Westby Earns First Win In AMA Pro Daytona SportBike
The AMA Pro Daytona SportBike class saw a brand-new winner today at
Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, as M4 Suzuki's Dane Westby staged a
brilliant, aggressive ride that took him from ninth to first
through some of the toughest riders in the series. For Westby, it
marked his career first AMA Pro sprint race victory and a whole new
chapter in premier-class-level competitiveness.
"I've never really led at the end before," said Westby after the
race, "so it was kind of gnarly the last couple laps. These are the
big dogs, so I knew Danny would be right there on the last lap,
coming on the braking zones, and he's not playing around. I just
tried to be conservative on the inside, and it just barely worked
out; I was able to cut him off there at the end on a right-hander
and pull it off. This is great," Westby continued, shaking his head
and smiling. "At the beginning of year we had some bugs to shake
out, but we got some stuff worked out and the bike will pretty much
go wherever I want. I could just carve right up the inside."
Carve he did -- after finally getting by Vesrah Suzuki's Cory West,
Westby set off after Latus Motors Racing's Jason DiSalvo (then the
last rider of the lead pack), faced with the task of making up
several seconds. Through a series of deep-braking maneuvers and
what Westby himself labeled "a couple of hairball moves, but with
no contact," he spun a mediocre start into an unforgettable
race.
The rest of their pack, too, did more than their fair share of
adding to the gasp-worthy excitement of the overall contest,
DiSalvo getting things started off the line by blasting past Josh
Herrin (Monster Energy Graves Yamaha) to take the holeshot and
early lead. While Herrin systematically tested the inside and
outside of DiSalvo's lines, he was himself hunted by a
hard-charging Danny Eslick (GEICO Powersports/RMR Suzuki), Tommy
Aquino (Y.E.S./Pat Clark/Graves Yamaha), and
JHR/RidersDiscount.com's Cameron Beaubier.
Within a handful of laps it was Eslick who'd moved taken over the
lead, kicking off some of the most intense passing, re-passing,
position shuffling, and door slamming the class has seen yet,
Eslick, Herrin, DiSalvo, and Westby each desperately determined to
claw their way to the top of the Race 1 podium. Herrin and DiSalvo
were both resurgent in the final laps after seeming to slip back
somewhat in intensity, but the last corners of the last lap were
all about Oklahoma boys Westby and Eslick.
"I just kind of got settled in at the start," said Eslick; "Jason
had a good pace and I knew it was going to be hot and that tire
wear would be an issue, so I stepped back a bit and tried to just
get in the groove of things. I got into the lead and put my head
down, hoping to get away there, but everybody's so close when
they're dialed in -- there's always four or five guys right
there.
"We went back and forth a couple times," Eslick continued, "and for
four or five laps no one stuck a wheel on me, but then Josh would
come by or Jason would stick a wheel in. And then, with three of
four to go, here comes Dane. I thought, 'Whoa -- where'd he come
from?' I never saw Dane until that moment, and it kind of threw me
a curveball; I wasn't ready for him. I made a countermove after a
while and passed him, and then you saw a bunch of stuff that
doesn't usually happen [at this track]. It was good, fun
racing."
Herrin, who appeared to be sticking to the watch-and-wait strategy
that's served him well in recent races, may have stuck to it a
little too well in today's contest. "I was just trying to sit back
there and see how the pace was going to be," he said, "and what
everybody else was doing, and the bike was working good. I just
waited too long to make a move, I think. I made an error there on
the last two laps, and I need to pay a little more attention to
what we're doing and make sure those things don't happen again.
Tomorrow should be a little bit better. Dane rode a really good
race, and congratulations to him on his first win."
The overall AMA Pro Daytona SportBike points chase continues to
tighten, with Herrin and Eslick now tied in points. DiSalvo, West,
and Aquino round out the top five.
TV coverage of today's racing begins tonight at 10 p.m. EST on
SPEED. For a complete broadcast schedule, visit . For ticket and
event information, visit www.midohio.com.
To learn more and be a part of AMA Pro Racing, please visit
amaproracing.com and join us on facebook.com/AMAProRoadRacing and
twitter.com/AMAProSBK.
