Millville: Series Sunday summary

MILLVILLE, N.J. (September 5, 2010)- Sunday's action at the New Jersey Motorsports Park had a little something for everyone. In AMA Pro SuperSport, James Rispoli took his first AMA Pro Road Racing win after a thrilling battle with Tomas Puerta. In the AMA Pro Vance & Hines XR1200 Series, Jake Holden was able to post his first victory in the class while in Daytona SportBike, Danny Eslick made a dramatic last lap pass to take his third win of the season and maintain his slim points lead with two races remaining. In the AMA Pro National Guard SuperBike series, Josh Hayes remained unbeaten at the 2.2 mile New Jersey Motorsports Park racing complex, beating his championship rival Tommy Hayden to extend his points lead to 22 points with two rounds remaining.

The day began under clear and sunny conditions with some wind and low humidity. First up was the Vance & Hines XR1200 series and in the absence of the undefeated Danny Eslick, RMR Bruce Rossmeyer Daytona Racing GEICO Powersports XR1200 rider Jake Holden took a dominant win over series newcomer P.J. Jacobson on the Celtic Racing XR1200 and Kyle Wyman on another of the RMR Bruce Rossmeyer Daytona Racing Harley-Davidson XR1200 motorcycles. Eslick, who is in the thick of the championship chase in the Daytona SportBike class, elected to focus exclusively on that series and missed his first XR1200 race of the year after winning the first three. Jake promptly took up Danny's position at the front and after a somewhat truncated start, Jake was able to run away and win for the first time in this new spec Vance & Hines Harley-Davidson exclusive class. Jacobson and Wyman had their own private battle for a while but P.J. was able to break away and consolidate his second place in his first attempt in the class.

In AMA Pro SuperSport, James Rispoli took his first AMA Pro Road Racing win after an event filled race that saw two of the four riders to lead the race crash out while leading! After yesterday's dominant victory, Joey Pascarella and his DNA Energy Drink Yamaha was the one to beat but at the start, Huntley Nash and his LTD Racing Yamaha teammate Tomas Puerta shot to the front to lead lap one from Joey in third, Eric Stump in fourth and Rispoli on his ANT-Racing.com Suzuki. Puerta shot by Huntley to lead lap two but then Pascarella moved into the lead and it appeared he might repeat his winning performance from Saturday. But on lap eight, everything changed as Joey went down in turn nine, he was quickly back up and continued but his chances of victory were gone. Now it was Huntley Nash that looked set for another win.

Nash has taken two wins in SuperSport this year and he was looking set to add to his total. Behind him, James Rispoli was coming up fast from his eighth starting position. He was fifth on lap one, fourth by lap two, third by lap four and in second by lap five. Amazingly enough, on lap 12, Huntley Nash became the second leader of the race to go down and now James Rispoli was in front. He still had his hands full with Tomas Puerta and the two went back and fourth, Tomas actually led lap 17 of nineteen but it was Rispoli who took his first win, and he was excited and emotional at the same time, "This win means so much, I can't thank everyone enough, my crew, AMA Pro, so many people but I really want to dedicate this win to my Mother who passed away a couple of years ago," said James after the race.

Finishing third was Austin Dehaven on his Dehaven Racing Yamaha. Austin tried to race up to James and Tomas but just couldn't get close enough to join the battle up front and he took his second podium finish of the season after his second place finish at Laguna Seca in July.

Danny Eslick took his third win of the season after another typical epic AMA Pro Daytona SportBike Presented by AMSOIL race. From the start, there was a solid, ten motorcycle group battling tooth and nail for the lead. Lead by Eslick on his GEICO Powersports Suzuki, the pack consisted of Tommy Aquino on his Team Graves Yamaha, Cory West on his Vesrah Suzuki, Dane Westby, Project 1 Atlanta Yamaha; Bobby Fong, DNA Energy Drink Ducati; Steve Rapp, Team Latus Motors Ducati; Martin Cardenas on his M4 Monster Energy Suzuki, Chris Fillmore on his Vesrah Suzuki, Josh Herrin, Team Graves Yamaha and Paul Allison on the Chronic Motorsports Yamaha. The action was hectic as the tension started to mount.

