:29.359 | 0 |