Danny Eslick rode a Dunlop-shod TOBC Racing Yamaha YZF-R6 to victory in Friday’s 44-lap ASRA Team Challenge endurance race on the 3.51-mile infield road course at Daytona International Speedway.
Eslick started in the second wave, along with the rest of the GTU class entries, and took the overall race lead on lap 17. The Oklahoma native had a 43-second lead on lap 20, but he gave up a lot of that lead when he ran out of fuel and coasted from NASCAR Turn Four to his pit stall for his first scheduled pit stop.
“The TOBC Yamaha doesn’t have a fuel light on it,” Eslick told Roadracingworld.com. “So we were pretty much dead set on which lap we were coming in, and we were right at the limit. I think it sputtered in the infield once, so I really tried to baby it the best I could and it completely died after the chicane. I think I got up to fifth gear and then it fell on its face. So I got it into neutral and stayed in a tuck. I felt like one of those guys riding down the highway doing 65 mph in a full tuck. Then I had a little fun with it like I was rowing a boat down pit lane.”
David Anthony, who had pitted his Dunlop-equipped Team M4 SportbikeTrackGear.com Suzuki GSX-R600 before Eslick pitted, took the overall race lead. Eslick exited the pits and spent a few laps catching up to Anthony, and then the two professionals exchanged the lead back and forth for several laps until lap 34.
That’s when Anthony got run wide by a lapped rider and instantly lost three seconds to Eslick. Shortly after, Anthony started running out of fuel prematurely and had to slowly nurse his Suzuki around an entire lap before pitting for more fuel.
Eslick gained a large lead, but he also had to make a second pit stop of fuel. When Eslick emerged from the pits he was caught by Team Worldwide’s Drew Jankord. Jankord took over the controls of Team Worldwide’s Pirelli-backed Yamaha YZF-R6 from Scott Stall during the team’s one and only pit stop.
TOBC Racing’s Eslick and Team Worldwide’s Jankord were separated by only feet at the white flag, but Team Worldwide ran out of fuel early on the final lap in spite of running an enlarged, 6.2-gallon fuel tank on their Yamaha, according to Team Worldwide owner John Anderson.
Eslick rode on to win the race by the official margin of 38 seconds in what he said was testing for a run at a third consecutive victory in the Daytona 200, the 75th running of the Daytona, which is scheduled for March 2016.
“We came down here to get some good testing in for the 200,” said Eslick. “I’ve obviously never ridden the Yamaha before. So we wanted to get some laps in. I feel good. A victory is a victory. I can’t complain. We’re here at Daytona and we’ll kind of have an idea of what I’m doing here in the next couple of months. Life’s good.”
Asked for more information about their future plans with Eslick, TOBC Racing Team Owner Michelle Lindsay said, “We’d like to bring [Eslick] back for his third win, and I think it’s a true testament to his ability to pretty much take any bike out there and get the most out of it. He won [the Daytona 200] on a Triumph, then on a TOBC Racing Suzuki. To come back to win a third time in a row on a Yamaha would be one for the books. We definitely want to be part of that. We believe in him and we believe we have a good team. So that’s the plan right now.”
Team M4 SportbikeTrackGear.com’s Anthony was the overall runner-up in the race, and he also said on the podium that he hoped to do the Daytona 200 in March.
In spite of not finishing the final lap, Team Worldwide completed 43 laps before anyone else and got credited with third place overall.
TOBC Racing, Team M4 SportbikeTrackGear.com Suzuki and Team Worldwide were also the top three finishers in the GTU class.
Grease Monkey Racing’s Eric Helmbach rode the race solo on his Pirelli-sponsored BMW S1000RR and took fourth overall and first in the GTO class. And with that result, Grease Monkey Racing won the 2015 Team Challenge Overall Championship and GTO class Championship.
“We had the overall point lead coming in,” said Helmbach. “So if LB Sports won we had to be fifth or better to win the Championship. And we trailed LB Sports by four points in the GTO Championship, so we had beat them to win that one. We did it. This is our seventh consecutive overall Team Challenge Championship.”
LB Sports’ Lloyd Bayley, who was riding with injuries sustained in a recent serious accident while driving a semi-truck, his everyday job, suffered mechanical problems with his Suzuki GSX-R1000 during the race and was forced to retire.
Rawspeed’s David Hanig was leading the GT Lights class until late in the race. That’s when the Rawspeed Ducati 1100’s broken exhaust started to rob him of horsepower and cause him to slow. Mavros Motorsports’ Seth Starnes said he saw Rawspeed slowing, so he pushed his Bridgestone-shod Ducati 848/1000 harder, passed Rawspeed a few laps from the finish and rode on to the victory. Starnes and teammate Charlie Mavros won the GT Lights race and with it the GT Lights Championship.
RESULTS:
OVERALL: 1. TOBC Racing (Danny Eslick), Yam YZF-R6, GTU, 44 laps; 2. M4 SportbikeTrackGear.com Suzuki (David Anthony), Suz GSX-R600, GTU, 44 laps; 3. Team Worldwide (Drew Jankord/Scott Stall), Yam YZF-R6, GTU, 43 laps; 4. Grease Monkey Racing (Eric Helmbach), BMW S1000RR, GTO, 43 laps; 5. The Ed Sullivan Show (JD Mosley/Ed Sullivan), Yam YZF-R6, GTU, 42 laps; 6. Jinba Ittai Lenk (Matt Brown/Joel Lenk), Yam YZF-R6, GTU, 42 laps; 7. Barry Motorsports (James Barry/Jeremy Cook), BMW S1000RR, GTO, 41 laps; 8. Bad Wolf Brewing Company (Greg L’Heureux/Tommy Wilson), Yam YZF-R6, GTU, 41 laps; 9. ADR Lady (Patricia Fernandez), Yam YZF-R6, GTU, 41 laps; 10. Mavros Motorsports (Charlie Mavros/Seth Starnes), Duc 848/1000, GTL, 41 laps.
GTO: 1. Grease Monkey Racing, 43 laps; 2. Barry Motorsports, 41 laps; 3. MI Boys (Mikal Pechota/Ryan VanLeeuwen), Suz GSX-R1000, 40 laps; 4. Haye Boyes Racing (Mark Haye/Tim Haye), Hon CBR1000RR, 39 laps; 5. Drew Jankord Racing (Drew Jankord/Mike Diller), Kaw ZX-10R, 39 laps; 6. Toyota Motorsports Team (Pete Friedland/Dario Marchetti), Duc 1199, 36 laps.
GTU: 1. TOBC Racing, 44 laps; 2. M4 SportbikeTrackGear.com Suzuki, 44 laps; 3. Team Worldwide, 43 laps; 4. The Ed Sullivan Show, 42 laps; 5. Jinba Ittai Lenk, 42 laps; 6. Bad Wolf Brewing Company, 41 laps.
GT Lights: 1. Mavros Motorsports, 41 laps; 2. Rawspeed (David Hanig), Duc 1100, 41 laps; 3. Spartan Racing (Mark Evry), Suz GSX-R600/565, 40 laps; 4. 1855Czaialaw.com (Mason De Keyrel/John Linder), Suz SV650, 39 laps; 5. Ducati Depot (Patrick Budzynski/Tom Eubank/Charlie Long/Greg Melka), Duc 1100, 39 laps; 6. LWT Racer 61 (William Finnerty/Sam Wiest), Suz SV650, 39 laps.