The first to exit the stage was Steve Rapp, he had an unfortunate fall on lap 14 and ended up retiring his Ducati. Dane Westby had a big save the next lap and he was part of the now nine that were covered by less than one second. After his dramatic crash in yesterday's race, Tommy Aquino showed his courage and skill by not only running up front, but he lead a number of laps. On lap seventeen, Cory West, who had been right in the thick of things, running second for a number of laps, had a mechanical problem going into turn one on lap 17 and without impeding anyone else, he calmly drove his Vesrah Suzuki off the track, and parked his bike in the sand, ending his good day.

Championship contender Josh Herrin had worked his way to the front again after starting eleventh. He was ninth after one lap and by lap seventeen, he was right up front fighting for the lead. He then made a big move on lap twenty to take the lead and he looked like he was again going to rebound with another Sunday win. The third rider in the thick of the championship battle, Martin Cardenas also took a shot at the front on lap 21 in turn one but couldn't hold his line and was quickly re-passed after the ambitious move. On the same lap, Chris Fillmore went down in turn three. On the last lap, Bobby Fong and Dane Westby collided and fell but both were quickly back up and continued to finish sixth and seventh.

But it was up front where the real action was and Eslick totally committed himself to a pass on Herrin in turn nine and there was nothing Josh could do to hold Danny back. Eslick took the position with a clean but decisive pass and won by only 0.510 of a second. Cardenas was a fortunate third after the incident between Fong and Westby and the championship battle will now be settled at the final doubleheader race weekend at Barber Motorsports Park, September 24-26.

In the AMA Pro National Guard SuperBike race, Josh Hayes kept his perfect New Jersey Motorsports Park record intact with his second win of the weekend and his fourth at NJMP after his two race sweep in 2009. Hayes, who benefitted from a timely red flag at the very end of Saturday's race, took a more clear cut victory today and in a way, again benefitted from a red flag period, this time on lap five when Ben Bostrom crashed out on his Pat Clark Motorsports Yamaha.

Hayes said he was feeling a little rough and when the race was stopped, he regrouped and felt better after the restart. His championship rival, Tommy Hayden had two great starts on his Rockstar Makita Suzuki and led both race segments. After things settled down, it was a two horse show with Hayes taking over the lead on lap nine and he and Tommy rode away from the interesting third place battle between Jake Zemke and his National Guard Jordan Suzuki, Hayden's Rockstar Makita Suzuki teammate, Blake Young, M4 Monster Energy Suzuki rider John Hopkins and Brett McCormick on the second Jordan Suzuki.

Watched by owner Michael Jordan, Zemke held off Young and Hopkins and was in second in the early stages of the first segment of the race. By lap sixteen, both Blake Young and Hopkins passed Zemke and had their own private battle to the flag which Hopkins won by 0.015 of a second to take his first podium finish of the season.

Hopkins has had a long road back this year, being sidelined by a wrist injury that he finally corrected after one diagnosis indicated that he should retire form motorcycle racing. Fortunately for his team and the many fans in attendance today, Hopkins had another Doctor virtually rebuild his wrist and he is finally completely fit and showed it with his great race today. At the front, Hayden took the lead back from Hayes on lap 19 and although he was in front, he couldn't shake off Josh. On lap 21, Josh retook the lead but it was the same situation, Hayden was still right there, waiting to pounce.

On the final lap, with Josh still in front, Hayden took a shot at the lead in turn one but couldn't hold the line and Josh stayed in the lead. Twice more on the last lap, Hayden bravely dove into corners to try and wrest the lead from Josh but after the last attempt, Josh was able to take the win by 0.325 of a second for his seventh race victory of the year. Josh pushed his points lead to 22 points but with two races and sixty-three points to play for, the championship is far from over. Behind Hopkins and Young, Brett McCormick took fifth ahead of his teammate Zemke followed by Geoff May on his Erik Buell Racing Buell.

Privateer Taylor Knapp rode his RidersDiscount .com Suzuki to eighth and behind Taylor was Chris Ulrich on his M4 Monster Energy Suzuki. Chris had an accident early in Saturday's race and after a precautionary check up at the local hospital, Chris bravely returned to the track. With the help of his physical therapist, Chris raced in today's race and soldered on to a very worthy and courageous ninth place. Shane Narbonne rounded out the top ten on the Celtic Racing Suzuki.

The season finale at Barber Motorsports Park will be the title decider in both National Guard SuperBike and also Daytona SportBike. Check out the SPEED TV broadcasts of today's SuperBike and Daytona SportBike races tonight at 10:00 PM and 11:00 PM.

-source: ama pro road racing