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ESLICK AND BUELL COMPLETE FONTANA AMA DAYTONA SPORTBIKE SWEEP Privateer Buell Beats Factory Kawasaki in Race 2 by 0.099-second

East Troy, Wis. -- (Sunday, March 22, 2009) Danny Eslick swept the AMA Daytona SportBike double-header at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California, with a thrilling win in Sunday’s Race 2, bringing his Bruce Rossmeyer’s Daytona Racing/RMR Buell 1125R across the line just 0.099-second ahead of Monster Energy Attack Kawasaki’s Jamie Hacking.

Starting second on the grid, Eslick charged to the front and lead every lap of the race, albeit in much more dramatic fashion than his dominating performance in Race 1. After an early three-lap caution period, Eslick reassumed the lead on the restart and built a small gap, and by the time Hacking worked his way up from fourth past Erion Honda’s Jake Zemke and Graves Yamaha’s Josh Herrin into second on Lap 13, Eslick had jumped out to a 2-second lead. But Hacking clawed his way back into contention, closing the gap to just 0.151 second by Lap 19 and setting up a battle to the checkered flag as the pair broke away from the rest of the field. At the stripe, Eslick bested the veteran factory rider by less than a tenth of a second. Team M4 Suzuki’s Jason DiSalvo made a late-race charge to nip teammate Martin Cardenas by a photo-finish margin of 0.031 second for third place. The gap from Hacking to DiSalvo was eight seconds.

“I got the holeshot and I built a little bit of a gap, but then Jamie was all over me. He never really showed me a wheel, and I kept waiting for a big move from him but it never happened,” Eslick said. “It was an awesome weekend and it was just spectacular to get my first two [AMA Pro Racing] wins.”

Eslick’s teammate Michael Barnes finished 15th on his GEICO Powersports/RMR 1125R, followed by fellow Buell riders Alan Schmidt (Latus Motors H-D) in 20th and his Latus Motors H-D teammate Josh Bryan in 28th. Shawn Higbee (Bartels’ H-D/Buell/Higbee-racing.com) pitted early in the race and finished 35th.

See the photo highlights from the weekend’s races in the racing gallery.

Founded by visionary motorcycle designer and former privateer racer Erik Buell in 1983, Buell Motorcycle Company, a subsidiary of Harley-Davidson, Inc., produces sport motorcycles, motorcycle parts, accessories and apparel, including the 1125R superbike and air-cooled XB-series Ulysses, Firebolt, and Lightning. To learn more about Buell motorcycles, or to locate the dealer nearest you, log onto www.buell.com.